Alex Cameron

Recent articles by Alex Cameron

More pics than crit

Issue 99, Autumn 2019

Review

This book is a welcome survey of a vibrant and witty design approach prevalent in…

Britannia waves the flag

Issue 80, Summer 2011

Review

A Symbol for the Festival tells an illuminating personal and graphic design history in the…

Recent blog posts about Alex Cameron

Typographic hints for the next generation

26 November 2019
Design education, Graphic design, Posters, Reviews, Typography

‘The New Art School Rules’ is showing in Bury as part of Design Manchester 19. Review by Alex Cameron
‘The New Art School Rules!’ – part of Design Manchester 19 Festival – is an…

At your service

15 October 2019
Design education, Design history, Reviews, Typography

Armin Hofmann’s Graphic Design Manual. A review by Alex Cameron
A reproduction of Armin Hofmann’s poster, Giselle, designed for the Basel Open Air Theatre in…

Colours of Soviet film posters

9 January 2014
Design history, Graphic design, Posters

Elena Sudakova and Lutz Becker curate Soviet silent film posters from the 1920s and 30s, on display at London’s GRAD gallery from 17 January
GRAD Gallery for Russian Arts and Design, in collaboration with online poster gallery AntikBar, is…

Fag end

14 June 2013
Awards madness, Graphic design, Photography, Visual culture

We shouldn’t glamourise ‘de-branding’ as cool ‘anti-design’, says Alex Cameron. It’s simply against design.
In March this year, the Australian government’s ‘de-branded’ cigarette packaging design was one of fourteen…

Road to nowhere

7 June 2013
Photography, Reviews, Visual culture

Subterranean photography exhibition ‘Hind Land’ by Nick Rochowski and Tim Bowditch goes on display at The Front Room gallery, London
‘Hind Land’ is a photographic collaboration by Nick Rochowski and Tim Bowditch and is the…

Type at the core

2 January 2013
Design education, Graphic design, Technology, Typography

Design students hope to acquire skills that are transferable and future-proof. In our new media world, letterpress and education need each other
If you’d blinked, you might have missed the 6x6 Collaborative Letterpress Project’s three-day exhibition at…

The unflinching eye

20 September 2012
Photography, Visual culture

A powerful new photography exhibition at the Barbican brings an earlier world of change and violence to vivid life.
More than 400 works, by twelve celebrated international photographers in a British institution such as…

Billboards reloaded

30 August 2012

Judging by this digital project, reports of the death of the poster have been greatly exaggerated.
For four weeks this summer, roadside advertising specialists Outdoor Plus gave a small group of…

Smoke bomb

20 August 2012
Graphic design, Information design, Visual culture

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…

Modern games

1 May 2012
Design history, Graphic design, Information design, Visual culture

Josef Hartwig’s 1922 chess set design advances a ‘Bauhaus reality’ check
Form follows function. The oft-quoted, much misunderstood dictum associated with the Bauhaus finds few better expressions…

Type Tuesday: Text, pixel, pen and fen

1 May 2012
Graphic design, Typography, Visual culture

Tankard’s new type family Fenland questions the ‘calligraphic metaphor’
The launch party for Jeremy Tankard’s new type family Fenland, at London’s Kemistry Gallery, was packed…

Birth of a typeface

19 March 2012
Graphic design, Typography

A sketchbook preview of Jeremy Tankard’s new type family Fenland
After almost twenty years working in graphic design and a studious attitude to the subject…

Not enough critical mass?

21 December 2011
Design education, Graphic design

Europe’s first MA in design writing and criticism looks likely to close
British design may be about to lose an important ally if the proposal to close…