Issue 68

Opinion

John L. Walters
The beginning of a new era . . . and thanks!
Absolutely the ‘worst’
Rick Poynor
How does a graphic work claim its place in history? Notoriety and originality helps, but nothing beats repeated publication. Critique by Rick Poynor
Barbara Ehrbar
Question and Answer, Barbara Ehrbar
Who cares about graphic design history?
Question and Answer, Vincent Tigre
Who cares about graphic design history?
Dieter Wiechmann
Question and Answer, Dieter Wiechmann
Who cares about graphic design history?
Nod Young
Question and Answer, Nod Young
Who cares about graphic design history?
Oliver Knight
Question and Answer, Oliver Knight
Who cares about graphic design history?
Question and Answer, Kurnal Rawat
Who cares about graphic design history?
James Lambert
Question and Answer, James Lambert
Who cares about graphic design history?
Redouane Oumahi
Question and Answer, Redouane Oumahi
Who cares about graphic design history?
Question and Answer, Motomichi Nakamura
Who cares about graphic design history?
Question and Answer, Adam Machacek, Sebastien Bohner
Who cares about graphic design history?
Question and Answer, Craig Oldham
Who cares about graphic design history?
William Hall
Question and Answer, William Hall
Who cares about graphic design history?
Strange Attractors
Question and Answer, Ryan Pescatore Frisk, Catelijne van Middelkoop
Who cares about graphic design history?
Adrien Pelletier
Question and Answer, Adrien Pelletier
Who cares about graphic design history?
Pedro Inoue
Question and Answer, Pedro Inoue
Who cares about graphic design history?
Sara De Bondt
Question and Answer, Sara De Bondt
Who cares about graphic design history?
Fraser Muggeridge
Question and Answer, Fraser Muggeridge
Who cares about graphic design history?
Giampietro+Smith
Question and Answer, Rob Giampietro, Kevin Smith
Who cares about graphic design history?
Question and Answer, Filip Blazek
Who cares about graphic design history?
Matt Dent
Question and Answer, Matt Dent
Who cares about graphic design history?

Features

John L. Walters
Introduction to special issue by editor John L. Walters
Googling the design canon
Martha Scotford
In the late 1980s, US designer and historian Martha Scotford set out on a mission to discover what might constitute a canon of graphic design …
Design’s wayward cousins
Steve Rigley
Humble and often vulgar, chapbooks offer an illuminating window into the medieval world.
Modernism and monograms
Paul Barnes
Both artisan and art director, Hermann Eidenbenz was a subtle master of Swiss design.
Prototype propagandist
Jan Middendorp
Rivadulla’s revolutionary poster art avoids socialist cliché. By Jan Middendorp
Iguana stew
Nick Bell
Ko Sliggers conveyed a complex, subtle message with a seemingly effortless collage.
Talking pictures (Isotype)
Christopher Burke
By representing data in simple graphic form, Isotype anticipated modern information design.
Woman at the edge of technology
Elizabeth Resnick
Jacqueline Casey’s posters used wit, invention and the grid to reach the essence of each subject.
The digital essence
Mario Feliciano
Lexicon, by Bram de Does, is a type designer’s type design, par excellence.
Typographic tango
Krzysztof Fijalkowski
The journal Néon was a unique graphic expression of Surrealism
The new, weird America
Eric Heiman
Michael Stipe’s early R.E.M. sleeves were a strange fusion of the DIY spirit of punk and the mystery of America’s Deep South.
Going the distance
Matt Soar
Roundel’s identity for Railfreight in the late 1980s unified a multi-faceted business with a strong identity that boosted morale.
Gender rendition
Stuart McKee
Todd Trexler’s Das Black Moonlight poster marked drag’s movement into the public consciousness.
The right stuff
Jonathan Baldwin
Though touted as the ‘university of the air’, it was the OU’s graphic design that made it a revolutionary success.
Voice control
Michael Worthington
The title sequence for this Truffaut movie heralds brilliantly a world where the written word is forbidden.
Beneath the radar
Teal Triggs
Katy Keene made comic history by being the first magazine to be designed in part by its readers.
Terms of reference
Catherine Dixon
A modest dictionary of print terms has been a source of inspiration for 60 years.
On the nose
Roger Sabin
Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday was a wonder of populist design.
The test of time
Eric Kindel
After 90 years, Ishihara’s colour deficiency plates have proved their effectiveness as a diagnostic tool – and they are still beautiful.
New frontier
Steven Heller
When art director Art Paul made the journey from Bauhaus to Hefner’s Playboy mansion, men’s mags became truly ‘Modern’.
Home Counties surrealism
John Beck, Matthew Cornford
Keef’s album covers are visual essays of their time, full of bleakness and possibility.
Polyphonic playground
John L. Walters
The world’s first museum of its kind, plus the ‘European Championship of Graphic Design’