History

Michael Bierut|Essays

The Golden Age of American Commercialism

The encroachment of commercialism into everyday life seems like a peculiarly modern phenomenon. Yet around one hundred years ago, America began a romance with salesmanship that today seems almost delirious. A 1922 business directory shows …

William Drenttel|Essays

What Ever Happened to Half.com, Oregon?

But back in 1999, in its Netflix-like heyday, Half.com was hot. And it did something quite remarkable. As a publicity stunt, it bought a town and renamed it. Someplace in Oregon. I wondered what ever happened to Half.com, Oregon — …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

The Ovalization of The American Mind

Left: A typical standardized test. Right: DNA blood sample.As a graduate student at Yale in the late 1980s, I studied with many of the great, late European masters who preached (among other things) the virtues of geometry. Back in those …

Rick Perlstein|Essays

What is Conservative Culture?

Goldwater AuH2O license plate, 1964.AN EXCLUSIVE REPORT COURTESY OF THE NEW REPUBLIC.In the long march of the conservative ascendancy, Folk Songs to Bug the Liberals, the 1964 LP by the satirical conservative quartet the Goldwaters, was …

William Drenttel|Essays

Move It Down . . . A Little to the Right

Detail, Guggenheim Museum facade under renovation. Photograph by Chris Kasabach, 2006.One of the great artifacts of American architecture is being renovated in New York City. Scaffolds are up, and paint and surface stucco are being …

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 …

William Drenttel|Essays

The Red Hand : A Graphic History

Still from "Nancy Johnson Caught-Red Handed" television advertisement, May 2006. Produced and funded by MoveOn.org.My Congresswoman is Nancy Johnson, a twelve-term Republican from Connecticut. Despite reasonable positions on the …

Willis Regier|Essays

In Remembrance of Richard Eckersley

Design by Richard Eckersley. (Detail from copyright page of Avital Ronell's The Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech, 1989)Richard Eckersley died on April 16, having given the best years of his life to establishing …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

A Sequence in Time

Euripedes, the Greek playwright, once observed that time would explain it all. It was a poetic suggestion, yet to date, remains somewhat inconclusive. True, the passage of time might be said to characterize everything from the Mexican …

Debbie Millman|Audio

Art Chantry

Art Chantry works and lives in Seattle where his ideas and personal style branded the look of popular culture, not only in the northwest and its bohemian underground, but also in the pop and alternative culture of the last few …

Kenneth Krushel|Essays

Santa Fe Diarist

Photograph by Kenneth Krushel, 2006.What is it about the United States that, more often than not, seems to insist upon appropriating a sense of indigenous culture, only to transform that culture into a mythological theme park? Historical …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

What We Talk About When We Talk About Design History

From the packaging of our belongings to the presentation of our surroundings, most of us recognize that design has, over the course of the past century, become a ubiquitous component in everyday life. Design is signage and graffiti and …