Original Bootleg

Elmyr de Hory, Portrait of a Woman, in the style of Amedeo Modigliani, ca. 1955. Collection of Scott Richter and Pamela Richter-Lenon. Courtesy of the Winterthur Museum.
In this project we will make our own bootlegs that suggest an alternative reality. This can be an extension of your first project – creating a new bootleg based on your bootleg archive research. Or a bootleg dedicated to another subject entirely. However, in the creation of your "original" bootleg, you should consider what commentary you are making by producing it, and what new ideas its existence suggests.

Grays Sports Almanac, Back to the Future II
In the film Back to the Future, the main character – Marty McFly – gains access to a time machine and inadvertently changes his present. The film is part of a three part series, including the second film where Marty brings a sports almanac back from the future with the intention of gambling. Which gets stolen by his nemesis who profits immensley and changes the future.

Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise, Back to the Future II
In the process it creates branching timelines, an idea commonly known as the “Alternate Timeline Paradox” where when you change the past, you don’t overwrite your future, but instead make additional branches to reality.

So, if we accept this idea, it’s difficult to say which timeline we’re in. And we could take a leap of faith and wonder at which point a new future is created? As Ben Schwartz quotes in his essay Written into Existence from the NY Times article Seeking a Town on the Border of Fiction and Reality:

What’s your definition of real? If it exists in enough minds, it’s real.

Stop the Steal sign
Hyperstition is the action of willing something into reality:

A cultural belief (especially a work of fiction) that makes itself real; a cultural self-fulfilling prophecy where some cultural idea or hype truly brings about the thing it describes.

Essentially, it boils down to the idea that if you repeat something enough times it becomes true. While this concept may be dismissed as “Manifesting”, and not taken seriously since it defies logic, there are many recent incidents that seem to suggest its power.

Six pound note from 1761 warning to counterfeit is death!, and To Counterfeit is Death! coin by Chris Lee
If we think in terms of the state, we can also consider what provides this structure legitimacy? Do deeds, contracts, and titles make state power “real”? These design artifacts are often used to legitimize constructs that defy knowledge. If a person’s family existed on a plot of land for centuries, why is that not more valid than a piece of paper produced by a colonizer?

Bitcoin Logo
Of course many useful fictions are legitimated and given form via graphic design. Currency, flags, insignias and the like are all useful for constructing a reality that may or may not exist.

Sora 2 generated clip of Sam Altman stealing GPUs at Target
These questions gain more significance today due to the technological thresholds at which we’ve arrived. For years we’ve been lamenting a Post-Truth era, where “Fake News”, “Filter Bubbles”, and conspiracy theorists are shaping our personal realities. With the popularization and acceleration of generative AI, it’s getting more and more difficult to distinguish the real from fake.

Lockheed Martin Streetwear
In this project we will consider these notions of authenticity, authority, fact, and fiction, from a graphic design perspective. From the everyday and commercial: If American brand Kodak licenses their IP for clothing in South Korea, why is that more legitmate than an unlicensed version of an IKEA t-shirt? To the more profound: How can the precise printing processes and designs of an ID card or Passport enable or bar access across borders and private property?

The Official Guide: How To Spot FAKE Supreme (2025), Legit Check by Ch
Graphic design has a unique relationship to bootlegs. As the signifiers which shape our understanding of what is real and what is fake is closely tied to Graphic Design outcomes: logos, patterns, signs, seals, documents, and the like. As designers we often ask ourselves if our designs are effective and “work”. But it’s less common that we ask for “who” and “why” they are working. This project will explore this topic of for whom and why via the creation of our own bootleg.

Grays Sports Almanac

Due Dec 10 (5 weeks)
Topics: Speculation, Surface Design, Branding

Overview

Step 0: Due Nov 6
Conspiracy Theory

In groups of 4, select a conspiracy theory you are interested in, and create one artifact that validates its existence. For instance, if you believe 2Pac is alive and living in Cuba, what would be evidence of this? If you believe Fort Knox, the reserve of Gold held by the US Government is empty, how would you prove this theory?

Use any tools to construct “proof” of this conspiracy and share with the class.

Step 1: Due Nov 13
Design Fiction

Create a proposal for your bootleg, imagining one “founding fiction” that validates its existence. This could be an event, relic, phenomena, etc. that explains your bootleg’s history, or impact, as more than a class assignment you have created.

For instance, it could be describing the factory which first manufactured your object. Or, it could be an example of your bootleg being used in a poltical ceremony.

Put together a short presentation (~5 minutes) introducing your bootleg concept and the fiction that surrounds it.

Step 2: Due Nov 20
Bootleg Prototype

Based on feedback from last class, sketch 2 concepts for your bootleg including an artifact from its founding fiction.

Step 3: Due Dec 4
Rough Draft

Create a rough draft of your bootleg. It should be 95% complete!

Step 4: Due Dec 11
Final Bootleg

Share your final bootleg in class.

Schedule

Week 10 – Nov 6
Project kickoff

Week 11 – Nov 13
Step 1 Due
Share a proposal for your bootleg as well
as a "fiction" that validates its legitimacy

Week 12 – Nov 20
Step 2 Due
Share sketches of your bootleg

Week 13 – Nov 27
Group Meetings

Week 14 – Dec 4
Step 3 Due
Bring in a rough draft of your project

Week 15 – Dec 11
Step 4 Due
Share final "original" bootlegs