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…

Books

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

Pater's book adds to the growing conversation around the role of design in shaping society.

Words by
Chris Westcott

Published on
September 23rd, 2021

Design + Art

Exploring the Uncanny Language of AI Through a New Machine-Made Book

Exploring the creative applications of artificial intelligence is hardly a novel idea anymore. Artists and technologists have been collaborating for…

Type Tuesday

Nichrome, a New Display Font Inspired by 70’s Sci-Fi Paperback Covers

Name: MD Nichrome Designer: Rutherford Craze Foundry: Mass-Driver Release Date: August 2021 Back story: The design for MD Nichrome began…

Community

Will Design Conferences Stay Digital or Re-embrace the IRL?

Like most gatherings over the past year-and-a-half, design conferences have been relegated to virtual space. But now that social circles…

Design + Music

Art Punks Liars on Dada Inspiration, Pornographic Embarrassment + Multimedia Albums

In the latest of our Under the Covers series looking at records and their design, we spoke to some of the…

AIGA Medalists

The Provocative and Prescient Work of Archie Boston Jr.

When Archie Boston Jr., the nationally recognized art director, designer, educator, and author, talks about graphic design, he also talks…

Typography

The Legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois Repackaged as a Typeface

Name: VTC Du Bois Designer: Tré Seals Foundry: Vocal Type Release date: June 2021 Back Story: For Tré Seals, history…

Books

When Did the Book Become a Brand?

If you see someone walking down the sidewalk in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, wearing, say, well-worn Doc Martens and a canary yellow…

Books

The Extreme Self Uses Internet Aesthetics to Make Sense of Life Online

“For thousands of years, earth’s resources have been extracted by bodies, most of whom were not free,” reads one of…

AIGA Medalists

Cheryl D. Miller Forged the Path Towards a More Inclusive Design Industry

Cheryl Holmes Miller is a graphic designer—a statement that’s true but not sufficient. Miller is also an advocate and activist.…

Type Tuesday

Adelbrook, a Font Where 15th- and 21st-Century Type Styles Collide

Name: Adelbrook Designer: Philip Lammert Foundry: Vibrant Types Release Date: July 2021 Back Story: Hamburg-based type designer Philip Lammert finds contradictions…

Graphic design

IBM Perfected the Art of the Anti-corporate Corporate Poster

During the mid-twentieth century, perhaps no other American company exemplified technological achievement, business acumen, and good design better than IBM.…

Editors’ Picks

Design History 101

Porto’s São João National Theater Offers a Lesson in Design as Public Service

The design process is always the result of a negotiation. Design for and from a theater is no exception, reaching…

Graphic design

The People’s Graphic Design Archive Is Rethinking How We Talk About Design History

In July 2020, Briar Levit, a professor of graphic design at Portland State University, uploaded an early 20th century sign…

Design History 101

Revisiting Enzo Mari, the Design Maverick Who Left a Clear Message to Today’s Designers

Six years ago, back in 2014, I had the chance to sit down with Enzo Mari at his Milanese home.…

Profiles

Designer Rush Jackson on Making Work that Expands and Shapes the Black Cultural Lexicon

For Rush Jackson, the young artist and designer behind graphic design studio Onyx Self-Imaging, design’s value lies in its usefulness.…

Graphic design

Publishing Will Not Be Another Victim of the Pandemic

Spurred by the economic crisis of the coronavirus pandemic and social upheaval of the Black Lives Matter movement, independent publishers…

Illustration

The Beauty and Violence of Ernst Haeckel’s Illustrations

If you’re a designer and a lover of nature, then you might have on your shelf one of the many…

Happy Hour

Seeing Stars, Spirals, and 90s Minimalism

How do you like your drinks? Sustainable? Functional? Merely hydrating? This month’s picks offer more than anyone really needs, but…

Typography

Do Gender-Neutral Pronouns Need Their Own Glyphs?

As gender-neutral pronouns become more commonplace in spoken language, they haven’t yet found a secure perch in written text. With…

Illustration

The Rise of Semi-automated Illustration

For as long as non-designers have needed to create design-centric work, there have been tools and services that help them…

Ask a Design Educator

Design + Education

Creative Director and Teacher Forest Young on Designing a More Inclusive Future

Forest Young’s career has spanned an impressive range of disciplines and contexts. He was recently named Wolff Olins’s first Global…

Design + Education

Offshore Studio’s Isabel Seiffert on Her Teaching Practice + Merging Concept and Form

Isabel Seiffert is one-half of Offshore Studio, along with Christoph Miler, a design studio based in Zurich, Switzerland. Seiffert engages…

Design + Education

Designer + Educator J. Dakota Brown Is Untangling the Relationship Between Design and Labor

J. Dakota Brown studied graphic design at North Carolina State University and critical theory at the School of the Art…

Design + Education

Educator David Jon Walker on Transitioning Between Communities Without Losing a Sense of Self

David Jon Walker is an assistant professor of graphic design at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, as well…

Graphic design

Designer, Educator + Publisher Kathleen Sleboda on Online Archives and Plural Narratives

Kathleen Sleboda’s work traverses disciplines, often involving acts of making, curating, collaborating, and documenting. Sleboda has been teaching at the…

Illustration

Welcome to the Fanatical and Lucrative World of Baseball Card Design

Toward the end of my call with New York artist Blake Jamieson, I could hear the unmistakable rattling of a…

Type Tuesday

All the World’s a Stage for the Dramatic Daggers of this Shakespeare-Inspired Typeface

Name: Arras Designer: Barrett Reid-Maroney Release Date: August 2021 Back Story: “Suit the action to the word, the word to…

Books

The Endless Life Cycle of Book Cover Trends

Torrey Peters’s Detransition, Baby (designed by Random House’s Rachel Ake Keuch) has been one of the most consequential pieces of…

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