Feature: Visual culture
Design that disappears: the blackboard at St John
Asked to nominate a favourite item of information design, illustrator Paul Davis had no hesitation in naming the bar menu blackboard at St John restaurant in Clerkenwell, with its ‘nose-to-tail’ philosophy of serving authentic food
Picture: Killa
Each of Graham MacIndoe’s drug ‘baggies’ brands a different high
Vapour trails
Steampunk’s florid industrial nostalgia might yet be the defining aesthetic of our time
Painted thrills and spills
Fred Fowle was the UK’s foremost fairground artist. His go-faster graphics and futuristic lettering live on – in museums and working steam fairs
Miss Fixit
Tina Roth Eisenberg never had a business plan. But all the things she dreams up – the Swissmiss blog, ‘creative mornings’, stick-on tattoos – pay off. By Steven Heller
Free for all
In designing the Ubuntu type family, Dalton Maag had to produce faces for print and screen in thirteen styles and numerous non-Latin languages – all under scrutiny from an online audience of millions. By John Ridpath
NASA patches
Embroidered space travel patches, collected and appreciated by Eugene Dorr
Chicken restaurants
The appearance of Britain’s fried chicken joints are a uniquely British take on an American theme
Shock tactics
America’s funky ‘altweeklies’ are a hotbed of zero-budget, attention-grabbing cover art direction.
Pichação [EXTRACT]
The architecture of São Paulo, Brazil, is covered by a unique form of calligraphic graffiti