Spring 2010

Contents

Eye 75 contents

CRITIQUE

6 The future is ours to see

SpaceCollective’s innovative website, at once lucid and intoxicating, adds substance to techno-hippie optimism.

By Rick Poynor

FEATURES

8 Over the rainbow

From advertising to illustration; posters to badges; fashion shows to pop videos, the work of Anthony Burrill has become quietly ubiquitous.

By John L. Walters. Portrait by Maria Spann

16 Machine head

Gynaecologist and science writer Fritz Kahn commissioned illustrators to realise his surreal pedagogical vision – mechanical metaphors for the human body.

By Rick Poynor

24 They work with words

Fraser Muggeridge Studio, Modern Toss and OK-RM have devised a series of typographic spreads exclusively for Eye: the principles of typography; the perils and pleasures of punctuation; and an exercise in cross-Channel translation.

38 Reputations: Peter Bilak

‘I have more reasons to make fonts than ever.’ A candid chat with the Czech-born type designer behind Typotheque fonts Fedra, Greta, History and the new Indian Type Foundry.

Interview by Mark Thomson. Photograph by Phil Sayer

48 Deep in the archives

Contemporary type designers Christian Schwartz and Paul Barnes select some historical type specimens that excite and intrigue them.

52 Make each letter speak out loud

Headlines composed of seat belts, letters like isometric drawings, hand-drawn identities … illustrative typography is rewiring the way we read art, design and communication.

By Liz Farrelly

64 To the letter

Calligraphy, in the hands of artists like Carl Kurtz and Susan Skarsgård, can be abstract, gestural, conceptual, or simply beautiful. It is always surprising.

By Paul Shaw

70 Up close and tight

Legendary New York art director Herb Lubalin brought humour, sensuality and a contemporary flourish to complex typographic arrangements.

By Laura Forde

UNCOATED

82 Monitor: End of default

The technology that allows us to control type on the Web is available. Now designers and foundries have to decide how to respond.

By Simon Esterson and Jay Prynne

84 Reviews

Including: David Crow on ‘Decode: Digital Design Sensations’, Objectified reviewed by Ken Garland, Jane Cheng on Limited Language and Stephen Coates on Every Thing Design.

94 Education: Fast track songlines for type?

Steven Heller on Gail Anderson’s SVA class in typographic animation.

96 Colophon