Design + Politics

The History of Ballot Design is the History of Democracy

The act of voting has never felt so critical. With accusations of rigged elections, voter fraud, machine malfunctions, and vote…

Design + Politics

The History of Ballot Design is the History of Democracy

As millions of Americans begin to head to the polls, here’s how our printed ballots have evolved

Words by
Alicia Cheng

Published on
September 23rd, 2020

Design + Education

Saki Mafundikwa on 20 Years Running the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts

Saki Mafundikwa is the founder and director of the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ZIVA), a graphic design and new…

Design + Gender

The Feminist Findings Zine Uncovers Forgotten Histories of Feminist Publishing

A curious mix of logos meet on the cover of the Feminist Findings zine. From the sinuous, fluid logo of…

Digital

What’s the Deal with the “Self-view” on Zoom Calls?

When Stanley Kubrick set out to design the videophone featured in his 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, he enlisted…

Design + Education

Re-imagining the Design Classroom from the Perspective of Othered Identities

On August 4, five design educators came together for the SHIFT Virtual Summit, hosted by the AIGA Design Educators Community,…

Wayfinding

One Designer’s Quest to Redesign Singapore’s Subway Signage

I was taken on a tour of Singapore’s mass rapid transit system in early March to see its new signage…

Editors’ Picks

Design + Politics

Black Lives Matter Instagram Carousels Are Changing the Shape and Longevity of Protest Graphics

Protest movements shift minds long before they lead to action. This is by nature and design. The welling up of…

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 + 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…

Op-ed

Design Criticism Is Everywhere—Why Are We Still Looking For It?

We graphic designers have a love-hate relationship with criticism. We say we want more of it and then complain when…

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…

Magazines

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…

Magazines

You Think You Know People But You Have No Idea

This story was originally published in 2018 in the “Gossip” issue of Eye on Design magazine. I’m watching shimmery…

Graphic design

What Designers Can Learn from Indigenous Communities Fighting Climate Change

As designers, the work we create can unknowingly perpetuate certain ideologies that have destructive consequences. One of the more obvious…

Digital

A Brief History of “Dark Mode”—From the Matrix-like Displays of the Early ’80s to Today

Now that “screen” is a metonym for all digital technology—“screen time” a shorthand for staring at anything that glows—it’s easy…

Type Tuesday

‘Sisters’ is a Growing Family of Fonts that Pays Homage to Creative Women

Name: Sisters Designer: Laura Meseguer Foundry: Type-O-Tones Release Date: May 2020 Back Story: If you have sisters, you may know…

Design + Politics

Cockroaches, White Knights + One-Eyed Monsters: Decoding Belarus Protest Graphics

In the middle of the night on August 9, 2020, thousands of Belarusians rushed into the dark streets. The internet…

Books

All My Attempts at Cooking From the Buckminster Fuller Cookbook

Most octogenarians might expect some comfy slippers for their birthday, maybe a nice chutney, a handmade card from the grandkids…

Design History 101

In the 1960s, the National Institute of Design Trained India’s First Design Educators

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

Design History 101

Celebrating Söre Popitz, the Bauhaus’ Only Known Woman Graphic Designer

In Germany during the 1930s, there was just one lifestyle magazine that every young woman had to have. An essential…

Design History 101

How Rajeev Prakash Reimagined Indic Scripts for the Digital Age

Rajeev Prakash remembers being five years old, attentively watching his elder brother paint words. Great flourishes were accompanied by minute…

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…

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 + Politics

The Detroit Printing Co-op Showed the Revolutionary Potential of Design

In 1969, a group of friends travelled from Detroit to Chicago to pick up an ancient, cumbersome Harris offset printing…

Design History 101

Mid-century Uruguayan Graphic Design Proves that Creativity Flourishes With Limitations

Put the word “design” in front of the name of some countries, and it becomes shorthand for a certain aesthetic.…

Digital

How Computer Code Became a Modern Design Medium—an Oral History

Code is a tool—a string of numbers, glyphs, and letters that when arranged in a particular order can be wielded…

Graphic design

Every Act of Design is an Act of Future-making

“The moment just past is extinguished forever,” wrote the art historian George Kubler in his 1962 book, The Shape of…

Design + Education

On Breaking Down Power Structures, Navigating Tokenism + Building Community in Design Education

Kelly Walters and Anoushka Khandwala met at Central Saint Martins in 2018, where Walters was a design educator leading a…

Digital

The Solution to Deepfakes May Not Be As Technological As You Think

In late 2017, knowing and understanding the term “deepfake” would have meant one thing: You were a regular browser of…

Design + Music

Jean-Paul Goude’s Designs For Island Life Are “Part Disco, Part Theater of Cruelty”

This is the fourth in our series Under The Covers, in which we shine a spotlight on a significant album…

Branding

Amid COVID-19 Restrictions, Restaurant Branding Extends Beyond the Dining Room

Restaurant branding as we think of it today, with its cookbooks, T-shirts, and Bic Clic pens, can be traced back…

Type Tuesday

“One Design, Two Flavors”—Lyon Arabic Brings a New Slant to Traditional Characters

Name: Lyon Arabic Designers: Arabic: Khajag Apelian and Wael Morcos. Latin: Kai Bernau. Foundry: Commercial Type Release Date: July 2020…

Digital

What Happens When The Internet of Things Becomes an Accomplice in Domestic Abuse?

Anyone who was a Mr. Robot fan will remember the scene in which Susan Jacobs, general counsel for the fictional…

Digital

The Rise of the Meta Me

For years I have been observing and writing about the rise of our digital identities—the increasing fidelity of them, along…

Digital

How Can Designers Responsibly Use Science Fiction as Inspiration?

You’ve probably seen it a dozen times: Tom Cruise waves his hands in front of a blank, glassy screen, and…

Digital

What Does It Mean to Code an Intimate Connection?

“Designed to be deleted” dating app Hinge is on a quest to get to know me on a level that other apps…

Digital

In Web Design, Accessibility Shouldn’t Be an Afterthought

“It isn’t hard to lose sight of the bigger picture for the things we help build: How could it be…

Emerging designers

Kristýna Kulíková Has Built a Body of Work Many Designers Dream of—and She’s Still an Undergrad

Kristýna Kulíková isn’t easy to pin down: we’d been making plans on and off to chat on the phone for…

Design History 101

Japanese Boro Textiles Tell Histories of Labor and Love Through Patchwork

A stitch can tell a story, weave itself into a galaxy of points, moments, and memories. Needle and thread can…

Illustration

Decades Later, India’s First Graphic Novel Has Found a Cult Following

Tucked into a quiet corner of Orijit Sen’s studio lies a dog-eared copy of River of Stories, one of the…

Digital

How Designers Are Adapting Magazine Covers For the Digital Sphere

When publications first went digital a couple of decades back, their designs more or less aped the print format, in…

Design + Politics

How Democrats Designed Branding for the First Virtual National Convention

When the 2020 Democratic National Convention scrapped its usual plans for a large-scale, in-person event for a mostly virtual one,…

Op-ed

Yes, You Really Do Need a UX Writer

My cursor hovered over a blank rectangle. After weeks of work, we had nearly finished the designs for a new…

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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