029 SMITH JOURNALthe doors
of perception
DESIGNERS NOAH LOVE AND AJ
MERCER WANTED TO HONOUR THE
TYPOGRAPHY OF CLASSIC RACECARS.
THEIR CANVAS? RUSTED-OUT CAR
DOORS FROM THE ARIZONA DESERT.
Writer Taz Liffman
For all the sport’s modern-day affiliation with caffeine-rich,
taurine-loaded energy drinks, stock car racing actually got its start
from a very different tipple. “We have booze to thank for NASCAR,”
explains Noah Love, one half of CLUB, a graphic design studio
based in Los Angeles. “Prohibition ended in 1933, but running
cut-price booze across state lines remained big business for
years after. The government stationed revenue agents out in the
Appalachian hills where the bulk of the moonshine distilleries
were. They didn’t like the idea of drinkers drinking tax-free.”
Moonshine ‘runners’ needed more than a dose of derring-do to get
their hooch into the cities – they needed cars capable of outrunning
a federal vehicle. Blatantly modified hot rods wouldn’t cut it (you
didn’t want your car raising suspicion), so moonshine mechanics
became adept at altering vehicles surreptitiously, adding suspension
to increase load-carrying and ramping up horsepower by installing
Cadillac engines. Some supposedly even fashioned toggle switches
that would release thumbtacks into the paths of pursuers.
Nonetheless, by the 1940s government enforcement had largely
put the brakes on bootleg alcohol. The need for speed, however, was
only raring up: pimping one’s ride had become a popular American
pastime, and stock car racing had evolved into a spectator sport.
Drivers began commissioning artists to paint their vehicles so
audiences could recognise them on the racetrack. They were simple
designs for the most part: bold colors, cartoonish illustrations,
bulbous numbers. But for Love and his design partner, AJ Mercer,
it’s the work of unsung heroes. “As designers, we tend to look towards
unintentional art over traditional,” Love explains. “The artists who
decorated these liveries are rarely celebrated in the design community,
yet in terms of typography and layout they were true craftsmen.”
To redress this, CLUB decided to create a series commemorating
iconic drivers and their wheels. Naturally enough, this meant
embarking on their own road trip – not to the Appalachian
foothills, but the bone-dry desert of Arizona, where the region’s
abandoned car doors had the right rusted-out patina to paint on.
Each door pays homage to a classic racer and their favourite ride.
Racing buffs will recognize the No.13 (a tribute to Henry ‘Smokey’
Yunick), the Tijuana Taxi (Jack Roush and Wayne Gapp), and the
No.40 (Harvey Mushman, the racing pseudonym used by Steve
McQueen, his ‘cool cat’ status symbolised by a feline wearing shades).
Then there’s six-time IndyCar winner Rufus ‘Parnelli’ Jones. In a nod
to his various sponsors, ‘BEER’ is the main message emblazoning
his door. Now as ever, alcohol fuels reckless driving. •