Form Factor

There’s a Clever Strategy Behind the Flash of Fireworks Packaging

The packaging design of fireworks is at once easy and hard to ignore. As a category, it’s just loud enough…

Form Factor

There’s a Clever Strategy Behind the Flash of Fireworks Packaging

Ahead of July 4th, we spoke with one of the US’s biggest pyrotechnics brands about its showy graphic design

Words by
Rachel del Valle

Published on
June 30th, 2022

Type Tuesday

Aureum Marries Victorian Ornamentation With the Organic Tendrils of Houseplants

Name: Aureum Designer: Anna Sing Foundry: Greenhouse Type Release date: May 2021 Back Story: Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary designer Anna Sing started…

Branding

Is There a Difference Between a Cult and a Brand?

There’s a scene about halfway through Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults that somehow felt more unbelievable than everything else…

Profiles

Prem Krishnamurthy on Design as a “Generous Discipline”

This story is part of our Weekend Reads series, where we highlight a story we love from the archives. It…

Design History 101

In the ’70s, Kamal Shedge’s Lettering Became an Indispensable Part of Life and Culture in India

If you lived in the state of Maharashtra in India during the ’70s and ’80s, you probably had the Kalnirnay…

Op-ed

Today’s Design Is Shaped by Likes. And That’s a Problem

On a recent afternoon I visited Dribbble, a popular community and portfolio website used by designers to share and discuss…

Type Tuesday

Camera is Inspired by the Typographic Quirks of ’60s and ’70s TV Fonts — and “Cheese Holes”

Name: Camera Designers: Team Dinamo (Johannes Breyer, Fabian Harb, Robert Janes, Fabiola Mejía) with Sascha Bente Foundry: Dinamo Release date:…

“Where Are All The Black Designers?” A Roundtable Discussion

This story is part of our Weekend Reads series, where we highlight a story we love from the archives. It…

Books

Designing the Invisible: MACK’s Morgan Crowcroft-Brown on the Understated Art of the Photo Book

“The details are not the details,” said Charles Eames. “The details make the design.” I think Eames is saying that…

Editors’ Picks

Design + Money

Why Pay Transparency Matters in Job Negotiations

When Lesley Carter*, 26, first saw the salaries listed in the Graphic Design Salary Transparency Spreadsheet in January 2020, she…

Books

In CAPS LOCK, Ruben Pater Untangles the Relationship Between Graphic Design and Capitalism

Two things about capitalism: graphic design is totally bound up with it; and it really has to end. You won’t…

Design + Gender

What Would a Feminist Alexa Look, or Rather Sound, Like?

In an episode of the beloved animated 1960s sci-fi sitcom The Jetsons, Mrs. Jetson decides that housework is becoming too…

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…

Op-ed

Every Design Studio Should Be a Worker-Owned Studio

This op-ed was collaboratively penned by Design Action Collective and Partner & Partners. Design Action Collective is a cooperative design…

Design + Politics

The Evolving Legacy of Ken Garland’s First Things First Manifesto

The late Ken Garland’s First Things First manifesto, written in 1963 on the spur of the moment during a public…

Form Factor

Mail-Order Ice Cream Is Trying to Be More Sustainable. But It Still Doesn’t Make Much Sense

In the past decade, cold shipping has grown from an industrial need to an everyday occurrence. From meal kit deliveries…

Illustration

What Does the New Craze For Pet Portraits Say About the Times We Live In?

For years, I’ve swooned at the thought of commissioning an oil painting of my rescue greyhound, The Turtleman*. I used…

Typography

Is It Art, or Is It Type? What We Learn When Language is Built, Not Written

This story is part of our Weekend Reads series, where we highlight a story we love from the archives. It…

Graphic design

In Memory of Colin Forbes, Celebrated Co-Founder of Pentagram

Colin Forbes, who passed away just a little more than a week ago, was a key part of the design…

Type Tuesday

Shine a Light: Exposure Sculpts Alphabets from Light and Shadow

Name: Exposure Designer: Federico Parra Barrios Foundry: 205TF Release Date: April 2022 Back Story: If you are not a recent…

Design + Gender

Tradeswomen Was the Magazine for Women in Blue-Collar Work During the ’80s and ’90s

When the first issue of Tradeswomen first appeared in subscribers’ mailboxes in 1980, they were “delighted,” said Molly Martin, its…

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