Category: Essays

DJ Stout|Essays

Remembering Mike Hicks

The embodiment of everything a great designer should be

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Logocentrism

For Paul Rand, a modern mark was a simple mark, and the secret to making things last lay in keeping them simple.

Steven Heller|Essays

WANTED

The risk-taking magazines of Ralph Ginzburg

Michael Bierut|Essays

All That Jazz: Posters by Niklaus Troxler

Niklaus Troxler’s jazz posters can be viewed as a single, self-initiated project that has developed over five decades, a body of work with few precedents.

Véronique Vienne|Essays

Hear a Pin Drop

Ying Gao’s Sensory Threads

Micah Silver|Essays

In Paradise

The disco as social architecture

Rob Walker|Essays

Listening to Retail

Disquiet Junto has been listening to retail, and it’s changing my ears.

Véronique Vienne|Essays

When the Soundtrack is the Message

Music supervisor Beth Urdang

Steven Heller|Essays

Mad Music

Back to a time before art, design, and humor had to be sophisticated to be good.

Rick Poynor|Essays

The Art of Punk and the Punk Aesthetic

Punk has two graphic histories: Punk: An Aesthetic and The Art of Punk. What conclusions do they draw?

Adam Harrison Levy|Essays

Soundies: An Interview with Robert Whitman

A rare conversation with an unheralded member of the ’70s New York art scene

Jessica Helfand|Essays

The Karaoke Effect

The illusory bubble populated by thousands of fame-seekers who fervently believe in their own righteous, if highly fictional talent.