Ajax Blyth Piper

Taz Land is a fictional (but perhaps one day real) festival that I have imagined. It is a 28 day free gathering celebrating the summer solstice. The name Taz Land is derived from the concept of the 'Temporary Autonomous Zone' coined in 1991 by the Sufi Anarchist Author Peter Lamborn Wilson (pseudonym Hakim Bey). The festival provides a totality free, autonomous space that allows its participants to escape the spiritual confines of the modern world, strip themselves of their ego, experience an alternative and spiritually fulfilling way of living, whilst immersing themselves into a community of people from all walks of life, sharing peak experiences manifesting through music, good food, cheer, dance, conservation, psychedelics, the arts, healing ceremonies and meditation.

The festival, and its visual identity, contain no digital dimension, and are purely physical and print based. This is to help communicate the autonomous, tribal, and spiritual aspects of the festival, and the fact it is trying to promote a way of life removed from the digital realm. The visual style of the identity system aims to be rustic, honest, bold and mysterious.

Diznation is a guerrilla campaign that operates exclusively in large scale contemporary British music festivals. The campaign aims to challenge and highlight the commercialisation present within these festivals, which has seen them evolve from small scale free gatherings into corporate jugganaugts. The campaign not only aims to provoke the festival, but also educate the punters of the more humble roots of the British music festival scene, and if successful, instigate a change in the scene itself. The name ‘Diznation’ is derived from Alan Brymans theory, ‘The Disneyization of Society’ which argues that the contemporary world is increasingly displaying characteristics of Disney theme parks. This includes:
- The growing influence of themed environments.
- A growing trend towards social environments driven by forms of consumption.
- An increased prominence of work that is performance based.
- The growing significance of control and surveillance in consumer culture.

Nubya is a display typeface inspired by the dynamic sound and musical theory of Modal Jazz. This style of Jazz treats chords within harmony as decorative rather than functional, meaning soloists gain more freedom and choice when improving, resulting in unpredictable, expressive melodies. Similarly, Nubya uses unusual and heavily contrasting strokes to induce an atmosphere of unpredictability and vitality that results in characters far removed from their everyday form. This allows each glyph to hold it’s own as a single entity, without the visual security that a word, phrase or sentence provides. On the other hand consistencies within each letter provide flow and rhythm to the typeface. Diagonal strokes, closed apertures and repeating forms invoke a coherent visual language. The vertical strokes terminate at both flat and rounded points. This is to relinquish explicit connotations to calligraphic marks and Arabic letter forms, whilst still retaining some of the charismatic more nuance attributes of this style of typography. These visual characteristics result in complex and almost illegible letter forms that require, like most forms of Jazz, concentration in order to be fully appreciated and understood.