Seattle and Raleigh-Durham marketing, graphic and brand design studio Design Kompany

Fun show on right now through August 5 at Seattle’s Henry Art Gallery–General Idea Editions 1967-1995.

General Idea was a Toronto art collective inspired by zines, the Paris riots, love-ins, and the International Situationists.

“We believe in a free economy,” wrote artist AA Bronson, one of the three lads who started General Idea… “in the abolition of copyright, and in a grassroots horizontal structure that prefigured the Internet.”

Some funny stuff at the show…

For example, a poster-sized image of three otherwise cute seals, but with lines above their eyes angled to make them look really mad. Behind them, broken glaciers.

Also: a stencil-style illustration in neon colors on fabric [flag size] of a poodle threesome.

But my favorite was the series of magazines. In the same font and brand identity style as LIFE, General Idea published FILE.

Artists inspire other artists, of course, so I had to take a shot at making my own magazine cover illustration.

Above is a sketch for what we have so far, the cover for Volume 1, Issue 1, of… um, EIFL.

I just heard that a certain kind of hoodie from American Apparel is on backorder. We’re speculating this has a little something to do with the fact that pop singer Lindsay Lohan was spotted wearing the exact same hoodie in a recent paparazzi affair.

Or something. Y’all get the general idea.

General Idea Editions 1967-1995
Henry Art Gallery
University of Washington, Seattle
Through August 5
HenryArg.Org