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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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- May 20, 2019
- 8 min
Seeing the Invisible: A Q&A About Creativity With Painter Jinn Bronwen Lee
I like getting inside other creative people’s heads, particularly if their disciplines aren’t identical to my own. Consider this Print Q&A with fiction writer Alice Mattison or this interview with painter David Schutter, one of several “Process” Q&As I’ve written for The Believer. It’s gratifying to learn how and why other creatives make works, solve problems, and know when they’re done. So much creativity lies adjacent to making the work: preparing mentally; fixing a work wh
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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 22, 2018
- 6 min
What Makes a Great Picture Book Tick?
By: Jude Stewart | October 22, 2018 Reverse-Engineering Visual Literacy with NYRB Why aren’t graphic designers more gaga for picture books – particularly in this golden era of inventive kid-lit? What can picture books – the building blocks of actual literacy – teach us about visual storytelling across many media? I’ve been fixated on these questions for a while and interviewing picture book experts to learn more. (See my Q&A with Argentinian author-illustrator Isol, a review
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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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- 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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- Dec 7, 2015
- 21 min
25 of the Best Design Books of 2015
… Or, perhaps better put, a highly subjective (alphabetical) list of design books that the Print team read and loved in 2015. (And, of course, to check out the list of books HOW+Print published this year, click here.) What was your favorite design book of 2015? Let us know in the Comments. We’ll be doing a random drawing for some of the titles below in early January. And now! Books. Glorious books. * Art Chantry Speaks By: Art Chantry, edited by Monica Rene Rochester Official
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- Oct 13, 2015
- 3 min
Patternalia: The Whimsical Culture & History of Patterns
Jude Stewart—author, color guru and regular Printmag.com contributor—has done it again. In her latest book, Patternalia: An Unconventional History of Polka Dots, Stripes, Plaid, Camouflage, & Other Graphic Patterns, Stewart takes an inquisitive dive into the world of patterns. From cultural significance of polka dots to the historical progression of stripes and plaids, Patternalia explores pattern with scintillating wit and refreshing enthusiasm. I’m already a big fan of Stew
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- Sep 25, 2015
- 4 min
Color & Pattern Run (Gloriously) Amok at NYC Fashion Week 2015
Trina Turk I love a little avocational graphic design gambit —and nothing beats the glitter-strewn runways of New York Fashion Week. The unabashed grandiosity of the event is oddly comforting: as soon as one stops fretting about its silly excesses, you can freely admire the titanic imagination at play. And while attending live is no doubt aces, the virtual runway feels every bit as rife with opinion, titter, commentary, gasps, lollygagging – a total, and totally enjoyable, sc
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- Jun 17, 2015
- 3 min
Wunderkammer of Color, June 2015 Edition
Find 13 color resources—including Jude Stewart’s Roy G. Biv—in the Ultimate Guide to Color Collection from MyDesignShop, now 76% off. Welcome to summer, color fans. Time to plunge our already sunburned paws back into the grab-bag of color and see what’s fresh, sparkling and new. http://graphics.wsj.com/avengers/ Riffing on my recent series about color as data (catch up with part 1 and part 2 here), let’s start today’s proceedings with a few well-considered infographics where
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- May 28, 2015
- 3 min
Chromatic Abstraction: Color as Data, Part 2
Colorific data-nerds! Welcome back to part 2 of my tiny series on color-as-data, considering the coolly abstracted life of color as a mere data-point. In the last post, I plumbed the tension between words and the colors they label, colors as hex values (and endlessly strobing online timepieces), the accidental meanings of Pantone numbers, like Pantone 666: the color of the beast is actually a pernicious periwinkle. Let’s pick up there, shall we? Illustration from ROY G. BIV b
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- Feb 2, 2015
- 4 min
The Unlikely Beauty That Is Beige
Color is critical to any successful design project – yet nailing the ideal color palette for a project is notoriously tough. Beyond the Color Chart, an online course with Jude Stewart, will teach you to wield color more intelligently in your graphic design practice. Learn more and register. Square in beige 1 by glasseyes view on Flickr: http://bit.ly/1BVQCPn “Beige is the color of evil,” begins Andrea Codrington’s 2001 essay for the “Colors” column in Cabinet Magazine. She’s
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- Dec 10, 2014
- 3 min
Pantone’s 2015 Color of the Year is Positively Delicious
Drumroll, please. Today Pantone announces its 2015 Color of the Year, and this year’s choice is rich and delectable: Marsala, aka Pantone 18-1438 TCX. Following on the last three years—last year’s color Radiant Orchid, 2013’s Emerald and 2012’s Tangerine Tango—Marsala represents a departure from bold, candy-line hues into earthier territory. I spoke by phone with Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®, about the thinking that went into this year’
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- Nov 10, 2014
- 4 min
More Magical, Turbulent History of The Color Green
Jude Stewart’s Beyond the Color Chart Bootcamp will teach you to wield color—including the color green, as detailed below—more intelligently in your graphic design practice. Register for this online course here. Welcome to part 2 in my mini-series on the new book GREEN: The History of a Color by French art historian Michel Pastoureau. The third volume in a five-book series, GREEN traces a remarkably detailed history of the color’s ups and downs in Western culture. (Catch up o
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- Sep 12, 2014
- 3 min
The Symbolism of Frogs and Toads
Tangent-lovers, greetings! I’m taking a break from completing my second book, an illustrated cultural history of patterns, to explore a fun sideline topic: the symbolism of frogs and toads. Bees and rabbits yielded excellent tales both. What do frogs and toads, so commonly featured in imagery over time, symbolize across different cultures and contexts? Frogs symbolize rain and humidity: https://www.behance.net/gallery/10094575/Alexandra-Wolf In The Complete Dictionary of Symb
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- Aug 28, 2014
- 2 min
The Symbolism of Animals: Rabbits and Hares
by Jude Stewart As I’ve been conducting research for my next book, I’ve discovered a treasure trove of interesting information about the symbolism of animals. In my last article, I looked at the symbolism of bees and these fascinating creatures who have a long history of representing various concepts. And then there’s rabbits and hares. I looked into these critters while researching the triskelion and — yes! — fell down a rabbit-hole. Three-legged cousin to the swastika, the
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- May 16, 2014
- 3 min
How the Zebra Got Its Stripes
Pattern fans, here’s today’s $64,000 question: How can we explain zebra stripes? Plausible theories abound dating most famously from a debate between Charles Darwin and fellow 19th-century biologist Alfred Russel Wallace. To debunk your first (likely) guess: It’s not about camouflage. As Darwin pointed out, zebras graze in open savannahs, not amid thick vegetation where their stripes could serve as decent camouflage. Other theories: Zebra stripes serve as displays of individu
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- Mar 24, 2014
- 4 min
Inspiration: The Geometric Patterns of the Alhambra
Plate from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones (1856) “The Alhambra is at the very summit of perfection of Moorish art, as is the Parthenon of Greek art. We can find no work so fitted to illustrate a Grammar of Ornament as that in which every ornament contains a grammar within itself.”
—Owen Jones, The Grammar of Ornament, 1856 To patterns enthusiasts, the Alhambra looms large in the imagination—“a pearl set in emeralds,” according to Moorish poets, alluding to its whitewas
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- May 20, 2013
- 4 min
10 Fantastic Pattern Books for Children
When the inscribed circles of fate align such that you are simultaneously: a) seven months pregnant, b) write about graphic design, and c) froth enthusiastically at the mention of color and patterns, well: it becomes high time to blog about smashingly beautiful children’s books on same. Today’s post is first in a two-part series, highlighting 10 books you’ll want to snag for the pattern-loving-kid (or parent-to-be) in your life. Soon we’ll tackle a top ten of amazing color bo
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