Art4d magazine, Thailand’s leading art & architecture publication, meets Hardy Blechman and Damian Loiselle from Maharishi on DesignEdge 2005 held in Singapore, and held an in-depth six- page interview which would be published in both Thai and English in art4d’s latest issue.
The interview focuses on the recent brand extension strategy of Maharishi including the publication of DPM (Disruptive Pattern Material) book, the recent collaborations with graffiti artists and graphic designers including Futura 2000, Kaws and Rostarr, as well as the launching of mhi and mahatoys.
“In 1996, personally, I was dealing in recycled military surplus. and through that I begin to see there was a lot of camouflage in each country, before I wasn’t aware of that at all. And then I got kind of obsessed by collecting it, and eventually a friend of mine gave me these pamphlets that he found in military book shop. They were really poorly produced, like low production value, really bad documenting, and the guys didn’t really have any production sense. There were five or six pamphlets and my original idea was to take these six pamphlets, rebind them, put an introduction about camouflage’s roots in nature, and add some kind of comment on current cultural usage at the back. It was going to be small, it wasn’t a big deal, and it grew and grew from that. I wanted to make it better and better, then by the time it was finished, ten years later, there was a full-time team working for the book on graphics, images, and text.” – Hardy Blechman
“Favorite collaboration? Obviously it’s ever changing, but I like the one that is the most mixed up and kind of mangled together” – Hardy Blechman
