Eye Magazine

John L. Walters

Recent articles by John L. Walters

Old school layoutIssue 82, Winter 2012
Feature

	Every fortnight, art director Tony Rushton and editor Ian Hislop lay out Private Eye in a way…
Better than the real thingIssue 84, Autumn 2012
Review

	A recent exhibition at the Ikon gallery in Birmingham presented work by…
      
Robin NicholasIssue 84, Autumn 2012
Feature

	‘I don’t see myself as a typeface designer. Hermann Zapf is a typeface designer. What I have done…
Alphabetical jazz soupIssue 84, Autumn 2012
Review

	The most ingenious editorial design element of Jazz Covers is its double…
      
Dan Rhatigan: All about workflowIssue 84, Autumn 2012
Feature

	Monotype’s UK type director talks about the way the company’s 125-year history informs its…
Editorial Eye 84Issue 84, Autumn 2012
Opinion

	The original Monotype was an ingenious piece of highly disruptive technology that…
      
Psychedelic tractIssue 83,  2012
Review

	The era of psychedelic art – from the mid 1960s to the very early 70s – was…
      
Devil in the detailIssue 83,  2012
Feature

	Careful, even-tempered typographer by day – wild art director by night? For John Morgan, both the…
Bible of babelIssue 83,  2012
Review

	The 2012 European Design Awards, the winners of which were announced in…
      
Editorial Eye 83Issue 83,  2012
Opinion

	Several recent issues of Eye have focused on type design, but this special puts…
      
Character studiesIssue 73, Autumn 2009
Feature
Michael Johnson’s project to make a ‘phonetic typeface’ that English speakers can understand
He has ways of making you readIssue 68, Summer 2008
Review

	Few novels have made use of graphic design for background or context, let alone…
      
Reputations: Marian BantjesIssue 72, Summer 2009
Feature

	‘I’ve come close to working with a couple of agencies for very big brands, but either the money…
Branches and rootsIssue 78, Winter 2010
Feature
John L. Walters on the break-ups and tearful reunions of Rock Family Trees
A2’s type designIssue 67, Spring 2008
Feature

	A2’s bespoke type design is mainly the responsibility of Henrik Kubel, though…
      
Reputations: commercial typeIssue 82, Winter 2012
Feature

	‘There has been typography on the Web for its entire existence, because there are words, and where…
All her own inventionIssue 76, Summer 2010
Feature
Graphic design’s recent concerns have for decades been at the heart of Laurie Anderson’s…
Power of twoIssue 70, Winter 2008
Feature
Clients who hire the company behind Five’s new identity always work directly with the main men 
The United Nations of TypeIssue 64, Summer 2007
Feature
Look beyond the confines of the Latin alphabet, urges Johannes Bergerhausen of Decodeunicode.
Men behaving stylishlyIssue 79, Spring 2011
Feature
Who would dare to launch a glossy men’s magazine during an economic crisis? The team behind Port…
Reputations: Karsten SchmidtIssue 74, Winter 2009
Feature

	‘If we don’t take responsibility as makers we sacrifice everything sooner or later. We have the…
Polyphonic playgroundIssue 68, Summer 2008
Feature
The world’s first museum of its kind, plus the ‘European Championship of Graphic Design’
All the flat boysIssue 82, Winter 2012
Review

	Michelle Cotton’s book, produced to accompany a Cubitt Gallery touring exhibition…
      
Revealing images Issue 82, Winter 2012
Review

                Bookshop shelves groan with giant compendiums of illustration, heavy on image…
      
Love LettersIssue 80, Summer 2011
Review

                Scripts, with a jazz-like mix of virtuosity and improvisation, can represent many…
      
The Monograph as AtlasIssue 79, Spring 2011
Review

                In his slim but tactile volume I Swear I Use No Art At All: 10 years, 100 books…
      
Fanfare for the common manIssue 79, Spring 2011
Review

                This book is neither biography nor visual monograph but an entertaining compilation…
      
Type spaceIssue 78, Winter 2010
Review

                Supergraphics (Unit Editions, £25 + p&p, only available from uniteditions.com) is a…
      
Lauren GreenfieldIssue 77, Autumn 2010
Feature

	Slideshows, film, ‘motos’ and long portraits. Time-based picture-taking is transforming the way…
Art and art direction – Kuchar SwaraIssue 73, Autumn 2009
Feature

	The relationship between art directors and photography has developed in myriad ways alongside…
The mystery of frozen locomotionIssue 75, Spring 2010
Review

                This exhibition explores the static, two-dimensional representation of movement. In…
      
The book design complexIssue 75, Spring 2010
Review

                The annual one-day conference at St Bride Library in Bride Lane (off Fleet Street)…
      
Black goldIssue 74, Winter 2009
Review

                If there can be such a thing as a revolutionary coffee table book, Freedom Rhythm &…
      
Cage recast as eye candyIssue 73, Autumn 2009
Review

                American composer John Cage was a prankster, a gameshow champion and a creator of…
      
Shouting from the shelvesIssue 73, Autumn 2009
Review

                Faber and Faber, the independent British publisher … has a rich and immediately…
      
Pop Art’s moving targetIssue 72, Summer 2009
Review

                British painter Peter Blake, who has just turned 77, makes a point of introducing…
      
Big ideas and giant turkeysIssue 70, Winter 2008
Review

	The culture of ‘album cover design’ often runs in a kind of parallel universe to…
      
What a geniusIssue 70, Winter 2008
Review

                At one time, Barney Bubbles seemed like the Zelig of graphic design, the man who…
      
Noted Issue 67, Spring 2008
Review

                Visionaire is an extravagant art-and-fashion-infected ‘magazine’. Each issue…
      
The Ed and Geoff showIssue 69, Autumn 2008
Review

                Two Lines Align is the catalogue for the exhibition of that name curated by Michael…
      
Turning clutter into goldIssue 69, Autumn 2008
Review

                For most of us, clutter is the enemy, the bills and cards and tickets and cuttings…
      
Chalking and talkingIssue 69, Autumn 2008
Review

                I’m in a gallery room at London’s ICA, sitting on a piece of Martino Gamper’s…
      
The digital reality of ‘emotional products’Issue 69, Autumn 2008
Review

                Adrian Shaughnessy has long been an astute observer of music graphics from both…
      
Frank’s wild yearsIssue 68, Summer 2008
Review

	Had Robert Frank never opened another shutter after 1956, his reputation would be…
      
Angola’s blank screenIssue 67, Spring 2008
Review

                By concentrating on just six pieces for differing media, each concerned in some way…
      
Gameshow naturalsIssue 66, Winter 2007
Review

                The twelfth biennial national conference run by the AIGA (American Institute of…
      
Momo’s nights, day by dayIssue 66, Winter 2007
Review

                Ich&Kar’s Diary at Momo’s, 80x Posters (Pyramid, €35) tells how Paris-based…
      
War draw and jawIssue 66, Winter 2007
Review

                The powerful images in James Aulich’s War Posters: Weapons of Mass Communication…
      
The empathy manIssue 65, Autumn 2007
Review

                For a ‘conceptual artist’, Chris Burden produces some remarkably powerful (and…
      
Kings of the cheese-slicersIssue 65, Autumn 2007
Review

                The cover of Love Song (DGV, £30, €44, ) by Non-Format sums up everything we’ve…
      
An A-Z of StyleIssue 64, Summer 2007
Review

                Could anyone other than Steven Heller put together a pop culture book like…
      
Letters from BolognaIssue 64, Summer 2007
Review

                You could read the promotional material for this conference several times without…
      
Czech from scratchIssue 64, Summer 2007
Review

                Life Happiness Surprise, a bilingual monograph from the Prague-based Studio Najbrt…
      
NotedIssue 64, Summer 2007
Review

                Since October 2006, the Dutch daily newspaper De Volkskrant has published a regular…
      
Tim Hetherington and Sebastian JungerIssue 77, Autumn 2010
Feature
‘This is reality’
Hands-on design and digital angst at the AIGA Issue 58, Winter 2005
Review

                In past years the biennial conference of the American Institute of Graphic Arts…
      
Over the rainbowIssue 75, Spring 2010
Feature
From advertising to illustration; posters to badges; fashion shows to pop videos, the design work of…
Food dye chromatographyIssue 57, Autumn 2005
Feature
Stanley Donwood’s artwork for Matthew Herbert’s polemical album finds colour in chemistry
Sound and visionIssue 76, Summer 2010
Feature
Given the visceral feelings stirred by music, it’s time we found new, meaningful associations…
VoiceIssue 44, Summer 2002
Review

                ‘One more session and we’re outta here,’ said John Hockenberry. ‘We can all…
      
Make music visibleIssue 76, Summer 2010
Feature
Gerard Saint’s Big Active is on a mission to turn music into something tangible through art…
Reputations: David GentlemanIssue 78, Winter 2010
Feature

	‘I did absolutely anything that came my way, which I’ve done throughout my life. But what I know…
Interview with Dan FernIssue 76, Summer 2010
Feature
 
Professor Dan Fern explains his pioneering ‘MAP / making’ course at the Royal College of Art…
A certain smileIssue 80, Summer 2011
Feature
Sara De Bondt is a shaker and mover, who leads a studio with a decisively contemporary approach to…
On messageIssue 74, Winter 2009
Feature
Content is king at Nicolas Bourquin’s Onlab, but its editorial focus incorporates visual delight…
Matthew DonaldsonIssue 77, Autumn 2010
Feature
Aerial ballet of upholstery – a high-speed ‘still life’ for Kvadrat at Pinewood
Reputations: John McConnellIssue 81, Autumn 2011
Feature

	‘By wanting to be intelligent, it usually gets simpler and simpler. The creative process is paring…
The orderly chaos of James JoyceIssue 72, Summer 2009
Feature

	The blank canvas of a monthly flyer gave this graphic designer the opportunity to become a full…
In the thick of itIssue 79, Spring 2011
Feature
Morag Myerscough puts an eclectic graphic sensibility into public spaces, with colour, pattern and…
Illuminated thoughtIssue 69, Autumn 2008
Feature
The practice is said to ‘signal a break with the past’ but GTF has an unforced ‘style’ that…
10,000 one offsIssue 80, Summer 2011
Feature
Field’s 10,000 ‘illustrations’ for SEA’s GF Smith paper swatch give a new dimension to…
David Pearson: inside outIssue 77, Autumn 2010
Feature
The man who made series design fashionable (and profitable) at Penguin is also a publisher who…
Reputations: Paula ScherIssue 77, Autumn 2010
Feature
‘I am fascinated by organisations and the way people behave in power structures.’
Art and art direction – Daniel EatockIssue 73, Autumn 2009
Feature

	Daniel Eatock’s approach to photography provides a provocative link between conceptual art and an…
Beyond the canonIssue 68, Summer 2008
Feature
Introduction to special issue by editor John L. Walters
Another self-indulgent design monographIssue 41, Autumn 2001
Review

	A wall of Stefan Sagmeister’s work / live apartment in New York bears the…
      
Slow printIssue 77, Autumn 2010
Feature
Allow plenty of time to read Marian Bantjes’ highly personal book debut.
Wanted: self-imagesIssue 66, Winter 2007
Feature
A facial composite kit from the 1970s is the basis for an intriguing personal project
Step and repeatIssue 70, Winter 2008
Feature
Richard Rhys’s new foundry, which sells original patterns by designers and artists, gives a new…
Eine’s walls: notes from a vandalIssue 65, Autumn 2007
Feature
The summer of 2007 brightened up when Vandalism appeared in Holywell Lane
Pin-sharp processIssue 64, Summer 2007
Feature
GTF’s Tord Boontje monograph employs structural and decorative devices drawn directly from the…
An Online DriftIssue 64, Summer 2007
Feature
Five Eye commentators take a stroll along the highways and strip malls of contemporary cyberspace
Reason and rhymesIssue 63, Spring 2007
Feature
Can design for contemporary jazz, world and experimental music have a meaningful partnership with…
Port: Prêt á porterIssue 79, Spring 2011
Feature
Jeremy Leslie, Port’s iPad app designer, explains his methods
The Mechanical BrideIssue 27, Spring 1998
Feature
Marshall McLuhan's 1951 analysis of advertising's unholy trinity of sex, death and technology
Stephen Byram: art & designIssue 42, Winter 2001
Feature
A New Yorker opts for content, tactility and the sound of surprise
ScoopIssue 30, Winter 1998
Feature
A board game based on page layout, newspaper rivalry and editorial approval, who knows what strange…
Sound, code, imageIssue 26, Autumn 1997
Feature
Postwar composers, such as Cage, Cardew and Crumb, have left an exuberant legacy of seductive…
Reputations: J. Abbott MillerIssue 45, Autumn 2002
Feature
'We could be more aware of the civility of design, of how it can be constructive in a poetic sense…
Reputations: Graphic Thought FacilityIssue 39, Spring 2001
Feature
‘It’s to do with keeping things simple and having the confidence to present an idea where…
Reputations: Terry JonesIssue 30, Winter 1998
Feature

	‘I'm a creative director. I work with photographers. Years ago I said design is a piece of piss.…
Paper planetIssue 78, Winter 2010
Feature
Joost Grootens, whose background is in multimedia and architectural design, is reinventing the atlas…
Reputations: Gerard UngerIssue 40, Summer 2001
Feature

	‘Papers have all kinds of information on the same page; very distressing and very joyful; gossip…
Britain’s signatureIssue 71, Spring 2009
Feature
Margaret Calvert signed the UK – from road to rail to air. Now Henrik Kubel has digitised her Rail…
Editorial Eye 81Issue 81, Autumn 2011
Opinion
Designers and clients special issue.
Editorial Eye 80Issue 80, Summer 2011
Opinion
Eye 80 – celebrating two decades of graphic design and change
Editorial Eye 79Issue 79, Spring 2011
Opinion
Editorial Eye 78Issue 78, Winter 2010
Opinion
Editorial Eye 77Issue 77, Autumn 2010
Opinion
Photography and the joy of publishing in Eye 77.
Editorial Eye 75Issue 75, Spring 2010
Opinion

Recent blog posts by John L. Walters

Jazz in print

14 November 2012

Matt Willey’s sumptuous brochure for UK radio station JazzFM evokes a golden age of magazine and LP sleeve art direction.

Jazz and radio came of age around the same time, the 1920s, when ‘physical music’ was clunky and expensive, writes John L. Walters.

The purpose of posters

3 October 2012

London Transport’s spare posters go under the hammer at Christie’s tomorrow.

‘Of course it's not about graphic design,’ said my friend, glancing at the high proportion of besuited viewers. ‘It’s about money!’

The Olympic press gang

26 July 2012

Editorial designers get into the fast lane to deliver print for the Games

One big, but largely unsung design challenge of the 2012 Olympic Games has been the print production and design of 55 different publications, from the 196-page, perfect-bound Official Programme to an Olympics daily, the first of which is due to roll off the presses early on Saturday morning, writes John L. Walters.

Type Tuesday: Reputations

3 July 2012

Commercial Type’s Christian Schwartz & Paul Barnes – interviewed in Eye 82

‘There has been typography on the Web for its entire existence, because there are words, and where there are words there is typography … Some people believe that there is going to be a radical change in the process of reading because of webfonts. Actually, no.’

Music, flesh and fantasy

21 June 2012

When Mati Klarwein’s hyperactive paintings stole the psychedelic show.

Mati Klarwein is best known for a handful of album covers in the very early 1970s, a time when his exotic, erotically charged and quasi-mystical images stole the psychedelic show, writes John L. Walters.

Sonorama panorama

12 June 2012

A French magazine that put a new light (and spin) on musical multimedia

This June issue of French magazine Sonorama includes reports from the Cannes film festival, writes John L. Walters.

Type Tuesday: West coast ghosts

29 May 2012

This Emigre type specimen celebrates a lost era of LPs and recording studios

I once heard someone dismiss a former boyfriend with the put-down, ‘he’s the sort of person who files his records in alphabetical order.’ Which prompted me to think: ‘what other sort of person is there?’ writes John L. Walters.

Full tilt

11 May 2012

Glass & Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach liberates the space-time continuum.

Though I missed the UK premiere* of Einstein on the Beach by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass (nearly 36 years after its first performance in Avignon), reports John L. Walters, the performance I witnessed ran flawlessly without a break, clocking in around four hours 20 minutes, and earning a standing ovation from the packed house.

Blue notebook

19 April 2012

David Wild’s Jazzpaths is a personal and poetic ‘photomemento’

David Wild’s Jazzpaths is labelled a ‘photomemento’. It is a carefully printed hardback collection of mid-1960s impressions, in images and prose, formed during the author’s two-year stint in the United States. It is closer to poetry or oral history, however, than a conventional autobiography or photobook.

Javier & Fernando & Bebo

25 February 2012

Mariscal’s full length movie Chico & Rita is in the running for an Oscar

As this weekend’s 84th Academy Awards ceremony brings the season of movie awards madness to a glittery (and/or cringe-inducing) climax, it’s good to note that a leading European designer-illustrator is in the running for an Oscar.

Getting away with murder

2 February 2012

Good, bad and ugly cover ‘tributes’: a new spin on the death of music design.

The album cover may have lost its mojo as far as contemporary culture is concerned, but its classic era (from Blue Note to 4AD, say) maintains a powerful grip on the imaginations of music-loving designers, writes John L. Walters.

One day, all this will be ours

26 January 2012

Getting ready for the hyperbolic new Design Museum in Albertopolis.

The new Design Museum, slated to open in 2014, is cause for celebration in London’s design community, writes John L. Walters. And you can forgive its founder Sir Terence Conran a certain amount of triumphalism as he outlined the museum’s origins in the V&A’s Boilerhouse project,

Who’s who

4 October 2011

High-octane graphic design in Barcelona for AGI Open

AGI Open is a high-octane assemblage of graphic designers with international reputations, performing to a packed gathering in Barcelona’s Coliseum Theatre.

Awesomely awesome FOTB

16 September 2011

Buzzwords and the inspiration of improv at the Brighton codefest

If you were to play buzz-word bingo at Brighton’s ‘Flash on the Beach’, the squares for ‘awesome’, ‘pumped’ and ‘stoked’ would fill up pretty quickly, writes John L. Walters. A wordcloud of all three days’ presentations would bloom with the same words, plus ‘HTML5’, ‘agile’, ‘responsive’, ‘Molehill’ and the inevitable ‘clients’, ‘schedules’ and ‘budgets’.

Sound and vision #1

9 November 2010

Time to find some new, meaningful associations between music + design.

Think about design for music, and record covers spring to mind, writes John Walters. (See ‘Sound and vision’ in Eye 76, the music design special issue, opening spread below.) That’s understandable: graphic design has borne witness to an extraordinary canon of independent work over the past 70 years.

Fine words for Kitching / Stothard

19 November 2009

Breathing life into the dying embers of letterpress … to light graphic fireworks

The great thing about spoken tributes, when they’re done well, is that they give the speakers a chance to say nice things they would never say

Never mind the music

11 November 2009

Your chance to vote for the best of 2009’s vinyl sleeve art

Formats come and formats go (and MP3s are going the way of cassettes now that we have room for ALEs), but vinyl has had a surprisingly long afterlife, writes John L. Walters.

The right lines

30 October 2009

iwant’s illustrative identity for the London Jazz Festival

Album covers may be a dying art, but design for live music is thriving, writes John L. Walters, and iwant’s identity – brochures, posters, launch invitations (top) and floor vinyl (below), for next month’s London Jazz Festival is an example of what can be achieved when imaginative illustration and design meets a sympathetic music client.

Two degrees of (colour) separation

5 September 2008

Graphic Rolling Stones artefacts are saved for the nation

It began with a letter – addressed to the designer at the Royal College of Art, writes John L. Walters.