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Artists Behind "Relax Attack" Jazz Series Posters Honored

By Roger Kamholz in Arts & Entertainment on May 5, 2011 4:20PM

Being in the business of cocktail reportage, we often lose sight of the fact that The Whistler, one of our favorite places in town to get a drink, is also an avid patron of the arts. Musicians take to the stage nearly every night, and visual artists are regularly remaking the storefront gallery. Heck, they even run their own record label. We were happily reminded of us this recently by a bit of news coming out of London, of all places.

Creative Review, an arbiter of taste in the world of design and visual communications, selected The Whistler's poster publicizing its ongoing Relax Attack Jazz Series for inclusion in the U.K.-based magazine's prestigious "Annual" issue, published each May. The ingenious poster concept -- which combines a static, printed background and spontaneous, hand-spray-painted text -- had been created by Plural, a Chicago-based graphic design studio.

To find out more details, we posed a few questions to Jeremiah Chiu, one of Plural's co-founders. Chiu discussed the nod from Creative Review, the inspiration behind the Relax Attack poster, and Plural's other major project with the bar, designing its free newsprint publication, the Whistler Monthly. And, of course, we'd be remiss to not talk cocktails at least a little. (Note: the interview was conducted via email and has been edited for length and clarity.)

CHICAGOIST: How long has Plural been working with The Whistler and how did the relationship begin?

JEREMIAH CHIU: Plural has been working with The Whistler for about a year. Initially, Ken Zawacki (a former employee) approached us to create an installation for The Whistler's new storefront gallery project in July 2009. We proposed an interactive installation that captured the sound from within bar and projected it into the window as different hues. The projection was accompanied with a vinyl application of all of the bottles and tools from the bar, displayed on the front window. In addition to the installation, we self-published a catalog that patrons could take with them. The catalog included our process and ideas, an interview with The Whistler and a poster on the verso.

The installation was so well received that we began talking with Billy [Helmkamp, one of the partners at The Whistler] on ways we could collaborate on more projects. After a few months, he approached us to create the Relax Attack Jazz Series posters, and a few months later, the Whistler Monthly.

C: How long have you been producing the Whistler Monthly? How'd that project come about?

JEREMIAH CHIU: We began thinking about the Whistler Monthly last summer, 2010. Billy was really interested in alternative approaches to spend their advertising dollars, rather than putting ads in local newspapers and such. Because we had already created a publication that functioned as a more "precious" or "keepsake" advertisement - that promoted not only the Whistler, but Plural as well - we decided that that format would work quite well for the Monthly.

Each month, The Whistler provides us with the content for one side, including a calendar, featured cocktails, events, gallery news, etc., and we create an image for the cover and a poster for the verso. It's a great way for us to experiment with whatever we're working on each month, while sharing all the goings-on at The Whistler. I'd like to think that people are enjoying it as much as we are! We released the first Monthly in December of 2010 and we're working on the June issue now.

C: Tell us about the inspiration and execution behind the Relax Attack Jazz series poster.

JEREMIAH CHIU: Last summer, Billy approached us to create a poster for their ongoing weekly jazz series. Initially, he was looking to create a nice silkscreen poster or something similar. Our approach was to think about how this poster functioned and how to maximize our budget. Because the series is weekly, we knew certain things wouldn't change, mainly, the title/time/place. I was intrigued at the idea of printing something in bulk that we could alter by hand each time, creating a consistent theme and a changing expression. I was also very interested in the ideological similarities between jazz and design - a foundation/structure providing you with a canvas where every improvisation works. The spray paint was a great solution because it has the intense vibrancy of real ink on paper, and is also transparent. Each month, a new set of stencils is laser cut and sprayed onto each poster.

C: What does it mean to be included in the Creative Review Annual? Has any of Plural's work been shown in the magazine before?

JEREMIAH CHIU: For me, Creative Review has been one of my favorite graphic design publications since I was a student. I do feel extremely honored and excited to be a part of this year's Annual, and any Annual at that! This is Plural's first contribution to Creative Review. However, we've been very fortunate over the last two years to have received recognition from Communication Arts, Print, HOW, Art Directors Club and several others. [Plural was also recently named one of Newcity's "Breakout Artists" for 2011.]

C: Are you also a fan of craft cocktails? Any favorites from The Whistler's menu?

JEREMIAH CHIU: Oh, most definitely! I'm personally a rye whiskey fan, so anything with that tickles my fancy. Otherwise, any time you get a drink where your glass is rinsed with one liqueur and then filled with another and poured over a custom chopped ice cube and topped with some fresh herbs...mmm. Also, the glögg is killer.

The Whistler (which debuted its spring cocktail menu on Wednesday) is located at 2421 North Milwaukee Avenue.