Graphic Design

Michael Bierut|Essays

Alan Fletcher: Living by Design

Remembering the late British designer Alan Fletcher, who once said, "I treat clients as raw material to do what I want to do, though I would never tell them that." For him, design was not a profession or a craft, but a life.

Michael Bierut|Essays

The Road to Hell, Part Two: That Elusive Silver Bullet

An online offer to teach anyone to do graphic designer raises the ultimate question: can we conclusively prove the value of design to the general public? We can't? Now what?

Dmitri Siegel|Essays

Please CARE

One of graphic design's strengths in its relatively short history has been its flexibility. The field has adapted to technological and economic changes over the last half century by absorbing elements of computer science, animation, …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

The Global Curse of Comic Sans

In this coastal region slung just below the Pyrenees, one might expect to see evidence of the enduring cultural tensions between Spain and Catalonia — different kinds of signs or symbols, for instance â€" but on the …

Lorraine Wild|Essays

Wassup, Beatrice

Poster designed by Beatrice Warde, 1932.Like many a designer from coast-to-coast, I've been mulling over the Business Week design-for-free debacle, discussed extensively on this site. It has made me realize that the problem with AIGA's …

Michael Bierut|From Our Archive

The Mysterious Power of Context

Some of the most effective graphic design is neutral and open ended, and acquires its effectiveness only through use and association. Is it possible to anticipate the power of context in design?

Debbie Millman|Audio

Stanley Hainsworth

On this episode, Debbie Millman interviews Stanley Hainsworth, former Design Director at Starbucks and the founder of Tether in Seattle.

Michael Bierut|Essays

The Road to Hell: Now Paved with Innovation?

Designers don't have many advocates as enthusiastic and highly-placed as Bruce Nussbaum. An assistant managing editor at Business Week, he's spearheaded the magazine's coverage of design and innovation for years, and has become an …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Annals of Academia: The New Exoticism

It's May — the month of hay fever, television sweeps and final reviews. Of the first two, I can say only this: as a veteran allergy sufferer, I watched the swan-song episode of The West Wing in an antihistamine-induced haze, and it …

Debbie Millman|Audio

Gael Towey

On this episode, Debbie Millman talks to Gael Towey — the editor and founding Creative Director at Martha Stewart Living.

Michael Bierut|Essays

I Am a Plagiarist

Plagiarism is a hot topic in the world of publishing, What does it mean in the world of design? Michael Bierut pleads guilty.

Jessica Helfand|Essays

The Art of Thinking Through Making

I am at heart an irrepressible classicist who likes my type justified and prefers Merchant Ivory to Miramax. I'm an incorrigible Anglophile, a devoted Francophile and I am utterly convinced that my DNA is heavily weighted toward the first …