The Game: All Things Trump

2020
a/political & Booth-Clibborn Editions
London

‘The Game: All Things Trump’ is a revealing portrait of ego and empire, exploring the world of Donald Trump through renowned artist Andres Serrano’s collection of Trump-related objects, branded products, and arbitrarily signed ephemera, ranging from Trump steaks and arbitrarily autographed objects to an 11ft rotating logo from the Ego bar and lounge at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City (which uses Barnbrook’s own Mason Serif typeface – SAD). The collection, numbering more than 1000 objects and assembled at a cost of around $200,000, was first exhibited in New York in April 2019, over two floors of a former nightclub and will be touring the world in the coming years. The books itself though is a testament to the folly and the ego of the man.

The starting point of the design is the most important non-designed, designed object (if you see what we mean) of this era – the bright red MAGA hat. So, dear friends, throw away your perfectly kerned typographic posters expounding the delights of human values and huh… facts or any kind of decency whatsoever, the MAGA hat, is where it is at. Probably made in a sweatshop in Trump’s ‘adversary’ China with a typeface carefully selected by being the first of the default fonts on the type embroidery machine. It provides the basis of all the design decisions – from the red edge spraying that gives the book a ‘What’s that ugly big red thing in my eye line?’ kind of feel, to the selection of the several default fonts which butt up uncomfortably against each other by being similar but not quite the same. The objects themselves have been carefully selected from the extensive archive and are juxtaposed against each other to well, say just as much as any words could about Trump.