Category: Essays

John Thackara|Essays

Emerging Economy Design [March 2005]

Report and Doors of Perception 8 pre-conference, the problem with b-schools, reality TV for the boardroom, a meeting of information design students and professionals on the Cape Verde Islands, mobile learning in Malta, and more.

Michael Bierut|Essays

Fear and Loathing in Pen and Ink

Michael Bierut|Essays

Designing Under the Influence

The similarity of a young designer's work to that of the artist Barbara Kruger provides the starting point for a discussion of the role of influence in design, and whether it is possible for someone to "own" a specific style.

William Drenttel|Essays

Stop The Plant: The Failure of Rendering

There is no single rendering ominous enough to create public fear; no image so compelling as to create political momentum; and no symbol so memorable as to unite the opposition. Whether through artistic renderings or compelling information …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Our Bodies, Our Fonts

Family Tree ©2000 Zhang HuanBody markings — piercings, tattoos and so forth — have recently evolved into a kind of marginalized form of graphic expression, yet one that sheds an unusual light on some of the more mainstream …

Kenneth Krushel|Essays

The Gates

Much has been written about Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "Gates" project in Central Park in New York City, including an outstanding Guest Observer essay by Julie Lasky here at Design Observer. In the past few days, though, we have received …

Kenneth Krushel|Essays

The Gates

Much has been written about Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "Gates" project in Central Park in New York City, including an outstanding Guest Observer essay by Julie Lasky here at Design Observer. In the past few days, though, we have received …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

My Friend Flickr

Flickr is a digital photo sharing website and web services suite that was developed by Ludicorp, a Vancouver, Canada company founded in 2002. It’s a utopian oddity — a culture enabled by a technology that in turn enables a …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

The New Paper Chase: Cyberspace on The Auction Block

People who collect things are typically drawn to social history — the idea, for example, that an entire era can somehow be encapsulated in a single artifact. Collections of artifacts testify therefore to the notion that history …

Tom Vanderbilt|Essays

Rise and Fall of Rock and Roll Graphic Design

Browsing recently through a collection of "band fonts," my memory drifted back to Middle School where I, plastic Bic in hand, would spend countless hours carefully inscribing the covers of my Mead notebooks with the logos and signature …

Julie Lasky|Essays

Christo's Agent Orange

Christo, The Gates, Central Park, New York 1979-2005, Drawing #047. Photo: Wolfgang Volz. ©2004 Christo.Swaying like 7,500 Hare Krishna in a can-can line, the saffron-colored fabric panels of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Central Park …

Rick Poynor|Essays

The Ikea Riot: Unsatisfied Excess?

When Ikea threw open the doors of a new store in London, the result was mayhem as customers stampeded. Evidence of social breakdown, or a sign that the utopian argument for low-cost modernist design has been won?