Pillows
Description: Kindred spirit to every restless soul, fiery-tempered sensual adventurer Arthur Rimbaud is the original enfant terrible of poetry. Audacious and self-assured to the extent that, at twenty, he chose to retire from writing altogether, A Season in Hell is his best-known text, and aptly named. Immersive in every sense, Rimbaud's synesthesia meant he experienced language with all the senses: words had colours and scents, intentions and symbolism emerged on page as meanings for readers to live as he did. Provocateur purveyor of libertine literature, here he is pictured in Étienne Carjat's legendary October 1871 photograph of him which, after a dinner party quarrel where Rimbaud stabbed his photographer, Carjat destroyed all negatives of the icon.
Description: A portable icon of an immortal iconoclast, pulling-off the pose of an underworld saint, with a halo of evil flowers pulled from the gutter, this design divinizes Baudelaire and his—controversial, even still—master-work, The Flowers of Evil. Étienne Carjat's circa 1863 Woodburytype of the tortured poet grabs your focus with a gaze well-acquainted with the seamier side of life—and sex and death and fading beauty—at which he excelled describing in unparalleled words, painting vividly in lyrical detail urban horrors. Honour the undisputed master of macabre glamour—the sublime haunter of brothels, the late-night street-wandering flâneur—with this death's-head of poetical portraiture.
Description: Wilde knew how to market himself, especially using portraiture. This likeness—for which Oscar sat at London in 1892—was photographed by Alfred Ellis & Walery, later sold as a mass-produced photogravure in 1915; sales going strong a full decade-and-a-half after his death in Paris, fresh-out-of-prison and penniless. His legend, however, lives on and you perpetuate its genius rocking this design. (That obscenity quote was appropriated by Wilde, adapted from a similar quip originally uttered by his contemporary Maurice Barrymore. According to Augustus John, Oscar said it to him when they lunched together in 1900.) "C.3.3." stood for cell block C, landing 3, cell 3, Wilde's identity as an inmate at HM Prison Reading (Gaol); "10/16" his birthday.
Description: Minimalist design evocative of a vinyl record sleeve, featuring poet Lord Byron and a quote of his from the intimate, book-length interview he gave to Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington at Genoa in April–July 1823, the year before he died. Icon, iconoclast, with some candour affording a glimpse behind his brooding glamour. The image of his lordship is an 1832 line engraving by Charles Warren, based on Thomas Phillips' 1813 portrait.
Description: Signifying either a camera flash or a hammer smashing a diamond, this dinstinctive JB monogram has been Jono Borden's identifying mark his entire career, appearing on every book he has ever released, and featured in all media of his making from his videos to, now, attire and a wider variety of merchandise. For your pleasure, a bard turned to a brand.
Description: Be the star of your own cover story with Jono's glossiest logo. Evocative of fashion magazine mastheads, it's actually an homage to the typeface designed by Bodoni for Borden's hero, Byron—no stranger to getting what he wanted and, among many things, the first poet to have his own font. (That's a real B-list of surnames, but with this design you're Grade A.)
Description: Signify your ties to Borden's Grimm brotherhood of moody, brooding readers and writers with this folkloric logotype. Gothic in every sense—figurative, as well as literal—it's giving Snow-White-by-night; dripping with popping alchemical colours, whilst dropping the name of that poetical fairy-with-a-tale-to-tell. Magical!
Description: Scan his lines and glance on how darkly Jono turns pain to artistry. Mystery has always been a necessity of poetry, so abide the bard's code showing your love for Borden with this cryptic-yet-catchy piece of publicity. Great for everybody who's a person with a persona, and a fan of this gargantuan, larger-than-life personality.
