Panóptico de Actualidad Gráfica y Visual
A book cover has a challenging job. Not only must it represent the depth of knowledge between its pages, but it must also stand on its own as a form of storytelling. Though a book is certainly more than its cover, the best covers can draw readers in with images and text alone. They can pique interest, hint at what’s...
Podcasts are everywhere and nowhere. Unlike a book you might pass in a shop window or a song you might hear sitting in a cafe, random exposure—or what marketers refer to as “discovery”—is rare for podcasts. Most of the time, you have to know what you’re looking for. Like so many elements of modern consumer culture encountered on a digital...
When you read the words “Kinfolk made a parenting magazine”, a certain image might come to mind: A mom and baby, both dressed in gauzy white, laying on a blanket in the middle of a field. A nuclear family making crafts around a vintage Quaker table. A photoshoot of a nursery filled with wooden toys. Since Kinfolk published its...
Name: Action Text Designer: Erik van Blokland Foundry: Commercial Type Release Date: September 2020 Back Story: Here’s the thing: the attention span of someone reading text on screen is a limited resource. With this in mind, type designer Erik Von Blokland set out to create a typeface with a bit of bite to bring some edge to the frequently too-bland, too-smooth world of...
Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds — Anthropologist Arturo Escobar’s powerful argument for reimagining design to bring about social and environmental justice — has become a key reference within design theory recently. The pluriverse describes “a world where many worlds fit”, a phrase Escobar borrows from the revolutionary Zapatista social movement in Mexico, and...
Graphic design history is, generally speaking, a history of professional practice. In text books, at conferences, and for college courses, design historians and educators explain the development of the industry through the example of pivotal figures, canonical works, and dominant styles. And yet, visual communication is not only a professional domain. It’s an active cultural practice shared by all. What...
Ken Garland, who died in May at the grand age of 92, was an enigmatic figure in the graphic design world. Though he will likely be best remembered for his influential and ever-relevant First Things First manifesto of 1964, he also left behind a massive body of incredible creative work – which was playful and rigorous in equal measure –...
We think Chicago based bookstore Inga offers some of the most interesting graphic design titles out there, and we’re always excited to see what new independent and self-published books they have in stock. So we asked co-owner Jacob Lindgren to suggest some reading from their stacks. Here he is in his own words. “Malia [Haines-Stewart], Alan [Medina], and I met...
When trying to understand how cities work – how they develop over time and how their social lives have come into existence – urbanists often look at infrastructure. Looking closely at the roads, railways, sewers, electricity lines and rivers that run through a place can often uncover some essential truths. For example, how can we think about Los Angeles without...
The idea of crowdfunding books on design is no longer a new concept. Since its inception in 2009, Kickstarter has hosted approximately 3,700 campaigns centered around art books, with an estimated 500 specifically about design. One of the more well-known examples is from 2015 when two graphic designers raised nearly $1 million ($941,966, to be exact, against a now-modest $158,000...
Rich color is such a common feature of beverage packaging (and really, all kinds of packaging) these days that it’s easy to forget how much impact a label can have with a less saturated approach. Black lettering on a white background is at once understated and unexpected. It’s a rarely used move in the packaging world that puts the onus...
Name: Faubourg Designer: Marie Boulanger, with creative and technical guidance from Neil Summerour Foundry: Positype Release Date: April 2021 Back Story: Faubourg is the second typeface released under Flourish, the brainchild of Positype founder Neil Summerour. Flourish is a unique artist and repertoire program that helps identify and develop rising talent within the type industry. It offers instruction, guidance, and...
