Panóptico de Actualidad Gráfica y Visual
When Walda Verbaenen, Michel Paré, and Lukas Schneider met as classmates among a diverse international group of six students at Antwerp’s Plantin Institute of Typography in 2015, they had no inkling that an intensive, multi-year typographical adventure lay ahead of them post-graduation. Their collaboration started when an in-class exercise led to a shared fascination with the typefaces of Jacques-François Rosart,...
The standard of 2021 sleeve art has generally been impressive, with the gatefold back with a vengeance like it’s the ’70s again. That said, the proliferation of vinyl isn’t anywhere on the same scale: this year saw a logjam at the pressing plants with waiting times becoming elasticated, and box sets in particular on hold for up to a year. While...
In a year packed with change, a certain shade of nostalgia has taken hold of branding design. A number of legacy brands, from Burger King to Campbell’s Soup to Colt 45, ABC, Zagat, and Peugeot, drew on their archives to create new looks. The unfussy lettering, crisp lines, and pared-down color palettes of these rebrands look like stylish cartoon versions...
Name: Cartridge Designer: Dan Cederholm Foundry: SimpleBits Release Date: November 2021 Back Story: Type designer Dan Cederholm was obsessed with the Atari 2600 console when he was a kid growing up in the ’80s. It seems his interest hasn’t waned, but it has taken a different slant. “Over the summer, I was in a local shop with my son, Jack,...
“Just one.” So went the particularly cruel prompt that we issued a medley of designers from the publishing industry as 2021 drew to a close. Following a year jam-packed with powerful covers and jackets, we asked a roster of 10—Nicole Caputo, Rodrigo Corral, David Drummond, Janay Nachel Frazier, John Gall, Anne Jordan, Emily Mahon, Gustavo Piqueira, Arsh Raziuddin, and Sarahmay...
We’ll readily admit that gift guides are the lazy person’s answer to holiday giving. Click a link, scroll, and hopefully you’ll stumble across the exact thing you’ve been in search of for those hard to please people in your life. Let us stop you before you get too far: This particular gift guide is niche, which is either a good...
In the latest of our Under the Covers series looking at records and their design, we celebrated the weird, wild world of Liars’ designs. Here, we track down some of those behind Beastie Boys’ record sleeves, spanning two decades. During the ’80s and ’90s, Beastie Boys were unrivalled when it came to their visual identity, which was cool, surreal, artistic, and...
Name: GT Ua Designer: Noël Leu Foundry: Grilli Type Release Date: September 2021 Back Story: Leu set out to challenge the assumption that plain sans serif typefaces best communicate a modern look, by making a startling assertion—namely, that there’s no clear distinction between sans and serif. He began work on GT Ua in 2017 with calligraphic drawings, removing serifs and...
When he was a student, Eike König always dreamed of building a place where people from different backgrounds and disciplines come together, work together, and form a community. It’s this very dream which later led to the foundation of his studio HORT. Collaboration is at the heart of the Berlin-based graphic design studio known for its experimental and free-spirited approach....
In 1964, Timothy Leary first used the term “set and setting” in reference to psychedelic drugs, the idea being that the effect of a substance was impacted by an individual’s experiences and expectations. Today, as more mainstream products tout extra-nutritional benefits, it’s fair to say that the latter part, the “setting,” includes packaging design. A particular design—medicinal, surreal, luxury—primes our...
Name: Cotford Designer: Tom Foley Foundry: Monotype Release Date: October 2021 Back Story: Cotford began in 2018 as a back-burner initiative for Monotype creative type director, Tom Foley—but when the world went into lockdown in 2020, he revisited the face with focus and determination. “It became a form of escapism for me, something I could immerse myself in, and a...
“Would you ever have a science article next to a fashion spread next to a conversation with Roxane Gay? No, you wouldn’t,” says Eddie Opara, a partner at Pentagram, when discussing his design team’s latest collaboration: the first issue of Citizen, an independent magazine covering the richness of Black culture and experience. The recently launched biannual magazine is the brainchild...
