Category: Essays

Michael Bierut|Essays

Every New Yorker is a Target

The latest New Yorker magazine has only one advertiser: Target. The effect is disorienting.

Jessica Helfand|Essays

A Mosaic of Vision and Memory

I have always tried, and urged my students to try, to think of writing as more than a mere accompaniment to graphic design. Rather, it is perhaps its most deeply resonant evocation: the degree to which language can imply, conjure, suggest, …

Tom Vanderbilt|Essays

The Darwinian iPod

It's difficult these days to read the newspaper. I keep coming across articles discussing "intelligent design" and I plunge in, thinking they might be about some smarter rejoinder to the maldesigned SUV, or perhaps some new coffee cup lid …

William Drenttel|Essays

Small Town Meetings

Zoning regulations are how a town designs its future. They determine what kind of development is encouraged, and what kind is discouraged. In Meetings, Paul Shambroom visited 150 local government meetings in 32 states. The photographs are …

The Editors|Essays

Notice To Our Readers

Momus, otherwise known as Nick Currie, is leaving Design Observer to concentrate on his music, his developing career as a fine artist, his own website and his other writing projects. We wish Nick well in all these endeavours and thank him …

Adrian Shaughnessy|Essays

Self-Initiated House Music

Sketches and Spells, CD cover by Julian House for Ghost Box, 2005.British graphic designer Julian House is best known for his album covers for Primal Scream, Stereolab and Broadcast. In the UK, House has an attentive following among …

John Thackara|Essays

Street Art Pro [August 2005]

Report on the Municipal Wirelss Conference in San Francisco, Label Rue in France, designs and government policy, the 2005 Assitive Tech conference, the 2005 Tactile Graphics conference and more.

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Why Bugs Don't Belong on TV

Animation courtesy of Colossus, Inc.On today's TV screens, the station-identification logo sits tethered to the surface, like an annoying rash that won't quite disappear. You think you've kicked it when — WHAMMMO — there it is …

Rick Poynor|Essays

Vladimir’s House and Garden of Earthly Delights

Spending two weeks in Vladimir Beck's house on the island of Vrnik in Croatia made me question, yet again, rigid distinctions between artist and designer. Here, it's impossible to separate the two. Beck has designed every feature with a …

William Drenttel|Essays

Signs of Religion in the American South

Photo: Michael Brenner, 2005.DOWNLOAD FREE MP3 OF "STILL WATERS" BY JIM WHITE. Courtesy of Luaka Bop Records. (Click here.)Some months ago, we designed a CD package for Luaka Bop, the music label of Yale Evelev and David Byrne. Jim White …

Michael Bierut|Essays

Credit Line Goes Here

Design is essentially a collaborative enterprise. That makes assigning credit for the products of our work a complicated issue.

Michael Bierut|Essays

Rick Valicenti: This Time It's Personal

In his newly-published monograph Emotion as Promotion: A Book of Thirst, Rick Valicenti provides a glimpse into a designer's life that is at once accessibly seductive and brazenly idiosyncratic.