graphic design, art, typography and architecture

Ground breaking, irreverent, boundary-ignorant, esoteric, new wave, alien, an historical milestone,... all terms used to describe the Graphic Design Magazine Emigre. First published in 1984, it was one of the first publications to use the new(!) Macintosh computer. At the time of its publication, many Graphic Designers and commentators were quite scathing in their attacks. The Design writer and critic Steven Heller was one of those critics, confidently predicting--In his 1993 Cult of the Ugly--that Emigre would be nothing more than a "blip in the continuum." Emigre continued to be published for another 12 years. I had pretty much forgotten about it ... [more]

I've just ordered my copy of Made With FontFont: Type for Independent Minds, and was intending to write about it upon delivery. However, the excitement is just too much. For those of you who have never heard of FontFont, it's a collection of digital fonts that's been going strong for 15 years now. Made With FontFont, the book is a celebration of the FontFont library. When I get hold of my copy (where's the postman!?), I'll review it here. You can get your own copy of Made With Fontfont: Type for Independent Minds at Amazon, or the book-seller of your choice. One ... [more]

How would you go about teaching typography to children? Well, the graphic designer and author Rene Siegfried has published a beautiful solution, a typographic landscape: The Serif Fairy The Serif Fairy, ‘a clever little letter-fairy’, has lost her left ‘magical’ wing, disabling her ability to fly and to perform magic. She sets off in search of the lost wing, wandering through the Garamond Forest, the Zentenar Gate, the Futura City, and finally to Shelley Lake where, after falling into the water, she finds her lost wing and flies into the air, a revived magic fairy. Source: Grady Harp Every illustration in the ... [more]

This great little book (it only measures 6.1 x 4.7 inches), Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface arrived in the post a couple of days ago. It's divided into two sections: the first comprising examples of the typeface used in advertising by graphic designers, from newspapers, posters, stamps, magazines, books and perfume bottles to the logos of Muji, BMW, Evian, Intel, Toyota and scores more; the second, examples of it used and abused in everyday life - stencilled onto garbage trucks, used in no-swimming, no-smoking, no- (just about everything) signs. Helvetica's proliferation during the past 50 years attests to its ... [more]

I like the work of Georgia Russell, a Scottish artist who creates art from books. Armed with a scalpel and a bucket-load of imagination, she sculpts books, maps and other ephemera into wonderful pieces of art that are often-times displayed in acrylic cases, so that they appear as some kind of specimen. One piece titled, The Ruptures cultures resembles a sea creature or the fine fossilised remains of one. Many of the works have an "organic" feel to them, the finely cut strands of paper resembling windswept grass or aquatic filamental fibres. Though each piece is the product of a ... [more]

Skyfish Graphix is an independent books publisher specialising in wonderfully illustrated picture books that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike. I bought this one: “Time is ART”Hiro & Mitsu by Chica Akazaki (赤崎チカ). Learn more about Skyfish Graphix by visiting their website (English and 日本語). [more]