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Alex Suppan

MFA in Graphic Design - 3 Yr Path — Graduate Graphic Design
Course:
Graduate Typography 4
Faculty:
Gloria Kondrup
Term:
2025 Spring

rant/5ever

How does a self-proclaimed communist end up with the world's wealthiest man? Maybe you know Grimes as the gal who tried and failed to travel the Mississippi with her homemade houseboat, livestock and 20 pounds of potatoes. Or the musical genius. Or the mother to Elon Musk's children. It's all her, and it's all true. Rant is an 8-poster series that examines her 2013 Tumblr manifesto, "I don't want to have to compromise my morals in order to make a living," and all of the ways that she did. Supporting this work is 5ever, a custom dot matrix font named after vintage 1337 5p34k (leet speak).

This project treats a manifesto as a text to be taken apart rather than celebrated, using typography to reveal contradiction and collapse.

Project Website:
https://alexsuppan.com/projects/rant-5ever
Tags:
Narrative Design,
Publication Design,
Typography
Yes, Grimes wears armor and cites a 12th century abbess as her muse, but there's something about Grimes and her relationship to power that feels feudal, too. The project pulls in this dark age aesthetic through pixelated blackletter and medieval motifs, like the kinds of ornamented frames you'd find in illuminated manuscripts.
Her words take on new meaning when you see them dissolve in front of you.
5ever means more than forever.