Blog | Print Magazine

Apr 14, 2020
1 min

10 Mini Portfolios We Love From #PortfolioDay

You might not know what day it is … but at least it’s #PortfolioDay! The Twitter portfolio-sharing bonanza, which was started by Audrey Gonzalez, happens quarterly on the second Tuesday of the month. Hopefully by the time the next one rolls around—July 14—we’ll be living in a much healthier world. In the meantime, here are 10 portfolios we loved from today’s outing. Hi #PortfolioDay! I’m Jenn, a cinematographer + director. I make narrative & documentary films with a passion f

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Feb 3, 2020
1 min

Design Caucus: Vote for a Democratic Presidential Logo

Print has been acquired by an independent group of collaborators—Deb Aldrich, Laura Des Enfants, Jessica Deseo, Andrew Gibbs, Steven Heller and Debbie Millman—and soon enough, we’ll be back in full force with an all-new look, all-new content and a fresh outlook for the future! With the Iowa caucuses this week, it’s time to vote … not on the issues, but on the aesthetics. Welcome to Round 2 of the Democratic Presidential Logo bracket! In Round 1: Tulsi Gabbard pulled off a nar

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Jun 5, 2019
2 min

Punk for a Day: Graphic Design History and the Punk Aesthetic

Youth culture is known for rebellion. But insurgence may have hit a a fever pitch in 1970s Britain with the start of punk and the emergence of the punk aesthetic. Maintaining the ideology that “anyone can do it,” the young punks of the time began transforming the music scene from polished and produced to something fast and aggressive. Independently made 7-inch vinyl became the center of design for the nihilistic disruptors influenced by Dadaist collage, the 1960s underground

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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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Mar 8, 2018
4 min

Chris Ware’s Newest Book is the Smartest Monograph on Earth

Enter PRINT’s Regional Design Awards for your chance to see your work in an all-new book by PRINT, and to win a Big Ticket to HOW Design Live, a main-stage trophy presentation and other exclusive opportunities on-site, including a lunch date with a HOW Design Live speaker and an invitation to the official Speaker Reception with industry movers and shakers at HOW Design Live. Chris Ware’s Building Stories was one of the best books of 2012. And that’s not just me talking. That’

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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 20, 2017
3 min

Best New Comics Anthologies: A Visual Sampling

So many outstanding comics anthologies, so little quality eyeball time. But worry not: Print’s come to your rescue. Last year we surveyed “wonder women artists” nominated for San Diego Comic-Con’s Eisner Awards, located here. And on Tuesday we provided you with a visual sampling of this year’s top nominees, and you’ll find that here. And today we’ll wrap up with a design-based survey that highlights some of the more graphically striking and skillfully adventuresome artists wi

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Jul 18, 2017
3 min

A Designer’s Visual Guide to Comic-Con’s Eisner Awards Nominees

You may have heard that San Diego’s holding its massive annual gathering of pop culture tribes this week. Comic-Con International is one of the biggest and—having launched in 1970—longest-running in the United States. And 2017’s Eisner Awards, comicdom’s most prestigious ceremonial honors event—which I covered here last year—is particularly noteworthy as it’s the birth centennial of its namesake. Will Eisner is, of course, the famed artist/writer of the revolutionary, groundb

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Jun 2, 2017
11 min

Exploring Project Neverland: Playfulness and the Creative Art Process

“I won’t grow up. I don’t want to go to school, just to learn to be a parrot and recite a silly rule.” Graphic designers, creative souls whose livelihoods depend on maintaining a youthful, unfettered imagination, can relate to this song from the 1954 Peter Pan musical starring Mary Martin. Even grumpy old Paul Rand, with all his silly Modernist rules, recognized the value of child’s play. And “Project Neverland,” an art exhibition currently at Burbank’s Center Stage Gallery,

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Dec 4, 2016
2 min

A Brief History in Layout Design: The Early Grid Systems

We hear about International Style, also known as Swiss Style, often. And for good reason. The asymmetrical organization of design elements captivates the eye and the mind. International Style is famous for disrupting print design. Let’s review the history of early grid systems for layout design that led up to the International Style. Sessions College professor Thom McKenna explains the early grid systems in this excerpt from his course, Advanced Layout Design: Early Grid Syst

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Oct 30, 2016
1 min

How to Create the Best Digital Portfolio for Graphic Designers

Updating resumes and online portfolios should be a routine we all do, rather it’s quarterly, semi-annually or annually. This reference guide to your abilities will make you stand out to potential employers and clients because it showcases how you translate ideas and convey concepts with your designs. A well-curated sample of designs is the best digital portfolio for graphic designers to demonstrate their adeptness at design thinking and problem-solving. Pinpointing noteworthy

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Aug 1, 2016
5 min

Fascinatingly Awful Stock Photography

Let us start by acknowledging three universal facts. First: stock photography sites are packed, in surprisingly equal measures, with both great and terrible images. Second: something about the truly terrible images—as opposed to the merely uninspired ones—can be thunderously beautiful. Third: The two previous statements form an interesting tension worthy of examination. Why are bad images so very intriguing? Here’s why: Stock photography is hedged on all sides, both by unspok

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Jun 27, 2016
15 min

Black Designers: Missing in Action (1987)

The author of a 30-year-old Print article on diversity, Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller, surveys the industry in our summer 2016 issue to see who is designing the solution to a problem that continues to this day. Here, we share her first Print article—the one that started the conversation. [Update: Read Holmes-Miller’s 2016 follow-up here.] Black Designers: Missing in Action By Cheryl D. Miller The reasons there are so few blacks in the design field are complex and frustrating. But m

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Dec 3, 2015
5 min

Drumroll, Please: The 2016 Pantone Color of the Year…

Tighten your suspenders (or garter belts), color fans. The 2016 Pantone Color of the Year (“COY”, in colorist parlance) could knock you flat for multiple reasons. In a first in COY’s 15-year history, Pantone has selected, not one shade, but two. And these two particular shades are bound for frenzied controversy, heated debate, and Interwebs bashing-and-praise galore: Serenity and Rose Quartz, a gender-bending duo of pale pink and blue. Pantone UNIVERSE mugs in the 2016 colors

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Oct 26, 2015
8 min

Voodoo, Guns & Whiskey at the AIGA National Conference

Everyone on stage at the AIGA National Conference started swigging and sharing Southern Comfort, and the two thousand designers in the audience went wild with joyous laughter. First were the five young contestants. The bottle was then handed to host Sean Adams, and then to the judges: Gail Anderson, Aaron Draplin, Robynne Raye, and Marc English in the guest seat, who took the longest, heartiest guzzle. After all, it was celebration time back in New Orleans. And it was part of

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Apr 20, 2015
5 min

2015 AIGA Medalist Emory Douglas

By: Natalie Boyd | April 20, 2015 Each year, AIGA selects a series of designers and visual artists to present with the AIGA Medal. A truly distinguished honor, the medal is awarded to individuals in recognition of their exceptional achievements, services or other contributions to the field of design and visual communication. Emory Douglas, one of the five artists honored as a 2015 AIGA Medalist, spurred civil rights education and reform through his design work. A revolutionar

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Apr 2, 2015
1 min

The Electric Anton Stankowski

German graphic designer Anton Stankowski (1906–1998) was a master of the minimal—and a pioneer of what was referred to as “constructive graphic art” that involved using photographic media. He was also a master of visual shorthand, with emphasis on logos, the minimalist Deutsche Bank, the Münchner Rückversicherungen, REWE and Olympic Congress Baden-Baden. I recently found a long-lost file with a portfolio of ads he designed for Standard Elektrik Lorenz from his hometown, Stutt

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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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Mar 6, 2014
3 min

The Pleasures of Pattern Design: Lotta Kühlhorn Q&A

Pattern-lovers, you’ll want to gobble this up. Gestalten Verlag’s new Designing Patterns by Lotta Kühlhorn gives a smart, candid, rollicking tour through one illustrator’s life-long fascination with everything pattern-related. The book skips effortlessly between pragmatic tips on pattern-making and pattern design to a personal imaginarium of sorts, in which Kühlhorn reveals how thinking in patterns permeates all her work—indeed, her daily observations at almost every level.

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Jan 14, 2014
2 min

Print’s February 2014 Issue

By: Jinnie Compton | January 14, 2014 The Sex & Design Issue: This month, we take a tasteful look at everything from sex itself to sexuality. Plus, we draw attention to the artists and projects, such as the racy Secret Behavior magazine, that explore sex. We even sneak behind the black bars of censorship to understand why certain comics are so controversial. PURCHASE COPY or PDF | DOWNLOAD SINGLES | SUBSCRIBE (In Print or iPad Version) Cover by Rodrigo Corral. FEATURES Peepin

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10 Mini Portfolios We Love From #PortfolioDay

Design Caucus: Vote for a Democratic Presidential Logo

Punk for a Day: Graphic Design History and the Punk Aesthetic

Horror Comics: Image Comics is on Top

Chris Ware’s Newest Book is the Smartest Monograph on Earth

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

Best New Comics Anthologies: A Visual Sampling

A Designer’s Visual Guide to Comic-Con’s Eisner Awards Nominees

Exploring Project Neverland: Playfulness and the Creative Art Process

A Brief History in Layout Design: The Early Grid Systems

How to Create the Best Digital Portfolio for Graphic Designers

Fascinatingly Awful Stock Photography

Black Designers: Missing in Action (1987)

Drumroll, Please: The 2016 Pantone Color of the Year…

Voodoo, Guns & Whiskey at the AIGA National Conference

2015 AIGA Medalist Emory Douglas

The Electric Anton Stankowski

When Euro Modernist Design Met American Chewing Gum

The Pleasures of Pattern Design: Lotta Kühlhorn Q&A

Print’s February 2014 Issue

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