This project attempts to recontextualize the album and the shows performed by M.I.A during the /\/\ /\ Y /\ tour in a purely typographic way. Typography is used as form, information,
and expression through a promotional poster and video for the two shows played at the Royale in Boston and a design for the album with a sign of select songs.
/\/\ /\ Y /\ (MAYA) is M.I.A's third album, released July 7, 2010. The album's tracks center on information politics and are intended to evoke what M.I.A. called a "digital ruckus." Her music is abrasive and subtle, with her sampling of industrial sounds and her playful use of homophones to give her words multiple readings.
This project attempts to recontextualize the album and the shows performed by M.I.A during the /\/\ /\ Y /\ tour in a purely typographic way. Typography is used as form, information, and expression through a promotional poster and video for the two shows played at the Royale in Boston and a design for the album with a sign of select songs.
MAYA Typeface
The Typeface was designed with the idea of display type and the limited number of pixels used in screen design. The gridded type references a digital world as much of this album's music deals with ideas of "digital ruckus" and love through the internet. The type is both simplified and distorted, with the use of it being constructed like a bitmap, which references the digital content in the lyrics and the sonically distorted music.
Promotional Poster
MAYA album cover, case, and CD
Foldable Lyric Poster
Promotional Video
The Message
Steppin' Up
XXXO
Tekilla
It Takes a Muscle
Lovalot
It Iz What It Iz
Born Free
M.I.A's original album design