Title: Disorder: Swiss Grit Volume II [Unit 54]
Author, editor, designer: Chris Ashworth
Foreword: Marvin Scott Jarrett
Afterword: Adrian Shaughnessy

Limited edition

Disorder: Swiss Grit Volume II is the first book dedicated to the career of Chris Ashworth, charting his ‘Swiss Grit’ approach from the influential Ray Gun magazine in the 1990s through to his experimental type projects of the present day.

Ashworth sees his work – craft-based, handmade – as a counterpoint to our screen-dependent digital culture and this book is the manifestation of an alternative view which argues that creative development away from the computer offers unique and precious merits. 

Thanks to the generous support of the 1,129 backers of our Volume campaign to crowdfund the publication of Disorder last year, we now have a limited number of copies of the original Unit Editions version of the book, for sale exclusively on the Unit site. 

The book

Disorder: Swiss Grit Volume II begins with Ashworth’s influential work for Ray Gun and, across 488 pages, covers a wide range of printed and published work from 1997 to the present day. The book is concerned with the human craft of creativity and analogue design, the details, imperfections and happy accidents. It is a resolutely AI-free zone.

“My vast archive has enabled me to cherry pick the ‘best-of’ from over 40 boxes,” Ashworth says. “In Disorder, this work is accompanied by numerous pieces of new design and typography that have been made especially for the publication.” 

The book includes essays by Ashworth detailing his influences, working methods and reflections on the design industry. The main section features 250 pages of published and unpublished work from Ray Gun (issues 44-58), including marked-up chromalins, diary entries and discarded early layouts. Other chapters include a focus on the work of his own studio, Still; a section charting his move from solo designer to becoming creative director at Getty Images; and a selection of his ‘found type in the wild’ photography and Sound in Print artworks. 

The book also features a foreword by Marvin Scott Jarrett, an afterword by Adrian Shaughnessy and is the second title of a proposed two-volume set that Ashworth hopes to publish, covering work made from 1997 to 2024. Its prequel, Swiss Grit Volume I is slated to follow and focus on projects created from 1990 through to 1997.

About Chris Ashworth

Emerging from the North of England, and nominated in 1993 by Why Not Associates as the most up and coming British graphic designer in Creative Review’s annual ‘Creative Futures’ awards, Ashworth achieved design notoriety in the late 1990s at Ray Gun magazine, the influential LA-based ‘bible of music and style’. His early schooling in the rigours and principles of Swiss graphic design fused with the gritty vernacular of the street came together to create the sounds of the 90s in visual print form.

Today, Ashworth balances a career as a sought-after creative director with a second life as an experimental designer and typographer. His creative approach – the aforementioned ‘Swiss Grit’ – is “a blend of Swiss principles fused with a typographic street aesthetic that brings some soul,” he says.

Ashworth has also worked with pop culture bands and brands from New Order, Michael Stipe (REM), Robbie Robertson and Bush to Nike, Diesel and Adobe, as well as spending over 20 years as a Creative Director running in-house creative studios at Microsoft, Nokia and Getty Images. He recently launched thisisme.art with his partner Nicola which sells high end apparel and one-of-a-kind original art featuring his unique handmade creative approach.

Specifications

Title: Disorder: Swiss Grit Volume II
Size: 275x225mm
Pages: 488
Paper: Four-colour, 120gsm wood-free (text); Two-colour, 160gsm uncoated wood-free and machine varnish (endpapers); 128gsm jacket art (cover).
Sewn, separate ends, PLC over 3.5mm boards, flat back with head and tail bands.

Tracked shipping worldwide, calculated at checkout
£75.00