Turn on the Switch

by Steven Heller

Marlon Darbeau is a graphic designer who works and lives in Trinidad and Tobago. He is also an editor of the mysteriously titled Draconian Switch, the only design e-mag on this paradise island to cover artists and designers in the advertising field. Past issues can be downloaded here. And the current one, published on August 9, is here. (As Darbeau notes, there is sexually explicit material within not intended for minors.)

"This project was started as a means of featuring not just hidden talents but also what goes on in their heads when they aren’t thinking aloud," writes Darbeau. "Draconian Switch is intended to amuse, perform, entertain, provoke, and irk the reader. What you get from it is entirely up to you."

Reader Comments

Dear Mr. Heller, I was surprised and delighted to see the short item about Draconian Switch in your Print blog, but I feel I ought to tell you that you've omitted some crucial people. Marlon Darbeau is one of several very talented young creative minds contributing to DS, and a recent issue was devoted to his work, but the chief presence behind the e-mag is his fellow designer Richard Rawlins. You can read a recent interview with him here: http://lyndersaydigital.com/bd/files/BitDepth691.html DS also depends heavily on the young writer Darryn Boodan, who is the magazine's text editor. Richard commissions a different designer to work on the visual elements for each issue. The website is run by another young designer, Anderson Mitchell. It's great to see Marlon getting coverage on the Print blog, but his colleagues shouldn't be left out. (I know the DS website doesn't include a masthead or credits--something they clearly need to put in.) They are all part of a very lively informal creative network of artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers and others based in Port of Spain who have re-energised the arts scene here over the last year or two. I hope you can make a small amendment or addition to your piece to include them. I'd also be very interested to hear how DS made it onto your radar, if you don't mind replying to this email. Thanks again, and best regards, Nicholas Laughlin Editor The Caribbean Review of Books

By Steven Heller August 18, 2009