Category: Essays

John Thackara|Essays

Special "Do It" Edition [February 2007]

Report on the Doors of Perception 9 conference, accountability of politicians to recognize sustainable regions, the Necklace Park, the Dott 07 student design challenge, Dott 07 design camp, and more.

David Cabianca|Essays

Why History? Why Bother

I am a junior faculty member now teaching graphic design but I began my studies in architecture. Today, working towards my tenure requirements at a large university, I am asked to provide some biographical information whenever a piece of …

Michael Bierut|Essays

The It Factor

In their 1983 book Quintessence: The Quality of Having It, Owen Edwards and Betty Cornfeld created an elegant and influential treatise in what makes something the real thing, a lesson that Steve Jobs has obviously absorbed.

Michael Erard|Essays

Word Made Flesh

Diagram of quote attributed to Groucho Marx, "Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana," from Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey, illustrated by …

Rob Walker|Essays

Unconsumption

Getting new stuff can feel really good. Most everybody knows that. Most everybody also knows — that utility can fade, pleasure can be fleeting and the whole thought-that-counts thing is especially ephemeral.

John Thackara|Essays

Global Place — Or is it a Hat?

We must view the world with a new slant and take advantage of a huge design opportunity to create sustainable structures for the future.

Thomas de Monchaux|Essays

Another Organicism at the National Design Triennial

Installation view of National Design Triennial, photograph by Andrew Garn, 2006.A house is not a home. And a home is not a museum. Unless, of course, you're strolling through one of New York's great house museums, like the Frick or the …

John Thackara|Essays

Mapping the Necklace [January 2007]

Report on Doors of Perception conference "Juice: Food, Energy, Design," global food systems, Mediawalla Festival (MWF), Dott 07, the Move Me! project, and more.

Alissa Walker|Essays

War Is Over! If You Want It

Yoko Ono and John Lennon with peace campaign poster against the Vietnam War, 1969. Photograph by Frank Barratt/Getty Images.When the star of the documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon is asked by a reporter what he thinks Nixon should do to …

Adrian Shaughnessy|Essays

Pet Shop Boys — A Flawless Vision

Suburbia, 12" sleeve, 1986. Photography by Eric Watson,design by Mark Farrow at 3 and PSB.You might balk at the prospect of listening to twenty years worth of Pet Shop Boys music — although their brittle, Anglicized, melancholic pop …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

The Not-So-Golden Age of Zero Tolerance

When I was a student, the assignments and their expected outcomes were intentionally conceived as chore-like, specific and frankly, narrow. This was the age of zero tolerance: deviation from a designated format was neither an approved …

Michael Bierut|Essays

The Graphic Glass Ceiling

A week ago, I was the moderator of a panel discussion at the 92nd Street Y with Milton Glaser, Chip Kidd and Dave Eggers. Afterwards, someone asked, "Why do you — all three of you — suppose there are so few female graphic …