CHOMP: The Paste-ups of Earwig Magazine
Curated by Claudia Long
Graphic from the cover of Earwig 8½, edited and designed by John Milne and Heather McInnes, printed by HEATHERPRINT, 1973. Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury.
21.02.26
29.03.26
'Earwig' is an underground magazine that was created by John Milne and published independently from 1969–1973.
This exhibition features the magazine’s original paste-up artwork from the Heather Knowles Collection housed at Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury.
Prior to the introduction of the desktop computer, paste-ups were created by graphic designers to place typography and imagery into multi-layer compositions that would be combined in print to form a final page design. The evidence of the human hands behind the design of Earwig communicates care and effort that is uncommon in many design practices today. To physically plan and construct a paste-up design exercises a level of thought, craft and complexity that is at odds with the resources, space, and time available in our contemporary world. In revisiting this past practice through the lens of a designer in the current age of computer automation and AI, this exhibition aims to highlight the slow manual craft of analogue design and how it could be used to subvert the digital mainstream of mass generation, producing work with real meaning and agency.
With thanks to the Heather Knowles Collection, Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury.
The Artist
Claudia Long is a graphic designer based in Ōtautahi Christchurch. She is a current Master of Fine Arts student at the University of Canterbury’s Ilam School of Fine Arts. She teaches into graphic design programmes at the UC School of Product Design and Ilam School of Fine Arts. Her research focusses on the history of counterculture design and publishing in Aotearoa and exploring graphic design’s place in social and cultural change.