Blog: Design history
9 August 2021
A new space for illustration
archive, quentin blake
A derelict waterworks site in London’s Clerkenwell will become the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, the world’s largest public arts space dedicated to ‘art with a job to do’. By Clare Walters
In two years’ time† London’s re-named House of Illustration (formerly based in Granary Square, King’s…
9 July 2021
Beyond The Bell Jar
Shirley Tucker’s book cover designs, made during her long career with Faber, show a sure command of image, lettering and typography.
By Ruth Sykes
Book cover designer Shirley Tucker (b. 1930) is known for her iconic jacket for Sylvia…
10 June 2021
Brazilian type bonanza
Lazy Dog Press aims to crowdfund an English-language anthology of Tupigrafia, founded in São Paulo by Claudio Rocha and Tony de Marco
Few type mags have had a lifespan of more than two decades, but the Portuguese-language…
3 June 2021
Come to the Eye 101 launch
Please join Anette Lenz, Mario Eskenazi, Jim Sutherland & Elizabeth Resnick next Tuesday 8 June to celebrate Eye’s latest issue
The next Type Tuesday is a virtual launch party, designed to celebrate the publication of…
25 May 2021
The clarity of the innocent eye
ken garland
In this previously unpublished essay from 2003, Ken Garland (who died last week) urges designers to be ‘alert’. In an afterword, Andrew Howard explains the context
I’ve been working as a graphic designer for 50 years, first as an art director…
29 March 2021
Books received #44
Africa State of Mind; The Paper by Christoph Niemann; Modern Heraldry; and Abbatt Toys, Modern Toys for Modern Children.
Time to shine a light on some fascinating books about design and visual culture that…
17 December 2020
Waves of popularity
Graphic Design plays a key role in the re-emergence of Britain’s much-loved coastal resorts. The seventh and final instalment of Justin Burns’s series about seaside graphic design
The tide comes in. The tide goes out. The seaside is, by its very nature…
11 November 2020
From analogue to activism
magCulture Live goes digital next week, for a two-day conference that celebrates the creative and social powers of magazines
Dividing its focus between ‘activism’ and ‘analogue’, magCulture 2020 shows that even in difficult, disruptive…
5 November 2020
An Iranian vision
editorial design, neshan magazine
Despite censorship and sanctions, a bilingual magazine showcasing Iranian and Western design has flourished for two decades. By Steven Heller
The history of visual arts in Iran is divided into two historical periods of Iranian…
29 October 2020
Sea, sky, paint and pattern
Rich, decorative patterns shape our experience of the British seaside. The sixth in Justin Burns’s series on coastal graphic design
Patterns and decoration have long informed the design of seaside architecture – promenades, amusements, hotels…