Eye Magazine | Author | John L. Walters

John L. Walters

Recent articles by John L. Walters

Art of war and peaceIssue 109, Winter 2026
Review
Miller’s qualities were there from the beginning: stillness, wit, controlled energy and honesty in the face of human folly, oddness and accidental beauty.
Way with wordsIssue 109, Winter 2026
Review
Barbara Kruger’s career began in magazines, but for the past four or more decades she’s identified as an artist …
Editorial Eye 109Issue 109, Winter 2026
Opinion

                                            We are all subject to the dominant technologies of our age, consciously or otherwise.            
Atomic everydayIssue 109, Winter 2026
Feature

                                            Michael Collins’ mesmerising, technically perfect photographs of nuclear plants show interiors that are both mundane and frightening. By John L. Walters            
Democracy is in the detailsIssue 44, Summer 2002
Review
This was a national conference, with straightforward and memorable presentations from Matt Groening, Milton Glaser, Sylvia Harris and Dave Eggers …
Films on tapIssue 108, Spring 2025
Feature

                                            Founded in 2007 by Efe Cakarel, Mubi favours editorial design over marketing conventions to reach twenty million subscribers in 190 countries. By John L. Walters [EXTRACT]            
Editorial Eye 108Issue 108, Spring 2025
Opinion

                                            What may appear like ‘branding’ and ‘marketing’ often has the more compelling dynamic of editorial design …            
Band practice [EXTRACT]Issue 107, Winter 2025
Review
Few authors have taken the trouble to research and document the dark art of the rock band logo …
The chap behind the diagramIssue 107, Winter 2025
Review
Londoners and designers have an immense fondness for the London Underground diagram, or ‘tube map’. And they were out in force for The Truth About Harry Beck
An eye for a storyIssue 107, Winter 2025
Review
Kate Winslet portrays Miller as a cool professional, with just the right combination of empathy and detachment to find a story that could work in the pages of a magazine …
Ultra processIssue 107, Winter 2025
Feature

                                            Tool, agent or end of days? John L. Walters asks designers and image-makers how and why they use visual AI and what this might mean for creativity             
Reputations: Margaret CalvertIssue 107, Winter 2025
Feature

                                            ‘If I look back at my beginning and everything, it’s learning on the job. You teach yourself and you pick up things and you look and you research – and it happens.’ Interview by John L. Walters and Simon Esterson. Portrait by Philip Sayer            
Editorial Eye 107Issue 107, Winter 2025
Opinion

                                                                            We often first experience cultural and technological changes through type and image, even if we…            
Democracy is in the detailsIssue 44, Summer 2002
Review

                                                ‘One more session and we’re outta here,’ said John Hockenberry. ‘We can all go back to…                        
Reputations: Sharp Type, Chantra Malee and Lucas SharpIssue 106, Summer 2024
Feature

                                            Lucas Sharp: ‘The
only thing keeping me excited about being in this industry, and doing this
work, is the stuff I have yet to draw.’
Chantra
Malee: ‘We could have
sold the entire foundry but ... what are we
supposed to do for the rest of our lives?’ 
[EXTRACT]            
Phil Baines rememberedIssue 106, Summer 2024
Feature

                                            Friends and colleagues pay tribute to the influential British typographic designer, writer and teacher (and cycling enthusiast), who died in January [EXTRACT]            
Archiving the archiveIssue 106, Summer 2024
Feature

                                            When the Type Archive left its London premises, its vast collection was disbanded and its working Monotype hot-metal plant moved to the National Collections Centre. Two long-serving volunteers talk to Eye about the challenges they faced and how the history of the Archive is now being preserved. Photographs by Philip Sayer [EXTRACT]            
Editorial Eye 106Issue 106, Summer 2024
Opinion

                                            It is in the nature of an Eye type special issue to be full of the shapes of letterforms and images of letters.            
The film poster as freeze-frameIssue 105, Autumn 2023
Review

                                                Moving Pictures Painted: 200 Posters from the Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema (CentreCentre, £30) lifts the…                        
Connecting a collectionIssue 105, Autumn 2023
Opinion

                                            A stylish pack of artist cards celebrates this German-Japanese collaboration. By John L. Walters            
Editorial Eye 105Issue 105, Autumn 2023
Opinion

                                            At a time when people are seeing Artificial Intelligence as either a get-rich scheme or an existential threat …            
Hockney asks the scientific question: ‘How?’Issue 42, Winter 2001
Review

                                                ‘The Great Wall’, four-page gatefold from Secret Knowledge. After all the rhetoric expended upon new collaborations…                        
Form and feelingIssue 104, Spring 2023
Feature

                                            Rudolph de Harak gets the recognition he deserves in a new monograph by Richard Poulin [EXTRACT]            
Read this spaceIssue 104, Spring 2023
Review

                                                Catherine Griffiths: Solo in [ ] Space by Zhihua Duan with Catherine Griffiths is ostensibly the…                        
Ramp up the key strokesIssue 104, Spring 2023
Review
Keith Armstrong (1950-2017) aka ‘ruhuman’, earned a reputation for his typewriter art while still in his teens.
Attack of the book jacketsIssue 104, Spring 2023
Review

                                                Tupigrafia A-Z is the book of the Brazilian magazine Tupigrafia published by Claudio Rocha and Tony…                        
Resistance is essentialIssue 104, Spring 2023
Opinion

                                            Telegraf’s second issue embodies Ukraine’s creativity and courage in the face of the Russian invasion. Report by John L. Walters            
Jump cutsIssue 104, Spring 2023
Feature

                                            Motion design is everywhere. The gleaming screens of our phones, TVs and poster sites demand more and more ways to make words and pictures dance in space and time. By John L. Walters             
Jump cuts: Dirk KoyIssue 104, Spring 2023
Feature

                                            ‘It was a kind of experiment between control and coincidence, which is still an important part [of] the process in my work today’             
Jump cuts: Mitch PaoneIssue 104, Spring 2023
Feature

                                            ‘It’s not a poster, you’re in a 360-degree universe you can play with. You’ve got to get out of the frame!’             
Jump cuts: Roy TerhorstIssue 104, Spring 2023
Feature

                                    
Jump cuts: Saskia MarkaIssue 104, Spring 2023
Feature

                                            ‘It looks now like it was always the concept, but it was created from a necessity.’ [EXTRACT]            
Jump cuts: Matt WilleyIssue 104, Spring 2023
Feature

                                            ‘Light gets turned into graphic dots – I thought this might be a nice way of capturing that feeling without being too literal or cheesy’             
Jump cuts: Fraser Muggeridge studio / Droga5Issue 104, Spring 2023
Feature

                                    
Jump cuts: Len LyeIssue 104, Spring 2023
Feature

                                            ‘Motion is not an intellectual game. There is not a moment in life that’s empty of kinetic experience’ [EXTRACT]            
Editorial Eye 104Issue 104, Spring 2023
Opinion

                                            The urge to make static artwork that depicts movement has long been a human preoccupation.            
Time stretched further outIssue 103, Summer 2022
Feature

                                            We made this: Punkt’s design for David Sylvian’s photobook ERR            
WitnessIssue 103, Summer 2022
Feature

                                            Lucinda Rogers’ reportage drawings captured the urgent activism and human drama that surrounded Cop26, the 2021 Glasgow climate summit. By John L. Walters. Portrait by Jillian Edelstein            
Editorial Eye 103Issue 103, Summer 2022
Opinion

                                            It is commonplace to say that history is written by the winners, but the historical record needs to be challenged.            
Design for a better worldIssue 102, Autumn 2021
Feature

                                            Indian design duo November balances commercial practice with a commitment to social change. By John L. Walters            
Pop art before it was ‘Art’Issue 102, Autumn 2021
Review
Several chapters into this captivating how-to book, Joby Carter jokes about ‘carrying on the fairground tradition …
Type as art objetIssue 102, Autumn 2021
Review

                                                ‘At design school I became enamoured with typography,’ said Kris Sowersby to Mark Thomson in the…                        
Cool lists for dark daysIssue 102, Autumn 2021
Review

                                                Gilles Peterson is known for his unfeasibly large record collection and an unstoppable enthusiasm for Black…                        
Editorial Eye 102Issue 102, Autumn 2021
Opinion

                                            Are we are in ‘a new golden age of type design’?            
Crowd controlIssue 101, Summer 2021
Feature

                                            Designers are making illustrated books through crowdfunding instead of traditional publishing methods. By John L. Walters            
Word playIssue 101, Summer 2021
Opinion

                                            
	Sarah Boris’s letterpress collaboration with New North Press reflects the turbulence of 2020.            
Pictoglyphic time travelIssue 101, Summer 2021
Review

                                                If the concept of ‘designer and illustrator as author’ is worthy of close attention outside children’s…                        
Drawn from the capitalIssue 101, Summer 2021
Review

                                                London can be a hard city to love, but David Gentleman always finds good reasons, which…                        
Captain lithoIssue 101, Summer 2021
Review

                                                Barnett Freedman (1901-56) was an artist / designer from a Jewish immigrant family who grasped…                        
Editorial Eye 101Issue 101, Summer 2021
Opinion

                                                                            The grids and graphs of Covid-19 graphics are familiar to nearly everyone, even those who…            

Blog posts by John L. Walters

Buy your tickets for Type Tuesday 10.03.26

6 March 2026
Type Tuesday, Typography, Type design

‘Punches to pixels’ at London’s SBF features Veronika Burian (TypeTogether), Richard Ardagh on Type Archived plus special guest Theo Hersey

So we urge everyone who can get to London easily to buy tickets for our first event of 2026.

The ouroboros of hype

17 October 2025
Critical path, Reviews, Technology

Packed with information, The AI Con pours cold water on ‘AI’ hysteria, while drawing attention to the tech’s environmental and ethical implications

This smartly written, often funny book throws a refreshing pail of ice-cold water over the…

The fantastic light trip

6 November 2023

Kevin Foakes (aka DJ Food) uncovers a strange, bright corner of analogue audiovisual culture

Wheels of Light is about the light shows devised for gigs and discos in the 1970s, 80s and 90s

Book now for Book night!

23 June 2022
Book design, Graphic design, Type Tuesday, Typography, Events and exhibitions

Buy your tickets for ‘Book night!’ – Eye’s next Type Tuesday – and help raise money for St Bride

Eye’s first Book night! will feature presentations by acclaimed designers Giles Dunn, Sonya Dyakova, Hugh Miller and Jim Sutherland, chaired by David Pearson and Eye editor John L. Walters

Silent sound

8 November 2021
Graphic design, Music design, Posters, Reviews, Visual culture

Chris Bigg’s ‘sketchbook’, Analogue Process 1987 – 2019, is a hymn of praise to ink on paper

Chris Bigg has enjoyed a close relationship with many musicians and music labels over his substantial career …

Come to the Eye 101 launch

3 June 2021
Book design, Design education, Design history, Food design, Graphic design, Posters, Type Tuesday

Please join Anette Lenz, Mario Eskenazi, Jim Sutherland & Elizabeth Resnick next Tuesday 8 June to celebrate Eye’s latest issue

The next Type Tuesday is a virtual launch party, designed to celebrate the publication of…

The printed howl

20 February 2021
Graphic design, Posters, Visual culture

Though locked down in London, this exhibition of letterpress protest posters has plenty of messages for the world

If the past few years have felt like one long trail of division, doom and…

Type Tuesday: Happy Birthday St Bride!

26 November 2020
Design education, Graphic design, Type Tuesday, Typography

Some of our favourite speakers return to celebrate the 125th anniversary of St Bride Printing Library on 1 December 2020

Eye magazine started organising Type Tuesdays as a regular St Bride Library event back in…

Twisted characters

1 October 2020
Design history, Graphic design

Hamish Smyth’s wordmarks for Gaslit Nation and Bellingcat are memorable graphic identities for organisations that fight populism and disinformation with solid research and truth. By John L. Walters

Hamish Smyth’s identity for the Gaslit Nation podcast is a smart piece of design for…

Sunday photo-painter

31 January 2020
Photography, Typography, Visual culture

In the early 1950s, Swiss designer Gérard Ifert walked the streets of Paris on quiet Sundays, taking pictures of the colourmen’s shopfronts

The ‘designer as photographer’ is a trope that has been much explored in articles, books…

MagCulture Live 2019

20 November 2019
Graphic design, Magazines, Typography, Visual culture

The conference formerly known as ModMag gave magazine makers plenty to think about, and reasons to be optimistic

The ‘magCulture Live’ day of presentations by editors, art directors and publishers was one of…

Being there

24 June 2019

Lucinda Rogers finds something rich and strange in the streets of New York. Her drawings will be the subject of a substantial book – if it gets the support it needs via crowdfunding

The city is both familiar from movies and books and utterly alien at the same…

Hacking Gutenberg

13 March 2019
Design history, Graphic design, Posters, Type Tuesday, Typography

Eye’s Type Tuesday about 21st-Century letterpress featured Double Dagger, The Counter Press and Erik Spiekermann. A splendid time was had by all

Erik Spiekermann opened his talk at Type Tuesday on 5 March 2019 with some ruminations…

Search for a star (librarian)

20 November 2018
Critical path, Design education, Design history, Information design, Type Tuesday, Typography

St Bride Library is looking for someone to take charge of its extraordinary archive

The ad looks almost mundane at first glance, tucked away on a site called lisjobnet.com…

New York state of mag

24 May 2018
Graphic design, Magazines, Visual culture

ModMag takes Manhattan next Wednesday for a one-day celebration of magazine-making with Gail Bichler, Richard Turley, Emily Oberman and more

Anyone who has attended or taken part in London’s annual Modern Magazine conference will know…

Independence day

10 April 2018
Design history, Graphic design, Illustration, Information design, Magazines, Type Tuesday, Typography, Visual culture

Over the past decade, Eye magazine has not only survived but thrived

Ten years ago, on 10 April 2008, Eye became an independent magazine, owned by the…

Music deco

25 February 2018
Design history, Graphic design, Illustration, Music design, Visual culture

‘Rhythm & Reaction’ gets under the skin of a British love affair with American jazz

Jazz first came to Britain as a visual and cultural style – rather than as…

Two tribes

27 November 2017
Awards madness, Critical path, Graphic design, Magazines

It’s always fun to win awards. But what do two wildly different ceremonies tell us about the state of magazine design, editing and publishing? By John L. Walters

Last week I attended two magazine awards ceremonies on two successive days. I don’t make…

Sea levellers

18 September 2017
Visual culture

The 2017 Folkestone Triennial turns this seaside town into an open-air gallery for a kind of applied conceptual art … with a graphic edge

Folkestone is hosting its fourth Triennial, a two-month-long festival of contemporary art that can be…

Books received #28 (music and visual culture)

6 September 2017
Book design, Graphic design, Music design, Photography, Visual culture

The design and look of music – from classical CDs and rave culture to stock (library) album covers and jazz photography

Here are some musically inclined books that came to our attention in recent months. Spread…

Felt-tip fundamentals

25 July 2017
Book design, Design education, Graphic design, Reviews, Technology, Visual culture

Ink soaks into paper as Daniel Eatock’s mark-making processes result in a riot of colour

Designer and artist Daniel Eatock has a good-natured but unswerving way of reducing things to…

Brief encounters and the pleasures of ambiguity

16 June 2017
Design history, Food design, Graphic design, Illustration, Music design, New media

Design, illustration, animation and anecdotes at Here London 2017

Here London, It’s Nice That’s annual conference, has become an established fixture on the design…

Porto’s studio culture

1 June 2017
Awards madness, Graphic design, Illustration, Magazines, Posters, Typography

This year’s European Design Awards ceremony was held in the city of Porto, which is about to launch an international design biennale

Last weekend, designers from all over Europe converged on Porto for the European Design Awards…

Friendships and glue

30 May 2017
Design history, Graphic design, Illustration, Visual culture

A book of scrapbook pages gives new insights into the world of illustrator Edward Bawden

Designer-illustrator Edward Bawden is remembered for a prolific career that embraced posters, book covers, illustrations…

Talented talent-spotter

17 January 2017
Book design, Graphic design, Magazines, Posters, Typography

Unit Editions’ second book about Herb Lubalin zeroes in on his ‘expressive typography’ and his gifted collaborators

Unit Editions’ Herb Lubalin: Typographer is a slimmer, more compact volume than the publisher’s popular…

Giancarlo Iliprandi (1925-2016) [LINK]

4 October 2016
Design history, Graphic design, Posters

A recent interview with the distinguished and prolific Milan designer, who died on 15 September 2016 at the age of 91.

In the summer of 2015, Giancarlo Iliprandi came to London for the Fedrigoni-initiated exhibition Made…

Giancarlo Iliprandi (1925-2016)

4 October 2016
Design history, Graphic design, Illustration, Music design, Posters, Typography

A recent interview with the distinguished and prolific Milan designer, who died on 15 September 2016 at the age of 91.

In the summer of 2015, Giancarlo Iliprandi came to London for the Fedrigoni-initiated exhibition Made…

Roger Perry’s London letters

10 March 2016
Book design, Design history, Typography, Visual culture

A ‘replica reissue’ of The Writing on the Wall’, designed by Pearce Marchbank, delivers a gritty slab of mid-1970s graffiti

The Writing on the Wall (Plain Crisp Books) is a recent, Kickstarter-financed ‘replica reissue’ of…

The calm collector

24 February 2016
Book design, Brand madness, Design history, Graphic design

A new collection of Steve Hare’s writing demonstrates an erudite passion for the design and content of Penguin Books

The late Steve Hare (1950-2015) was one of those writers that every editor appreciates, writes…

Pop justice

30 September 2015
Illustration, New media, Reviews, Visual culture

The curators of ‘The World Goes Pop’ have scoured the globe for overlooked and under-appreciated artists from a moment when art collided with the mass media

It is hard to dislike ‘The World Goes Pop’ (Tate Modern), with its mad visual…

Illustrated gumbo

27 August 2015
Book design, Illustration, Reviews, Visual culture

A children’s picturebook about jazz musician Trombone Shorty brims with positive vibes

The story of children’s picturebook Trombone Shorty is a familiar one, writes John L. Walters…

The freedom principle

19 August 2015
Design history, Graphic design, Illustration, Visual culture

Thierry Noir channels the improvisatory spirit of Berlin in ‘Jazz’ at the Howard Griffin Gallery

Thierry Noir is the street artist’s street artist, painting outdoor surfaces (famously the Berlin Wall)…

Was, is & will be

29 June 2015
Graphic design, Typography

For its 160th anniversary, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph unveils a new masthead, crest and typefaces

Some news outlets have a hard time staying in business for more than a generation…

Observer’s post

15 April 2015
Design history, Illustration, Reviews, Visual culture

Watercolours by Eric Ravilious at South London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery

With its verdant gardens, mausoleum (with sarcophaguses) and a smart tea-room, the Dulwich Picture Gallery…

Full bleed

13 February 2015
Book design, Music design, Typography, Visual culture

The catalogue for Glenn Ligon’s Come Out evokes the power and brutal claustrophobia of Steve Reich’s 1966 tape composition, first made to raise legal expenses for the Harlem Six.

The catalogue for Glenn Ligon’s Come Out is a picture book full of words, based…

AK and A23D on press

18 September 2014
Design history, Graphic design, Posters, Technology, Typography

Two 21st-century letterpress projects breathe new life into this arcane, antiquated but much-loved method of mark-making

The LDF’s opening graphic weekend featured plenty of stimulating events and fascinating displays, with workshops…

Design for eating: Milton Glaser

15 July 2014
Food design, Graphic design, Illustration, Typography

Milton Glaser recalls working with an inspirational client – the great New York restaurateur Joe Baum (1920-98). Interview by John L. Walters

New York designer Milton Glaser has long been associated with design for food and drink…

Poster engineer

8 July 2014
Design history, Graphic design, Posters, Reviews

Naomi Games profiles the life and work of her father Abram Games in this recent book from the Antique Collectors’ Club

Flaubert once wrote that when one writes the biography of a friend or relative, one…

Type on the tongue

20 December 2013
Food design, Typography, Visual culture

Eye’s panel checks out the taste of Helvetica, Impact and Comic Sans (as cooked up by Sarah Hyndman)

Designer Sarah Hyndman is known for her Type Tasting workshops – popular events at Pick…

Comp up the volume

18 December 2013
Posters, Reviews, Typography, Visual culture

A loud new book pays tribute to the Colby Poster Printing Company of LA and their clients, from artists to junk dealers

This new book is a riotous feast of posters produced in recent decades by the…

Insanely integrated, day one

12 November 2013
Design history, Graphic design, Posters, Reviews, Technology, Visual culture

Despite its vague theme of ‘The fluidity in-between …’, the Integrated2013 conference in Antwerp was sharp and entertaining

The biannual Integrated conference organised by Hugo Puttaert, can seem bewilderingly complex at first glance…

The gospel of Dave

30 October 2013
Book design, Food design, Illustration, Music design, Visual culture

Graphic Renaissance man Dave McKean sings two of his Nine Lives and launches Sandman Overture at Foyles’ 3rd floor gallery

Dave McKean is a prolific illustrator, film director, animator, designer and self-publisher – the bearded…

Whodunnit?

23 October 2013
Book design, Design history, Graphic design, Illustration, Magazines

Last few days to catch the exhibition ‘Romek Marber: Graphics’ at the Minories in Colchester.

If you live within a few hours of Colchester in Essex, I strongly recommend a…

See and hear

22 August 2013
Music design, Photography, Reviews, Visual culture

If you have an interest in the intersection of sound and visual culture and you’re…

Cover story

8 August 2013
Brand madness, Graphic design, Magazines, Photography, Posters, Visual culture

You’ve seen that face before. But why is Jeanne Moreau (as seen in La Notte) staring soulfully from the cover of Eye 85?

The cover of the current issue, Eye 85, has attracted lots of (largely welcome) attention…

Babylon aan ’t IJ

12 July 2013
Illustration, Music design, New media, Reviews

Brooklyn Babylon, a multimedia spectacular by Darcy James Argue and Danijel Žeželj, raises the roof at the Holland Festival

In the critic’s lexicon, there are few terms more problematic than ‘multimedia’, writes John L…

Chair man

19 June 2013
Magazines, Photography, Reviews

London’s Estorick Collection shows the work of Giorgio Casali, the photographer who framed Domus’s modernist dream

The Estorick Collection is one of London’s smaller galleries, just a short walk from Highbury…

Jazz in print

14 November 2012
Graphic design, Music design, Photography, Typography

Matt Willey’s sumptuous brochure for UK radio station JazzFM evokes a golden age of magazine and LP sleeve art direction.

Jazz and radio came of age around the same time, the 1920s, when ‘physical music’…

The purpose of posters

3 October 2012
Design history, Graphic design, Illustration, Information design, Posters, Visual culture

London Transport’s spare posters go under the hammer at Christie’s tomorrow.

‘Of course it's not about graphic design,’ said my friend, glancing at the high proportion…

The Olympic press gang

26 July 2012
Graphic design, Illustration, Information design, Magazines, Photography

Editorial designers get into the fast lane to deliver print for the Games

One big, but largely unsung design challenge of the 2012 Olympic Games has been the…