Intergalactic Soulstice at Ackland Art Museum
Intergalactic Soulstice is a virtual Afrofuturist arts festival that will take place from 19 to 21 June 2020 at the Ackland Art Museum of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The announcement graphics use Sniglet, an obese display face drawn by Haley Fiege and first released in 2008 on her Kingdom of Awesome website. Designer Joel P Johnson exclusively used Sniglet in all caps and further increased the balloon-like look of its letterforms by adding custom highlight and shadow effects. If you’re looking for a similar typeface that comes with such highlights out of the box, see Blow Up. Other, less inflated options include Sauce, Gusto Highlight, or the squarish West Thud and LL Biff.
Intergalactic Soulstice is inspired by an Afrofuturist work commissioned by the Ackland in August 2019. “Project LHAXX” was created by artists Marcus Kiser and Jason Woodberry as part of their ongoing body of work known as Intergalactic Soul. Their work presents contemporary conversations about Black experiences, using popular science fiction and comics to chronicle the adventures of their fictional heroes, Astro and Pluto. The artists of Intergalactic Soul, who employ artmaking as a form of activism, frankly acknowledge the oppression of Black people in this country while looking with hope to the future. Intergalactic Soulstice celebrates the visionary nature of Afrofuturism and honors Black humanity.
