Packaging design

Can Better Labels Really Fix Recycling?

In the United States, the presence of the universal recycling icon on a product might lead an unassuming consumer to…

Packaging design

Can Better Labels Really Fix Recycling?

Getting recycling right requires fixes that are more than skin deep

Words by
John Kazior

Published on
August 7th, 2020

Digital

Who’s Responsible for Preventing Dark Patterns?

Dark patterns are as old as the internet itself. For over 30 years, the web has served as a breeding…

Design + Politics

Deem Journal Is The New Magazine Centering Design as a Social Practice

To deem [dēm], is to regard or consider something in a specified way; to make relevant. This is precisely the…

Type Tuesday

Peter Bil’ak’s Playful, Constructible Type System ‘Q’ is the Lego of Typefaces

Name: Q Foundry: Typotheque Designer: Peter Bil’ak Release Date: June 2020 …

Digital

To Design a More Accessible Internet, Consider the “Creative Layer” of Metadata

Bojana Coklyat was surfing the web when she happened upon The Deep Sea. A digital journey into the depths of…

Illustration

The Cartoonist Seth Has Built a Real Life Entirely Around His Fictional Work

This week we’re running online for the first time six pieces from our six issues of Eye on Design magazine.…

Editors’ Picks

Design + Politics

What Does It Mean to Decolonize Design?

“Decolonization” is a word we’re increasingly hearing at design events, often being used interchangeably with “diversity.” It’s important to emphasize…

Design History 101

In the Late ’70s in the Bronx, PHASE 2’s Party Flyers Created a Visual Language for Hip-Hop

In the South Bronx in the 1970s, hip-hop culture was just beginning to form at large musical gatherings called jams.…

Design + Gender

Roberta Williams Is the World’s First Graphic Computer Game Designer—But She’s Famous for All the Wrong Reasons

YOU ARE IN THE FRONT YARD OF A LARGE ABANDONED VICTORIAN HOUSE. STONE STEPS LEAD UP TO A WIDE PORCH.…

Design + Money

How a Band of Design Misfits Brought Anti-aesthetics to Bloomberg Businessweek

There was a time, around 2013–2016, when the most experimental magazine in the world wasn’t some Berlin fashion zine that…

Eye on Design Magazine

Don’t Call April Greiman the “Queen of New Wave”

This is my favorite line ever uttered in one of those flipping-through-the-portfolio presentations that designers love to give: “Only a…

Op-ed

Design’s Role in Activism Can Go Deeper Than Posters and T-Shirts

We first read this piece, written by Dori Tunstall, the dean of design at OCAD University in Toronto, in a…

Eye on Design Magazine

How Times Square Became the Glowing Heartbeat of New York City

This week we’re running online for the first time six pieces from our past issues of Eye on Design magazine.…

Design + Mental Health

Lance Wyman, Tea Uglow, Beth Pickens + Others on Developing a Sense of Self Over the Course of a Career

The concept of self-worth is a slippery one, and one ripe for undulations over years, days, and even hours. This…

Design History 101

How Tupperware Became the Original Social Network of 1950s Suburbia

This week we’re running online for the first time six pieces from our past issues of Eye on Design magazine.…

Profiles

Designer Cat Frazier Got Millions to Come For the Memes and Stay For the Mental Health

This week we’re running online for the first time six pieces from our past issues of Eye on Design magazine. This…

Graphic design

Homa Delvaray Gives Poster Design a New Dimension

This week we’re running online for the first time six pieces from our past issues of Eye on Design magazine.…

Magazines

Matt Willey and Dan Crowe Launch INQUE, an Independent Lit Mag in it for the Long-game

It’s either the worst time to start a new magazine or it’s the best. Over the last decade, we’ve seen…

Digital

Finding the Blank Spots in Big Data

Mimi Onuoha is an artist who works mostly with algorithms, data sets, and digital systems, but her best known work…

Digital

Netflix’s UX Design is Keeping Us Up at Night

Netflix is keeping us awake. I’m not talking about its latest gameshow Awake: The Million Dollar Game, where contestants must…

Design + Sexuality

The UX of Porn Tube Sites Are Designed for the Ultimate Money Shot

This article is excerpted from the fifth issue of Eye on Design magazine. Pick up a copy of Eye on…

Digital

A Software Engineer’s Advice for Saving Social Media? Keep It Small

There’s a common refrain on Twitter that can be heard echoing across the feed any time there’s a big news…

Digital

AI Has a Real Environmental Impact—Here’s How Designers Are Handling It

One of the foundational materials of computer science is an endless piece of tape. “An unlimited memory capacity obtained in…

Digital

Calm Technology Is Staging a Comeback—Can Good Design Make it Stick?

Last week I made progress. I was down 20 minutes. Instead of spending an average of three hours a day…

Design History 101

The Overlooked Work of Paul Peter Piech, Mid-century “Anti-establishment” Designer

In 1979, artist and designer Paul Peter Piech incurred the wrath of the U.S. Embassy in London, which objected to…

Op-ed

If We Want Design to be a Tool for Liberation, We’ll Need More Than Good Intentions

Many of us who work in design professions seek to balance a desire to contribute to the creation of a…

Type Tuesday

Design Studio APFEL On Launching Its Own Type Foundry

Name: Remnants Designers: Kirsty Carter and Emma Thomas of A Practice for Everyday Life (APFEL) Foundry: APFEL Type Foundry Release…

Design + Art

The Bold Graphics and Hidden Stories Behind the Golden Age of Lebanese Film

Familiar are the exquisite dips and curlicues of traditional Arabic calligraphy, but what is known of the rich history of…

Eye on Design Magazine

Our New Zine With UT Austin Design Students Is Out Now!

In February, Eye on Design founder Perrin Drumm ventured from New York to Austin, Texas to be the designer in residence…

Digital

What Are Digital Rights, and How Can Design Help Protect Them?

In November 2019, the Internet Society, a nonprofit organization working to expand access to the internet, announced plans to sell…

Design + Education

Parsons’ E Roon Kang on Graphic Design as a “Structure for Knowledge”

E Roon Kang lives and works in New York, where he operates the interdisciplinary design and research studio Math Practice,…

Design + Education

What Does “Queering Design Education” Actually Look Like in Practice?

Nicole Killian is an artist and graphic designer whose work “investigates how the structures of the internet, mobile messaging, and…

Design + Education

Nontsikelelo Mutiti on Interrogating the Euro-centric Design Canon

Nontsikelelo Mutiti is a Zimbabwe-born interdisciplinary artist and educator who works across fine art, design, and social practice. Mutiti co-founded…

Design + Education

Can We Teach Graphic Design History Without the Cult of Hero Worship?

Let’s engage in a thought experiment. Think about what you know about graphic design history. Then omit all mention of…

Design History 101

Knowing Your Design History is Crucial to Aesthetic Innovation

In the most iconic scene of The Devil Wears Prada, Andy (Anne Hathaway) nonchalantly dismisses two nearly identical blue belts…

Design + Politics

Black Lives Matter “Movement Guides” Are Changing the Shape and Longevity of Protest Graphics

This piece is part of a series that looks at the past year of protests—in Hong Kong, Beirut, Delhi, and across…

Design + Politics

How Designers in India Turned Digital Tools into Virtual Grounds of Activism

This piece is part of a series that looks at the past year of protests—in Hong Kong, Beirut, Delhi, and across…

Design + Politics

During the Beirut Protests, Artists and Designers Found New Ways to Keep People on the Streets

This piece is part of a series that looks at the past year of protests—in Hong Kong, Beirut, Delhi, and across…

Design + Politics

How Protesters in Hong Kong Use Illustration to Make Their Voices Heard

This piece is part of a series that looks at the past year of protests—in Hong Kong, Beirut, Delhi, and…

Graphic design

A Peek into the Portfolios of Susan Kare, Aaron Douglas, Push-Pin Studios + More

Before 2008 AIGA Medalist Gail Anderson was Art Director for Rolling Stone or a designer for the Boston Globe or…

Graphic design

Fruit Sticker Decals Are Like “Seals of Approval”

Welcome to Spotted, Eye on Design’s column that turns an eye on the styles and graphic trends you’re seeing everywhere.…

Weekend With

Ravi Naidoo Takes Us on a Design Tour of Cape Town, from Michael Beirut’s Favorite Jogging Spot to an Artist’s Homage to SA Wine

Our Weekend With series looks at the world through the eyes of a designer on their days off. Last time,…

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