Winter 2025

Editorial Eye 107

We often first experience cultural and technological changes through type and image, even if we do not always understand what they mean for life and work. By now, many of us have encountered visual AI (artificial intelligence) apps, and the uncanny ways that illustrations, photos, movie clips and more (if not legible type) can be conjured from mere words, or prompts. Like our 1920s predecessors who were convinced that a curtained-off phonograph was a real string quartet, or that cameras had photographed fairies, we are still developing ways in which to critique the excitement, potential, disappointment and disconnection caused by technology that performs like magic. Machine-learning programs may thrill us – but they also threaten the planet, and mess with our sense of self.

There was little consensus among the professionals with whom I discussed these issues – often just a mix of anxiety about missing out and a healthy dose of cynicism regarding the tech giants who seduce us towards a carbon-belching future in which AI is used for the most banal tasks. But we are grateful to the dozens of designers and image-makers who shared their expertise, opinions and work with great generosity. Genuinely creative people will always find provocative ways to use emerging technologies, as the images in this issue attest.

In the 50 years since the UK’s ground-breaking road signs became law, the system’s continued existence and effectiveness is admired worldwide. The exemplary designs wrought by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert and their team reveal a civilised, Modernist approach to lettering, type, symbols and systems that has survived and adapted to succeeding waves of technology, attracting followers and imitators worldwide. As an inspiring example of graphic design for good in the public realm, Calvert’s story is hard to beat.

John L. Walters, editor of Eye, London

First published in Eye no. 107 vol. 27, 2025

Photo by Philip Sayer. See Reputations: Margaret Calvert.

Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published 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 and single issues.