14 May 2014
UK book printing is in trouble, says Francis Atterbury. The trade makes truly awful books, while the Private Press lacks content.
There’s a wave of technological revolution hitting the printing industry as new technology and new printing methods promise a revolution in the trade, writes Francis Atterbury.
28 March 2014
In the run-up to the Turkish elections, designers satirise the actions of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Report by Gülizar Çepoğlu.
A deluge of satirical poster designs and artworks have become a powerful form of protest for Turkish people, writes Gülizar Çepoğlu.
25 March 2014
Content Aware typography makes Adobe’s software ‘fail’ in the most interesting way
Content Aware Fill first appeared in Adobe Photoshop CS5, released in 2010, writes Tom Harrad.
16 September 2013
Extended review: Rob Waller takes a closer look at Underground Maps Unravelled by psychologist Maxwell Roberts
Harry Beck’s underground map has to be the most celebrated and discussed instance of information design, writes Rob Waller.
28 June 2013
A new exhibition recounts the history of political persuasion, from coins to tweets.
The British Library’s exhibition, ‘Propaganda: Power and Persuasion’, shows a 1982 political cartoon that was drawn shortly after martial law was imposed in Poland. The drawing is of General Jaruzelski, a Polish political leader, attempting to bridge the gap between two sides of a widening chasm. The left side represents propaganda; the right represents reality, writes Katy Canada.
26 June 2013
A collaboration – between Columbo, in Sri Lanka, and Falmouth, in the UK – explores the typographic possibilities of the Sinhalese abugida
The orthography of the Sinhalese, one of the peoples of the beautiful island of Sri Lanka‚ is one of three writing systems that populate the visible culture of the south Asian island nation, writes Timothy Donaldson.
15 May 2013
Thomas E. Rinaldi’s New York Neon documents a cityscape sprawling with the remnants of illuminated signage. Rinaldi shies away from ‘spectaculars’ in familiar places such as Times Square in favour of the ‘open-air museum’ of on-premise storefronts across Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, writes Sarah Snaith.
26 March 2013
The first thing you think on flipping through Characters is: Wow, I wouldn’t mind living in Melbourne, writes Robert Hanks.
17 January 2013
Dr Hans Sachs was the poster aficionado who launched Das Plakat. By Graham Twemlow
Graham Twemlow writes: A large part of the Hans Sachs poster collection is about to be sold off at auction (see ‘Back on the market’). Born in Breslau, Germany in 1881, Dr Sachs began collecting posters at the end of the nineteenth century while he was training to become a chemist (he later turned to dentistry).
15 January 2013
Shelley Gruendler is fascinated by the graphic language of feminine hygiene disposal bags
Twenty years ago, while in my second year at design school, I pilfered my first ‘feminine hygiene sanitary disposal’ bag from a doctor’s office in Raleigh, North Carolina, writes Shelley Gruendler.
21 November 2012
Painted signs enliven the streetscapes of Kratie, a sleepy provincial capital in North East Cambodia.
Cambodia is a country awash with hand-painted signs, writes Sam Roberts. They form an integral part of the streetscape but most visitors barely even notice them.
5 November 2012
These unique, plebeian graphic executions – ephemeral, often questionable lawn signs – embody the US Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of free speech, says Mike Kippenhan.
In the United States, automobile bumper stickers and lawn signs are the preferred way of informing others non-verbally of one’s political affiliation, writes Mike Kippenhan.
20 August 2012
Australia’s decision to ‘unbrand’ tobacco packaging demands more debate, says Alex Cameron
Last week I woke to the news that cigarette packaging is to be ‘un-designed’ as a result of a landmark ruling by the highest court in Australia, writes Alex Cameron.
As a result, from December, all fag packets will be olive green, and dominated by large graphic health warnings, with the manufacturers' names printed in a small generic font.
31 July 2012
Alternative currencies show that money is just an idea that can be redesigned. By Livia Lima
We live in an age when it is difficult to trust our banks, writes Livia Lima, but what about the notes in your purse or wallet? With economies across Europe teetering on the edge of collapse, plans are being drawn up to revive ‘retired’ currencies such as the drachma, and some Greek cities have jumped the gun by issuing their own alternative currencies.
7 October 2011
Exhibition will explore the graphic world of pharmaceutical products
A new exhibition at The Herb Lubalin Study Center at The Cooper Union will explore the graphic world of pharmaceutical design. Work by Andy Warhol, Lester Beall, Will Burtin and Herb Lubalin features in the show, which charts design for drugs from the 1940s to the present day. Here, curator Alexander Tochilovsky shares his thoughts about what he sees as a ‘golden age’ in US pharmaceutical design, the 1940s and 50s.
28 July 2011
Why do architects believe their wordless buildings are easy to read?
‘Sign designers are convinced that architects don’t like them,’ writes Rob Waller, in his provocative Monitor piece in the latest issue of Eye (no. 80 vol. 20).
