Associate Professor Anthony Inciong leads Visual Communication Design Majors’ Collaboration in Plastikcomb Magazine’s Seventh Issue

During the Fall 2023 semester, Visual Communication Design majors Maya Chu, Brett Diese, Isabella Latella, Arjin Tas, Nicky Vidal, and Stephanie Zirkenbach designed a 14-page article for the seventh issue of Plastikcomb Magazine. Their layouts showcased selections of work by artist-illustrator-graphic designer-typographer Stephen Byram. Famous for the arresting compact disc sleeves he designs for independent musicians, Byram is best known for the album covers he designed and art directed for major music labels, among them, the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill and Slayer’s Reign in Blood (Def Jam Records, 1986); Living Colour’s Vivid (Epic Records, 1988), and Dave Douglas’ Witness (BMG Records, 2001).

The cornerstone of this semester-long student project is the article written by Professor Inciong, his third as a contributing writer for Plastikcomb. In it, he examines Byram’s thoughts and motivations about art and artmaking, his package designs, collage drawings, and his unconventional approach to layout and typography. Spreads by Chu, Diese, Latella, Tas, Vidal, and Zirkenbach were supervised by Professor Inciong. The design team also worked in consultation with Byram and Plastikcomb’s Founder, Editor-in-Chief, and Art Director, Aaron Beebe. The article’s prefacing “Team Byram” spread was written, designed, and illustrated by Chu, Diese, Latella, Tas, Vidal, and Zirkenbach.

Click on each image below to view examples of the Plastikcomb article.