Blog | Print Magazine

Feb 17, 2019
3 min

Retro Graphic Design Takes Flight in the Golden Era of Airline Posters

It wasn’t until the 1950s that commercial aviation became popular, which carved out an entire niche for graphic designers. A few of the ads at the heart of this retro graphic design era are on view in The Golden Age of Graphic Design 1950’s- 60’s: The ‘Mad Men’ of The Airline Poster, which is an exhibition on at the Chicago Center for the Print in Chicago. From Paris to London and all the way to the sunny beaches of Los Angeles, it showcases graphic design masterpieces by a s

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Nov 14, 2018
5 min

African American Designers in Chicago

Chicago is having a hot moment for design. The Chicago designer Virgil Abloh—famed for leading Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ design agency—was recently hailed as the world’s most influential designer since becoming the director of Louis Vuitton earlier this year (but hey, working with Kanye West previously probably didn’t hurt, either). Showcasing the Art of African American Designers Abloh is not the only African American designer who has made his mark on Chicago, as there have been

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Feb 6, 2018
3 min

Ferris’ “Favorite Thing…” is Everyone’s Favorite Graphic Novel

If there was a designer “best of the best ofs” list for comics, My Favorite Thing is Monsters would easily be 2017’s winner. As it is, Emil Ferris’s breakthrough, groundbreaking graphic novel—set in a hardscrabble late-1960s Chicago and in the rich interior life of a ten-year-old girl—seems to have appeared on practically every comics-centric books-of-the-year list. And publications from The New York Times to The Guardian and from Forbes to Mother Jones have joined the chorus

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Mar 22, 2017
4 min

Skip Williamson & Jay Lynch Kept the Fun in Underground Funnies

Those underground comix artists of the 1960s may have been renegade outlaws, but they didn’t escape the “90% of everything is crud” law. Even at the peak of their popularity, I’d flip through most pages of their comic books and simply see a bunch of bland, uninspired visuals blurring into a background of crosshatching chicken-scratchings with little or no sense of design. Only about a dozen stood out, but ah, what a dozen. There were Crumb and Spiegelman, naturally. And of co

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Sep 1, 2016
5 min

Designer of the Week: Jen Marquez

Meet Chicago-based Designer of the Week Jen Marquez, a graphic designer and handletterer who can frequently be found tweeting handlettered pieces inspired by her favorite food and bits of inspiration. Here, Marquez opens up about her struggles with discouragement, her acceptance of the process of learning and growing in her creative life, and the power of pushing yourself. Location: Chicago Design school attended: Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL How would you descr

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Feb 29, 2016
2 min

Duke Magazine: The First “Playboy” for Black Americans

The good news for those who read Playboy for its articles is that those pesky porn pics are now gone. The bad news, of course, is: no more cartoons! A 62-year heritage that saw the likes of Jack Cole, Shel Silverstein, Harvey Kurtzman, and Gahan Wilson is no more, as the ranks of mass magazine feature illustrations continue to dissipate. Still, thanks the numerous imitators, Hef’s bunny did leave a litter of literary and graphic sophistication from back in its heyday. Take th

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Sep 25, 2015
3 min

Designer of the Week: Matthew Muñoz

This year, you can enter anything created in conjunction with a logo design (business cards, animated GIFs, etc.) in the new Identity Applications category of HOW’s Logo Design Awards. Plus, all entrants will receive The Logo Brainstorm Book FREE, in addition to a 20% coupon code for My Design Shop. Deadline: Oct. 9. Designer of the Week Matthew Muñoz, chief design officer and partner at New Kind, specializes in storytelling in design, forming visual identities, strategy-buil

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May 26, 2015
3 min

Keeping Everyone in the Loop: 50 Years of Chicago “L” Graphics

A 1913 map of the Chicago Elevated system A recent visit to Chicago reminded me of how enamored I am of its rapid transit. It’s so much a part of what makes Chicago unique and exciting to me. Chicago is one of those cities with a “sound” to it—San Francisco being another—and the elevated “L” system is the reason why. Much of the original structure is almost 125 years old, yet it continues to be a vital element of the city’s circulatory system. When the “L” was built, and way

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Mar 25, 2015
2 min

Schwinn As Its Own Spokesperson

I love books that celebrate a company’s history — I must have two dozen of them, easy! My grabbing them up has less to do with my affinity for the actual corporation, and more with how much fun they seem to be having tooting their own horn. They always capture the spirit of the times with their use of graphics, etc., and they’re so often published with lovely production values. One of my favorite corporate chest-bangers is “50 Years Of Schwinn Built Bicycles” published in 194

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Nov 18, 2014
7 min

When Euro Modernist Design Met American Chewing Gum

“Typography needs to be audible. Typography needs to be felt. Typography needs to be experienced.” Do you agree? Enter Print’s Typography & Lettering Awards today. If your list of early 20th century and modernist design heroes is confined to the usual suspects – Rand, Lustig, Sutnar, and such – you probably haven’t heard of Dorothy and Otis “Shep” Shepard. These pioneers of populist American Modernism have unjustly escaped mainstream critical recognition for well over a half-

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May 26, 2014
1 min

Chicago’s Design Meat Market

Chicago is known for its meatpacking factories. Thanks to author Upton Sinclair’s 1906 muckraking novel The Jungle, The Windy City’s slaughterhouses were more or less made healthier for the workers. But that’s not our theme for today. Chicago has long promoted its designers and illustrators through a booklet known unambiguously as “27 Chicago Designers.” Each designer invited to show their “creative abilities” is given three pages on which to show anything that will serve the

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Jul 30, 2012
3 min

“Writers I Have Loved”—The Graphic Reflections Of Joshua Landsman

I’ve known Joshua Landsman for over 45 years. We went to the same junior-high/high school in Evanston, lllinois, and even worked on our school newsletter together. I was always in awe of his writing talent—and sense of humor. He’s since written screenplays and one-act plays—his “Frank Talk About Matters Big And Small” played at Chicago’s Organic Theater as part of the second Chicago Fringe Festival. What I wasn’t aware of was his talent as an illustrator/designer. After we re

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Aug 8, 2011
3 min

"The Mysterious Train" A Vintage Approach to "Motion" Graphics (with some brandi

This is my first posting for Imprint and I couldn’t be more thrilled to join these prestigious ranks! There will be no rhyme or reason to any of these posts other than trying to find fun visual stuff you might not have seen before. I suspect I’ll also be presenting things with some sort of a personal story attached. The majority of the material you’ll see is from the collection I’ve amassed since I was a kid. Up to this point I’ve used Facebook to share this stuff—it’ll be te

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Jan 6, 2011
2 min

Today's Obsession: The Beehive

The gorgeous Anne Hathaway, styled as Holly Golightly. Photographed for Vogue by Mario Testino. This is cute: did you know the beehive hairdo was created in Chicago? I didn’t. But it was! And it totally makes sense that a hard-workin’ hairstyle with industrial-strength holding agents and the ability to stay in place for a week at a time would be developed in the city that works its butt off. Margaret Vinci Heldt, who invented the style from her salon, Margaret Vinci Coiffures

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Jul 30, 2010
1 min

Today’s Obsession: Chicago by Efdemin

Released earlier in July, Efdemin’s Chicago is a dense piece of electronic dance that is an amazing work soundtrack. It’s a big, conflicted piece of composition, one referring to a vast city’s many boroughs and neighborhoods, easily reflected in Chicago’s broad, yet claustrophobic spaces—this is an aural tour through wide, partially-ruined streets, our many included cultures and languages. Available at iTunes. PopMatters has a great review. #music #chicago #patricking #itunes

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Retro Graphic Design Takes Flight in the Golden Era of Airline Posters

African American Designers in Chicago

Ferris’ “Favorite Thing…” is Everyone’s Favorite Graphic Novel

Skip Williamson & Jay Lynch Kept the Fun in Underground Funnies

Designer of the Week: Jen Marquez

Duke Magazine: The First “Playboy” for Black Americans

Designer of the Week: Matthew Muñoz

Keeping Everyone in the Loop: 50 Years of Chicago “L” Graphics

Schwinn As Its Own Spokesperson

When Euro Modernist Design Met American Chewing Gum

Chicago’s Design Meat Market

“Writers I Have Loved”—The Graphic Reflections Of Joshua Landsman

"The Mysterious Train" A Vintage Approach to "Motion" Graphics (with some brandi

Today's Obsession: The Beehive

Today’s Obsession: Chicago by Efdemin

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