De Reclame was Holland’s leading advertising-design journal in the 1920s and early ’30s. I include it in my book on design magazines. Its editors understood the design mandates of the era. It was the Mechanical Age when designers were addressing the modern transformations triggered by the earlier industrial age—a period when aesthetics and function were determined as co-existing in one form. This 1926 issue was devoted to the visual evocation of the period, from the literal r

The 1920s were, by far, the most rip-roaring decade for graphic design. Art Deco was jazzing up the whole world. The folk in Russia turned Constructive, geometrically speaking. Western Europe dallied with the Surreal thing. And of course, Germany rocked the Bauhaus, but that’s not all it did: this country also had book jackets extremely well covered, as amply evidenced within the contents of The Book Cover in the Weimar Republic, just published. Sacco und Vanzetti. Berlin: Mo

Brander, typographer, web designer. Today’s market requires unrivaled multimedia design skills. Be prepared for anything with the Multidisciplinary Design Kit from MyDesignShop. Even if you might not know Oskar Schlemmer, if you’ve seen Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance or New Order’s True Faith—with their eccentric costumes and mechanical movements—then you’ve had a taste of this Bauhaus Master’s multimedia design aesthetic, as both music videos are contemporary takes on his famous Tr

Wrapping up my interview with crime historian Joan Renner, we delve deeper into an unsolved murder mystery. Joan explores her theory that the victim’s Black Dahlia persona began when she was still alive. Read part one, with more details of the Dahlia investigation, here. Our conversation picks up with Joan describing her passion for cosmetics ephemera from the 1920s and 1930s. Joan Renner: About twenty years ago I began to collect vintage face powder compacts. The compacts ni