History

Rick Poynor|Essays

True Stories: A Film about People Like Us

Ambiguous but prescient, David Byrne’s film True Stories is a classic piece of postmodern pop anthropology.

Louise Sandhaus|Unusual Suspects

Merle Armitage: Daddy of a Sunbaked Modernism

Louise Sandhaus's profile of book designer Merle Armitage.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Shopping With Sandro, and Other Tumblr Delights

Digitizing the Miller House Collection, and other museum and corporate visual archives on Tumblr.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Having Fun at the Museum

Blocks, rocket ships, playgrounds and balls: the hidden meaning of playthings at the Museum of Modern Art.

Jessica Helfand|Projects

Ezra Winter Project: Chapter Ten

In April, 1933, Ezra Winter delivers a fifteen-minute live radio talk on the subject of mural painting in relation to modern life, in which he tries desperately to convince himself that he has embraced the modern world.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Let’s Talk About Women in Architecture

A panel on Women in Design, and questions about whether such panels should exist.

Rick Poynor|Essays

On My Shelf: André Breton’s Nadja

The Livre de poche edition of André Breton’s Surrealist classic Nadja remains the best visual interpretation of the book.

Rick Poynor|Essays

Sending Signals about Political Graphics

Issue two of Signal, a journal about the visual languages used around the world to support political protest.

Rick Poynor|Essays

Pierre Faucheux and Le Livre de Poche

A masterclass in book cover design: Pierre Faucheux’s work for the French paperback publisher Livre de poche.

Rick Poynor|Essays

Updating the Maps of Graphic Design History

Graphic Design: History in the Writing is a heartening sign that graphic design history is attracting a new generation.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

The Charismatic Megafauna of Design

Identifying the "charismatic megafauna" of design and the critical uses of their popularity.

Rick Poynor|Essays

On My Shelf: A History of the Machine

Erik Nitsche’s New Illustrated Library of Science and Invention is a landmark of modern, low-cost, mass-market, educational book design.