PLANET LUKE
unfinished business
Humankind is filled with way too many outrageous misunderstandings. Slow, for example, is often mistaken as being boring. Being loyal is misinterpreted as being highly inflexible, for some strange reason. Not to mention the confusion about Nirvana not singing “here we are now, in containers“ in the chorus of “Smells Like Teen Spirit“.
Another misconception is that something is considered to be looking off-the-rails imperfect simply because it isn’t buying into the current state of normcore, when in actuality, a much necessary alternative version is being consciously created to challenge worn out ideals. And it’s safe to state that the visual platform created by Planet Luke falls into this very category. Planet Luke basically works as the graphic design outlet of international man of mystery, Lucas Hunter, aka Luca Lozano - renowned DJ and producer and driving force behind underground club darlings like Klasse Wrecks, Zodiac 44 and Grafiti Tapes. His visual output might look a bit unfinished and crude on first impression, but as a matter of fact, it’s not only executed with originality, but with precise skill. He just recently released an remarkably geeky new entry titled “Logos of the Early Computer Software Scene,” to Klasse’s ongoing zine-series, which perfectly underlines Hunter’s reputation as a connoisseur of the rather underdeveloped and obscure. Luckily, he found some time in his ever increasing schedule to guide us through his Planet Luke universe.
“I think the moment I decided to put all the graphic stuff under the Planetluke.com moniker something changed... I gave it an identity outside of my other projects, and it stood on its own feet for the first time. For years, my happy place was always when I was working on graphics for myself and other people. I would compare the feeling to being in my own world, being alone and feeling total creative freedom led me to evolve this world into Planet Luke. That’s the place I inhabit when I create the graphics. It’s been great that people are enjoying my work. It’s a pleasure to work on stuff that is close to my heart, and nice to have a project that runs alongside to the music and records.
The AIAIAI “RPM-RIP“-t-shirt-project was initiated by Trevor Jackson, and he got in touch online - myself and Trevor have been circling each other for years, but we’ve never worked together before. I used to intern at a record label in the early 2000s, and they shared an office with Output, and I was always a huge fan of him—his Playgroup project and that label. He built up such a cult following, and never compromised on his vision; it’s safe to say looking back now he was a massive influence on what I do. It’s cool we’ve managed to link up over the AIAIAI t-shirt project.
To realize the latest zine on forgotten software company logos of the 70s and 80s was a perfect fit, because they were totally in line with what I like about graphic design and visuals. The subject is not the most obvious one, and I really liked the idea of uncovering these forgotten companies and showing them altogether. I love the nativity of the logos and the home-made style of the hacker groups also… the fact that it followed on perfectly from the “Record Label logo book“ was a lovely coincidence. I’m such a nerd when it comes to collecting, and referencing obscure imagery in my work. I get totally obsessed with a subject and research it manically until I feel I’ve learned all I can. I think these books are a natural result of that obsession, and it’s also nice to feel like I’m sharing it publicly with other people.
Right now, I’m concentrating a lot on the clothing side of things—both with Klasse Wrecks and Planetluke.com. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to start a regular t-shirt line, and that is moving along nicely. I’m just back from tours in Australia, the USA and India and have plans to visit Japan and the rest of Asia later in the year. Musically, I’m trying to finally build up my studio at home, and find some time to make some more records as I’ve been missing that a lot recently. There’s loads of music in the vaults and I’m slowly using that up so need to get back on it!“
words: Forty