Blog: Design history
3 June 2020
Books of seaside revelations
Guidebooks have enticed visitors to resorts since the nineteenth century. The third in Justin Burns’s series about coastal graphic design in the UK
For decades, the guidebook has navigated visitors through the bright lights of the seaside, showcasing…
27 April 2020
Are we there yet?
In the second instalment of Eye’s online series about graphic design at the UK seaside, Justin Burns navigates the history of the travel poster
The Bank Holiday, a very British institution, was first introduced in 1871, allowing workers an…
23 April 2020
Where do ideas come from?
A mischievous book by Claes Oldenburg showed me the importance of realising an idea physically, writes Andy Martin
I first came across Notes in Hand in the mid-1970s, when I was a freshly…
16 April 2020
Resorting to type
In the first of a new series of Eye blog posts, Justin Burns explores the graphic language of the British seaside
Walk along the promenade and we are met with the sounds, smells and signs that…
12 March 2020
Books received #43
Gothic comics for girls; soundsystem culture; The Power and Influence of Illustration by Alan Male; and Liz McQuiston’s Protest!
Here is a selection of titles that caught our attention in recent months. Gothic for…
7 February 2020
Books received #42
Helfand’s visual odyssey, edible art, typo-poetry from Bernstein and Lehrer, Piper in Brighton and Black Lives 1900
Here is a selection of titles that caught our attention in recent months. Jessica Helfand’s…
23 January 2020
Drawing stories
This updated study of children’s picturebook illustration, by Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles, is visually rich and grounded in sound research
If you have any interest whatsoever in illustration for picturebooks, this excellent book is worthy…
9 January 2020
Books received #41
Giovanni Anceschi, Shopfronts of London, Polish Design ABCs and a Swiss design manual by Müller-Brockmann
Here is a selection of four titles that caught our attention in recent months. Published…
13 December 2019
Walking in a nuclear winter land
A new book recalls a time when civil authorities urged citizens to prepare for a threat from the East. By Andrew Robertson
The book Nuclear War in the UK, already in its second printing, has been a…
4 November 2019
Tokyo two-track
The scripts of East and Southeast Asia came to the fore at the annual ATypI conference. John D. Berry reports
Not surprisingly, the 2019 ATypI conference in Tokyo had a large participation by East Asian…