MATTY
MATTY is a self-made publication, documenting interviews
from the last decade all dedicated to the life and legacy of
Matty Matheson.
From his rough beginnings to his journey through sobriety, MATTY serves as an homage to the loud and irreverent Matty Matheson. The goal with this publication was to explore expressive typographic language, using physical materials outside of the computer, and building worlds around them.
Scroll to see a selection of the experiments.
Typography
Publication
Publication
Concept Exploration: Chaos
I first started collecting interviews with Matheson, pulling different sources that spoke to specific character traits of the chef. I becan experimenting with typographic treatments, focusing on pull quotes that identified big traits of Matty. In the first exploration, I attempted to capture his definition of life in a kitchen: chaos. My solution was to build a custom type system using wet noodles.
Concept Exploration: Take 5
In one of Matty’s quotes, he speaks to professionalism. He remarks that any chef can yell and scream and throw things, but the sign of a good chef is their ability to take 5 minutes to speak with someone. To put an emphasis on time, I experimented with cooking food at 5 minute intervals.
Concept Exploration: 10,000x Better
The most profound quote came in Matty’s take on life after getting clean. He describes everything as being 10,000 times better. Because of the weight of this statement, I set out to make this the biggest exploration. My solution came in the way of showing exactly what 10,000 looks like, using one of Matty’s own ingredients for a fried chicken sandwish: Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Spreading them across my floor and compositing together a final image, this is the simultaneously the cleanest and dirtiest my kitchen has ever been.
Concept Exploration: I Can’t Write
In one of the funnier compositions, I explored Matty’s take on his personable and approachable style of writing regarding his cookbooks. In his own words, “I can’t write.” I hunched myself over a desk with a light and took pictures of different books, morphing the pages into textures, exploring how to form letters from them.
Concept Exploration: MATTY
In the titular spread, I chose what can only be described as the most inappropriate material as it relates to a famous, professional chef that absolutely works in a kitchen: my hair. Cutting the letters into paper and pulling my hair through (and making Erika, the love of my life take the pictures), the cover image captures the mood of the publication well.