David King Publications 1977–2019
The first published survey of the book projects and graphic design of David King (1948–2019), the English-born, New York– and San Francisco–based artist, designer, and musician best known for creating the Crass symbol.
King moved to New York in 1977 and made hundreds of flyers for clubs such as Danceteria, Pravda, and the Peppermint Lounge while playing in the no wave band Arsenal relocating to San Francisco in 1980, he designed for the I-Beam and played in the post-punk groups Sleeping Dogs and Brain Rust. Across four decades he produced dozens of cheaply made Xerox and offset zines — Suburbs of Hell, Too Many Zombies, Sleeping Dogs — collaging appropriated images from mainstream magazines, and, later, idiosyncratic small-run books issued through Colpa Press, &Pens, and Gingko Press.
This 120-page volume, co-published by Colpa Press and the San Francisco Center for the Book, gathers that work with an introduction by Matt Borruso and an essay by the design studio Experimental Jetset. It accompanied the first survey exhibitions of King’s output, at the San Francisco Center for the Book (October 25–December 22, 2024) and Printed Matter, New York (June 5–August 24, 2025). Not to be confused with the British graphic designer David King (1943–2016) of Soviet-design fame.
