Feature
8vo: type and structure
For fifteen years this UK practice has given typography a central place in graphic design
Mo’Wax
The urban swagger of this small label’s music is mirrored by its freewheeling ‘house style’. By Adrian Shaughnessy
Punk uncovered: an unofficial history of provincial opposition
British punk gave a sound, a voice and a visual currency to the disenfranchised and remote. Overlooked, uncelebrated and difficult – the output of the anonymous artworkers who packaged the vinyl spewed out by punk’s first waves captured the oppositional (and occasionally political) spirit of the time. By Russell Bestley and Ian Noble.
There is such a thing as society*
It is time to think again about design’s social function and the way it is determined by our culture.
Bring me the head of Nelson Mandela
Activist; fugitive; prisoner; icon: the evolving face of a famous name
Reputations: Malcolm Garrett
‘I figure it’s my job to be this kind of blinkered believer. You know: I am the new futurist, I will live in the technological world.’
Reduced Eden: gardens and flowers
Scopophilic horticulture is back with a vengeance. Photographers and designers strive to represent raw nature in the form of outdoor chill-out spaces: sublimated eroticism for the consuming classes, or a canonic celebration of the persistence and transience of beauty?
Multiple meanings
Uwe Loesch’s posters have the linguistic subtlety and precision of conceptual art. They demand attention, then release their significance bit by bit.
Digital type decade
The sound and fury of ‘radical’ typeface design associated with the early days of PostScript have quietened into a purposeful, prolific hum. There’s a new order of craft and and invention, driven by corporate culture, nostalgia and the demands of the screen.