Blog | Print Magazine

Apr 15, 2020
2 min

Brand of the Day: Nike’s Colorful New Kicks

Today, Nike announced a slate of new shoes for sneakerheads to swoon over—and while we tend to prefer all things black, we’re reveling in the wonderland of color. First up is the Nike Adapt BB 2.0, which feels like a prototype that belongs more to a contemporary art museum than the streets of Greater China, where it launches April 18 before coming to the states in the summer. Next is Nike’s Vibrant Pack, which gives Air Max silhouettes a fresh wash and debuts this spring. As

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May 29, 2019
3 min

How Did Burgundy Become the Color of Officialdom?

Catholic school-girl plaids. Indestructible hotel carpets. A zillion university emblems. Wherever one finds a dreary bureaucracy, making weak swipes at respectability, the same color palette emerges over and over. Whether you call the burgundy color maroon or—for the literary-minded or sartorially inclined—cordovan or oxblood, this brick-red shade has somehow come to epitomize officialdom. But why? Burgundy: A Choice Some color mysteries crack easily upon research; others res

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Feb 12, 2019
3 min

Horror Comics: Image Comics is on Top

Horror comics are back. The genre hasn’t really raised its severed head since the 1950s, when an atmosphere of falsehoods, fears, and frightful foreboding infested our nation. And now that clandestine forces have managed to make America grating again, illustrated tales of terror have also once again become a thing. Return of the Scary Thing from the 1950s Graven Image Back during McCarthyism 1.0, our country experienced a glut of comic book publishers – Fawcett, Key, Atlas, e

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Jan 15, 2019
2 min

3 Best 2018 Comics and Graphic Novels for Teens

No Downside to These High-Quality Stories The good news is that there’s an enormous wealth of options for young comics lovers making the transition from children’s funnies to more mature fare, with a vast array of high-quality visual literature in a wide variety of categories. The bad news… well, there is no bad news. Here are three of the most recent artistically exceptional works in comic book and graphic novels for teens and young adults that will fascinate and stimulate b

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Dec 5, 2018
4 min

Pantone Names Living Coral 2019 Color of the Year

Color-nerds, rejoice! ‘Tis the season when we learn Pantone’s it-color for the coming calendar year. In 2019 it’s Pantone 16-1546 Living Coral, a vivid, warmly saturated shade between pink and orange. Pantone 2019 Color of the Year Living Coral Why “Living” Coral? “It’s good that you picked up on that,” says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute when we talked by phone. Not only does this name designate one coral among several in PMS’ gigantic co

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Oct 9, 2018
3 min

Fear and Hunger in Japan: On Anthony Bourdain’s Last Graphic Novel

By Michael Dooley Although Anthony Bourdain died before the release of Hungry Ghosts, he did review and approve the design of the last of his three graphic novels. That’s right: “graphic novels.” This acclaimed writer, chef, and TV host wasn’t only obsessed with cooking. Once an aspiring comics artist, Bourdain also had a passion for the medium in its myriad forms. He loved and collected adventure newspaper strips Milton Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates and Will Eisner’s The Sp

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Jul 27, 2018
5 min

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 a particular memory lingers is subject to intense revision based on current curiosities. Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, courtesy of the Litchfi

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Mar 1, 2018
3 min

60 Poster Design Ideas from the Regional Design Awards

Deadline to enter the RDA: April 2, 2018. The Regional Design Awards are one of the leading graphic design competitions in the nation—and the only design competition that recognizes excellent work by the region from which it originates. Boost your work, get discovered and get the recognition you deserve by entering the 2018 awards today. All winners will get their work in PRINT’s all new 365 Days of Design Inspiration book and special on-site recognition at HOW Design Live. N

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Dec 21, 2017
3 min

Rediscovering Nicole Claveloux, France’s Dali of Pop Art Comics Stories

The Green Hand and Other Stories by Nicole Claveloux is 2017’s best book in celebration of a European comics artist. Why? Glad you asked… Because thanks to this handsome hardcover compilation, we can finally come to appreciate and admire this master of French comics; her extraordinary career from the late 1960s to early ’80s has been unjustly overlooked for way, way too long. Because her radiantly colorful renderings of illuminated late afternoon landscapes and elongated shad

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Dec 7, 2017
4 min

Pantone’s Color of the Year Goes Ultra Violet

Bang the drums and sound the trumpets! Pantone’s 2018 Color of the Year is officially live today, and it’s Pantone 18-3838 Ultra Violet. A blue-shifted purple, Pantone describes the color as “provocative and thoughtful,” noting it “communicates originality, ingenuity, and visionary thinking that points us towards the future.” 18-3838-Ultra-Violet Pantone Color of the Year 2018 Colors-of-the-year announcements interest me intensely, as perhaps they interest you, dear readers.

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Oct 9, 2017
2 min

Remembering 61 Years of The Village Voice

[Call for Entries: The Logo Design Awards] On September 21, 2017, The Village Voice, a weekly New York City institution, published its final print edition, after 61 years. Begun in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher and Norman Mailer, over the years it garnered three Pulitzer Prizes, the National Press Foundation and George Polk Awards, and featured writers and critics such as James Baldwin, Allen Ginsberg, Henry Miller, Katherine Anne Porter, Ezra Pound, Lester Bangs, Robert Chris

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Sep 6, 2017
3 min

Color Wunderkammer: Color Facts, News and Trends for Fall 2017

[Call for Entries: The International Design Awards] Under a Blood Red Sky by Ian Sane: http://bit.ly/2wTM8QW Greetings, color fans! As summer reaches its last ebb, I’m getting fired up for cozy sweaters, chill-edged breezes and brilliant scarlet leaves crunching underfoot. Here are the latest color facts, news and trends to tide you over until s’mores season. The Pantone Color Institute recently teamed up with Prince’s estate to issue “Love Symbol #2”, an iconic purple shade

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Jul 15, 2017
2 min

A Brief History of the Color Wheel

The following is an excerpt from one of the newest HOWU courses: Color Theory for Designers led by Rachel Olson. Learn how to make wise color decisions for your future design projects. Gain a better understanding of color and how to apply color that will take your design projects to the next level. The Basics of Color: History of the Color Wheel Artists invented the first pigments – a combination of soil, animal fat, burnt charcoal, and chalk – as early as 40,000 years ago, c

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Mar 16, 2017
3 min

Focus on Color: 23 Award-Winning Design Projects Using the Color Green

As spring rolls in, we see more and more of the color green. If you’re a regular PRINT reader, you know that we love green, from its turbulent past and fascinating appearances throughout history. But we would be remiss if we did not look at some of the latest and greatest applications of the color green in contemporary design. Here we showcase some of the incredible winners of last year’s Regional Design Awards and explore the ways they have leveraged the color green in web d

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Mar 14, 2017
5 min

Chromaphilia: A Masterful Book About Color in Art Illuminates Graphic Design, Too

Chromaphilia: The Story of Color in Art, Stella Paul, Phaidon Press. “Color is stronger than language. It’s a subliminal communication,” writes artist Louise Bourgeois as quoted in the introduction to Chromaphilia: The Story of Color in Art by Stella Paul. Proceeding from this premise, Paul’s investigation into how color informs Western art through centuries of practice is nothing short of vast and psychoanalytic. Color acts as a kind of primary unconscious, motivating a rema

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Dec 28, 2016
1 min

Decoration Is Not A Four Letter Word

The D Word is bothersome to a few, but design is often largely about decoration. This unique 1928 volume Talens, which is a textbook on making decorative design for fabric and textiles was illustrated by J. Van Lerven from the school of Art and Design in Arnhem, with text by C. Vakahuizen Van Den Brink from Utrecht. If some of these patterns are reminiscent of the work of Hendrikus Theodorus Wijdeveld, whose Wendigen magazine was the flagship of Dutch modernism, it is because

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Dec 8, 2016
5 min

Pantone’s 2017 Color of the Year: Greenery!

Just as we’re starting to feel winter’s icy bite, Pantone’s annual Color of the Year announcement injects a much-needed shot of springtime. 2017’s shade is Greenery, Pantone 15-0343, “a fresh and zesty yellow-green” as described in their release. Pantone 15-0343 Every year, Pantone’s Color of the Year (COTY) provokes debate, inquiry, delight in some quarters, inspiration in others, with a reliable sprinkling of outrage: at the color chosen that year, at the very premise of a

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Jul 15, 2016
4 min

The Resurgence of Yellow Book Covers

Yellow’s hot, people—unsurprising, as we collectively swelter our way through the taxing brilliance of overly-hot times. The Wall Street Journal confirmed my own recent observations, idling through book stores, was no fever-dream but An Actual Thing Now. (If you can’t breach WSJ’s pay-wall, this friendly video recaps the article’s primary points.) The Reading Room and The Millions double-confirmed the trend, so here we are: blazing deep into the bright money-tunnel that is ye

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Apr 12, 2016
4 min

Color Matching Systems II: Best Practices for Choosing & Using Color

The second article in a series about color, color matching systems, and best practices. The first article in this series explained where color matching systems such as Pantone and Toyo came from, and best practices for attaining good color in print projects that are further developed in this article. Pots of ink at Purple Monkey silk screening. Some were purchased directly from a vendor using Pantone specifications and some were hand mixed by the owner, Michael Shoemaker. Fir

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Apr 1, 2016
3 min

In Praise of Imperfectly Dyed Easter Eggs

Easter Eggs by Grace on Flickr: http://bit.ly/1pRXzk9 April: it’s the season of hard-boiled eggs. We’re steadily eating – I almost typed “eagging” – our way down the ample supply of Easter eggs. Luckily – or unluckily – when your wingman is a voluble, handsy two-and-a-half-year-old, your round dozen of eggs will certainly get slimmed down with a few sacrificial-lambs. He cracks raw eggs with a cheerfully violent alacrity, and hard-boiled eggs are only partly protected against

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Brand of the Day: Nike’s Colorful New Kicks

How Did Burgundy Become the Color of Officialdom?

Horror Comics: Image Comics is on Top

3 Best 2018 Comics and Graphic Novels for Teens

Pantone Names Living Coral 2019 Color of the Year

Fear and Hunger in Japan: On Anthony Bourdain’s Last Graphic Novel

Color Problems: An Exciting New Reissue Revises Color Theory & Design History

60 Poster Design Ideas from the Regional Design Awards

Rediscovering Nicole Claveloux, France’s Dali of Pop Art Comics Stories

Pantone’s Color of the Year Goes Ultra Violet

Remembering 61 Years of The Village Voice

Color Wunderkammer: Color Facts, News and Trends for Fall 2017

A Brief History of the Color Wheel

Focus on Color: 23 Award-Winning Design Projects Using the Color Green

Chromaphilia: A Masterful Book About Color in Art Illuminates Graphic Design, Too

Decoration Is Not A Four Letter Word

Pantone’s 2017 Color of the Year: Greenery!

The Resurgence of Yellow Book Covers

Color Matching Systems II: Best Practices for Choosing & Using Color

In Praise of Imperfectly Dyed Easter Eggs

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