Blog: Visual culture
24 June 2021
Kind of Blued
In this series of pictures, Sameer Kulavoor focuses on an unavoidable element of Indian street life – the blue tarpaulin.
By Marian Bantjes
Sameer Kulavoor is an artist famous in India for his illustrations of everyday life on…
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…
20 February 2021
The printed howl
Though locked down in London, this exhibition of letterpress protest posters has plenty of messages for the world
If the past few years have felt like one long trail of division, doom and…
1 January 2021
Rigorous play
For almost three decades East Berlin duo Cyan has produced urgent, experimental yet precise graphic design. Jan Middendorp meets them while the city sleeps
Like all design studios, Berlin’s Cyan has gone through a very unusual year, writes Jan…
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…
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…
4 September 2020
Artificial sunshine
Illuminated lettering signals entertainment and escapism by the sea. The fifth in Justin Burns’s series about coastal graphic design
If we take away the bright lights is there a place? The Blackpool Illuminations first…
30 July 2020
A matter of (sour) taste
The Slavs and Tatars collective makes satirical exhibitions and installations that use pickling as a metaphor. By Gabriela Matuszyk
‘Pickle Politics’ is an eight-work cycle from collective Slavs and Tatars, writes Gabriela Matuszyk. For…
20 July 2020
Pier review
Decorative typography and lettering evoke the halcyon days of the British seaside. The fourth in Justin Burns’s series about coastal graphic design
Lettering, typography, and accentuated three-dimensional signs dominate the British coast, writes Justin Burns. The bright…