Party Monsters is not your average, run-of-the-mill book project. By the point of its conception, I had done two other short catalogues. However, Party Monsters would not be like these other publications. Not only would it be physically larger as well as much longer and more comprehensive, it would also have much more spirit. I had big plans for this book. If you’ve already seen my EGO MAG, it will come as no surprise that I have a sort of lurid fascination with the decades leading up to the turn of the century. So, naturally, when I was cooking up ideas for where I wanted to go with this project, the “Club Kids” phenomena of New York City in the mid-80’s and 90’s came right to mind. I decided I would make a sort of unconventional timeline book to chronicle the origins, shenanigans, and eventual scandal surrounding the Club Kids of NYC.

From this, Party Monsters was born. I sought translate all the energy, excitement, and sex appeal of the subject matter to the layout design using experimental typography and bold, in-your-face imagery and colors. I also used hand-done type for all my headings to create something unique and high-impact that no one else would be using. Truthfully, Party Monsters was an ambitious undertaking for me as it is unlike anything I’ve ever made before and it was, at times, a challenge to bring my vision to fruition. However, it was such great fun to get weird with type and layout when I was used to doing things in a more conventional way. I had to learn to think outside of the box and push myself to do things that I’d been taught were “against the rules” in design — and, most importantly, how to break the rules in ways that created exciting, cohesive design.