Harsh Patel

Harsh Patel is a graphic designer who specializes in design for contemporary visual artists, museums, and art galleries. Independently, he publishes books, posters, and ephemera in limited editions. What connects both areas of his practice is a desire to explore and expand the graphic design canon from one historically biased toward European designers to one that includes eastern and Asian visual traditions. The “letters” he makes mix elements such as graffiti, comics, letter fragments, and obscure typefaces. Some of the forms are instantly recognizable, such as one half of a scissor blade and handle, or the word-sound “Eeeeek!” which Patel borrowed from a frame of the early 20th century Belgian comic “The Adventures of Tintin.” Others are purely abstract investigations that resemble Arabic decorative script or a calculator digit. Taken together, Patel’s letterforms demonstrate that what constitutes letters and reading, the appropriated and the handmade, graphic and typographic, is being rapidly transformed by technology and globalization. – Jenelle Porter