Tuesday, 7:00am
1 March 2016

Classic Collections – The Big Picture

Another bundle of back issues – 34, 43, 49 & 56 – featuring design in the public realm

‘The Big Picture’ is the handy, if somewhat arbitrary name we have given to a bunch Eye issues from the turn of the century and early noughties: nos. 34, 43, 49 and 56. All four issues were art directed by Nick Bell.

This bundle features design in our daily lives in the public realm, from road signs and neon to every kind of public lettering: art, advertising, São Paulo’s Pichação, the Mexico Olympics.

Cover of Eye 34 showing an English rural signpost photographed by Anthony Oliver.

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Each number deals with big ideas, with ambitious design of all kinds. Eye 34 is the ‘Public realm special issue’, including Phil Baines’ ‘A design to sign roads by’ about the Kinneir Calvert road and motorway signs.

Cover of Eye 43 showing a CMYK colour overprinting demonstration created for Eye magazine by Nick Bell (UNA London), 2002.

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Eye 43 was the first issue to be published following the launch of the Eye website and includes Christopher Wilson’s report on Lolita, Steven Heller’s article Korean War propoganda and Eric Kindel’s study of colour overprinting.

Cover of Eye 49 based on an image from 35mm – Design in Miniature by Angela Lorenz.

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Eye 49 includes a profile of Angela Lorenz, whose work for small record labels. It’s described by Adrian Shaughnessy as ‘stripped-down digital minimalism’ which exposes the ‘intertextuality that exists between digital music and digital design.’ Other articles in the issue include Alice Twemlow’s ‘Conference madness’, Rick Poynor’s look at graphics in the UK and Michael Worthington’s ‘Theory in practice’ about Karl Gerstner.

Cover for Eye 56 showing detail from logo artwork for the MEXICO 68 Olympic graphic identity.

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Eye 56 cover design by Nick Bell featuring a detail of logo artwork for the Mexico 68 Olympics graphic identity.

Spread from ‘This is 68 … the is Mexico’ by Darhoud Sarhandi and Carolina Rivas in Eye 56.

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You can buy ‘The Big Picture’ – all four issues – for the bargain price of £45. There are also four other bundles under the Classic Collections rubric: ‘On and Off the Wall’, ‘Storytelling’, ‘Back to the 90s’ and ‘Type and Lettering’.

Please go to the Eye shop on the ESco website here and order your bundle while stocks last.

Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions, back issues and single copies of the latest issue.