Feature: Graphic design
Pleasure in the process
Paul McNeil and Hamish Muir are graphic designers who construct typefaces through mathematics, systems and experimentation, pushing hard at the boundaries of alphabetic form
Expressive geometry
Kabel, Rudolf Koch’s eccentric, geometric 1920s typeface, has been revived as a 21st century type family by Marc Schütz. By Madeleine Morley, with extracts from Gerald Cinamon’s book about Koch
Brand in the hand
In Melbourne, more than a century ago, a ‘printer’s fist’ inadvertently became one of the earliest corporate identities
Advice from a mentor you may never meet
The ethos behind the Hall of Femmes series is to pass down stories, advice and experiences to a new generation of female art directors and designers
The programmed designer
Industry-standard tools – Apple computers, Adobe software – have created astonishing new possibilities for graphic designers. But is this liberation, or a new kind of imprisonment?
A breath of fresh air
In postwar Milan, Swiss designer Lora Lamm brought flair and humour to her work for clients in industry and retail, capturing the optimistic spirit of the times
Modernist cottage industry
For more than a decade, Ruth Artmonsky has been publishing modest, readable books about design and illustration from her London flat
The men who fell to earth
In three turbulent years, from 1968-71, the illustration and design supergroup Bentley / Farrell / Burnett helped to define the look of the time
The long look
Creating playful, thoughtful images for The Guardian’s ‘long read’ section relies upon a close relationship between the paper’s art desk and a roster of illustrators who can make exemplary work at speed
Reputations: Fuel
‘We love collecting vernacular … it’s functional, not following a preconceived idea of what is correct. This can give it an unexpected quality … in “real” design all those elements are lost. Everything is too considered.’ By Rick Poynor