Rian Hughes is a force of nature (logo nature, that is). For 20 years he has been illustrator, type designer and letterer for scores of varied clients…
Design Books
Design Expert’s 10 Coffee Table Book Recommendations
Coffee table books are having a moment, and as a lifelong creative with a deep love and appreciation for good design engaging content, Daniel Dejan is…
8 Snippets of Design Wisdom from Book Designer Irma Boom
Amsterdam-based graphic designer Irma Boom is best known for her work designing book covers – but that’s not all. Recently she took on her mosr ambitious…
Weimar 1919 in Amerika 2018
“In view of the current political and social situation,” writes Dr. Helmut Müller, Managing Director of the Bemeinnützige Kulturfonds in Frankfurt RheinMain, Germany, in the unforgettable, sadly retro-prophetic art history titled “Splendor and Misery in the Weimar Republic” (Hirmer), “in which the world seems to have lost its bearings, we should be particularly grateful...
Color Problems: An Exciting New Reissue Revises Color Theory & Design History
In our era of #metoo, Black Lives Matter and trans rights, it’s exhilarating to see maligned or ignored historical figures step into a limelight, newly switched on. Whom we choose to remember depends on who’s doing the remembering, after all, and nowadays we recognize how constructed and contingent historical narratives always were. Even why...
Weekend Heller: Pensieri sul Design
As I lay on my hotel bed listening to the soothing tones of “My Way” by Sinatra and the “Godfather” theme emanating from the Piazza San Minerva in Rome, I have thoughts of Paul Rand. There are not too many books about or artifacts by Paul Rand in Italy, although his seminal Thoughts on...
Glaser’s Abstraction Covered
Steven Heller has habitually tried to put art and design into neat categories. Yet, as he gets older (maybe wiser), he realizes that Milton Glaser is right. The bucket-concept is not realistic. Art is about growth not limitation. And style is just a surface manifestation of many options available to us all.
A Love Letter for You from Tony DiSpigna
Friend, fine artist, teacher, designer and hand-letterer par excellence, Tony DiSpigna’s work is enjoying a much-deserved renaissance with the publication of a beautiful new book and a line of T-shirts with his Spencerian lettering.
Weekend Heller: Book Covers Live and Live
"Be My Cover: An Exhibit of Contemporary Cover Design" features 100 of Penguin Random House’s most iconic book covers. The selection gathers book covers published worldwide within the past 10 years by more than 15 imprints from Penguin Random House. This work has been created, or art directed, by 33 designers straddling the Atlantic,...
Posting a Letter and Sending a Telegram
Poczta, illustrated by Franciszka Themerso, addresses technical knowledge, but in itself is also an example of '30s avant garde art and design. The book was published thanks to funding from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.