Beat Issue 2
Towered Cities and the Hum of Men
Following on from Beat No. 1, which acted as a catalogue of sorts for the exhibition at the Art Directors Club, Beat No. 2 needed to be something a bit different.
One of the motivations behind Beat is to create a bespoke promotional item that provides the opportunity to brief and Art Direct the Artists ourselves on a theme of our own choosing, rather than relying on commercially produced ‘annuals’ to showcase our work. Furthermore it allows us to turn the usual Designer / Illustrator relationship on its head, with illustrators commissioning a Designer of their choice to create each new issue.
The title of this issue, ‘Towered Cities and the Hum of Men’, comes from a poem by John Milton and is a reference to the two great cities that Heart is dually based in. Beat 2 combines excerpts from both fiction and non-fiction writing about London and New York. Well known authors have been intertwined with overheard excerpts from the street, newspaper articles and an obituary.
The diverse range of source material provoked a great variety of artwork, thoughtfully yet playfully laid out by designer, Mike Lackersteen.
Featured authors include, Peter Ackroyd, Chuck Palahniuk, Zadie Smith, JG Ballard, David Sedaris, Jonathan Franzen amongst others.
