Feature: Design history
Machine head
Fritz Kahn commissioned illustrators to realise his surreal pedagogical vision – mechanical metaphors for the human body.
Googling the design canon
In the late 1980s, US designer and historian Martha Scotford set out on a mission to discover what might constitute a canon of graphic design …
South Bank show
The Royal Festival hall has regained the thoroughly English lettering of its origins in the Festival of Britain – on one side only
Reputations: Bob Gill
‘I’ve never had a problem with a dumb client. There’s no such thing as a bad client. Part of our job is to do good work and get the client to accept it.’ Interview by Patrick Baglee
Willem Sandberg: Warm printing
The Dutch pioneer’s catalogues for the Stedelijk show a tactile use of sensual materials and experimental typography
Reputations: Richard Hollis
‘The ideal situation is where you sit with the client and design with them. If anything is emphasised, it’s what they want to emphasise. I prefer collaborative effort to doing what I want. It’s diametrically opposite to being an artist.’
Malcolm, Peter … and Keith
The British New Wave was born at a boys’ school near Manchester
Money. Magic. Light.
Factors of scale ensured a glittering take-off for two corporate identities. But what do they actually communicate?
Marked by time
Two catalogues reveal much about stencil-making in Germany and the US in the mid-twentieth century, while offering clues to the industry's future in the decades following their publication.
Social vision
RoSPA’s Second World War safety posters challenge orthodox views of British Modernism