HOUSTON CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY CRAFT

Matthew Tabor is an artist and designer living in Houston,Texas. As a native of Louisiana, Tabor started his career at a design and printfirm in Lake Charles, Louisiana, before eventually owning his own freelance business, The Bow and the Quiver. In the five years that he has lived in Houston, Tabor has helped many small businesses develop their graphic design and branding.

Recently, Tabor launched a new enterprise with his wife, Leslie Slade, called Letterset. Given Tabor’s art and design background and Slade’s marketing and business experience, Letterset leaves no stone unturned when it comes to helping businesses create a visual presence in the marketplace. Together, they offer services in graphic design, screen printing, hand lettering and chalking, marketing, and branding.

In preparation for the current exhibition, HCCC had the pleasure of working with Tabor to create the chalkboard graphics featured inside the Dining and Discourse exhibition space. Stretching 12 feet high and 16 feet wide, the exhibition’s title wall is the largest chalk drawing that Matthew has worked on to date. In a mash-up of modern design meets Rococo, Matthew captures the essence of all three dining-room vignettes into one singular graphic. Once the walls were completed, we had the opportunity to ask Matthew about his professional practice as well as his experience working with chalk.

Who is Matthew ‘America’ Tabor? Could you tell me a little about your professional practice and what you hope to accomplish as a graphic designer?

A good friend of mine, Patrick Dougherty, who worked here in the restaurant industry, gave me that nickname, and it stuck.  I think it fits my aesthetic well. I try to employ more hands-on and historically rooted techniques in my projects. What’s more American than handmade goods?  So I’ve just gone with it, and a good majority of my clients simply refer to me as “America.” 

My hope as a graphic designer and artist is to make a visual impact on my surroundings, and I believe Houston is the perfect place for that.  There is plenty of room for visual growth throughout the city, and I look forward to being a part of changing Houston’s visual landscape.  Whether via a well-executed print piece, a huge chalk menu, or a stellar poster design, I really just want to incorporate beauty into the daily life of the city. 

You have worked closely with many notable restaurants in town to create chalk art for their businesses. Paulie’s, Blacksmith, and Pastry War are just a few places that come to mind. How long have you been working with chalk? What has been the most memorable chalk design that you have worked on and why?

Paulie’s actually marked the start of my work with chalk typography, back in 2012.  Paul Petronella needed a new menu pretty badly—even though the old menu conveyed the information clearly, the large digital print-out lacked any sort of real visual impact.  A renewed interest in all things “made by hand” was beginning to take hold here in Houston, and Paul wanted to revive the blackboard aesthetic.  It was a great choice and really fit the space well.  Since that first board, I’ve been doing typographic chalk work steadily around town for somewhere between 15-20 businesses.  I can’t pinpoint a most memorable chalk piece due to the nature of the work. Each new client and board becomes extremely individual.  With different needs, fonts, content, and atmospheres, the creation experience is always changing.  The process overall is what becomes most memorable, and I can letter better today than I’ve ever been able to, because of the constant demand of chalk typography in Houston.

Both the DIY movement and businesses that specialize in artisan, handmade goods have adopted chalkboard graphics as part of their brand. What is it about chalk as a material that is appealing to you as well as to these businesses?

Both the DIY and artisan movement harken back to a time of hand involvement in the creation of goods, as opposed to the uniformity of industrialism.  We are not the first generation to question the value of mass-produced goods, and it is refreshing to re-acknowledge the inherent value of creating something by hand.  One meal, leather belt, or chalk letter at a time, our society is beginning to appreciate the uniqueness of craftsmanship, yet again.  Chalk fits squarely into this movement. At times it can seem archaic, time consuming, and a bit impractical, but it demonstrates how a unique human touch can transform a simple message from information into art.  Most of my clients lean towards the use of chalk out of practicality, utilizing chalk’s temporary quality to allow them the freedom to change and control their businesses’ atmosphere or offerings.  I have personally gravitated towards chalk because of the tactile nature of the process. It allows me to hand letter and illustrate in a unique way around town.

Follow Matthew’s latest work at

www.lettersethouston.com

What traditions revolve around your dining room? Do you have a favorite piece of silverware, tableware, or dining-room furniture? What is it about this object or group of objects that makes it special to you?

"My favorite mealtime item is a cloth napkin.  I was reared with paper ones and even at age 10, I swore I would never use them at my house when I was grown."  -Rex Watson

Ellie Richards is up in the wood studio this winter, making tables.

She started with one, commissioned for the exhibition Dining and Discourse, curated by Kathryn Hall at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. One of the exhibition’s aims is to examine how the lavishness of our decorative arts past might surface in today’s “artisanal” and “farm-to-table” dining culture. With this in mind, Ellie designed her table. She painted bands of color on the apron and legs–the shape of the legs riffing on a Queen Anne cabriolet style. “I was thinking about the cover of an album by A Tribe Called Quest,” she says about the polychrome surface. “It had all kinds of geometric shapes working with and off each other.”