Blog | Print Magazine

Nov 14, 2018
1 min

More de Harak Greatest Hits

A few weeks ago I published a rare capabilities brochure for Corchia de Harak Inc. In the meantime his wife, Carol de Harak, found a copy of a later version from 1983 when he became Rudolph de Harak & Associates. The work is exquisite. It made me realize the vast number of highly visible projects he worked on throughout the 1970s, especially as a pioneer of experience design. His exhibitions for the Met, Hudson River Museum, Eli Lilly and the inspiring Museum of the Printed W

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Mar 10, 2018
2 min

Weekend Heller: Warsaw Design In Two Museums

Warsaw has a long legacy as a capital of design innovation. This past week I did workshops at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology (PJAIT) at the invitation of the tireless design scholar Ewa Satalecka. Packed into the surprisingly numerous activities—all underscoring 2018, the 100th anniversary of Polish independence—two exhibitions stand out. 1. The Future Will Be Different Visions and Practices of Social Modernism After 1918 (Zachęta – National Gallery of

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Nov 11, 2017
1 min

Weekend Heller: What is Midcentury American Modern?

We’ll tell you on Nov. 20 when AIGA/NY presents “Meet The Moderns” at The New School John L. Tishman Auditorium. Tickets can be ordered here. Modernism transformed American graphic design in the mid-20th century and established a visual language that still carries tremendous authority. The Moderns: Midcentury American Graphic Design (Abrams Books) is the first comprehensive survey of this phenomenon, showcasing 63 graphic designers. Some were émigrés (including five Bauhaus s

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Dec 28, 2016
10 min

13 Best Graphic Novels & Books About Comics from 2016—A Designer’s Guide

You survived 2016 without having your head explode. So congratulations: You deserve at least one book by and about artists of comic strips, comic books and graphic novels. And here are some recommendations for designers who may also be animation addicts, history and/or biography fans, the politically and/or satirically oriented, the internationally inclined, eggheads, and/or just oddballs. And again: This was the oddest of oddball years, wasn’t it? See you in the funny papers

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Nov 18, 2016
1 min

A Little Taste of Modernity

Almost every era has defining design. The current exhibition at MoMA, “How Should We Live?” curated by Juliet Kinchin, explores the complex collaborations, materials and processes that have shaped the Modernist interior, with a focus on specific environments—domestic interiors, recreated exhibition displays and retail spaces—from the 1920s to the 1950s. It’s a joy to wander through the environments. I’ve long been fond of Streamline Modernism—the marriage of speed, kinetics,

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Sep 30, 2016
1 min

Drink ‘n’ Design

If you know of Austrian-born Joseph Binder‘s work at all, it is probably the 1939 New York World’s Fair Poster or his creations for the U.S. Army Air Corps. Binder (1898–1972) was one of the pioneers of “pictorial modernism” that was also practiced by the Binder acolyte Otis Shepard. This “Mixer’s Manual” is a less-known, but no less impressive (undated) example of how Binder’s work evolved toward the end of his career as a graphic designer. Put Your Type to the Test. All too

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Jun 25, 2015
4 min

Formless, Tasteless, Immortal: Flair Magazine, 1950-51

With Designing the Editorial Experience, discover what it means to design for multiple media, and gather advice from professionals in both the design and editorial fields. Two of the most groundbreaking, extraordinarily designed art and culture magazines premiered in 1950. Both strove for their own versions of transcendent elegance. Both were aggressively innovative in pushing the limits of print technology. And both folded after one year, primarily due to lavish production v

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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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Mar 24, 2015
1 min

The Fab Four (of Modernists)

Joined together by a shared yet divergent faith in Modernism, this unique undated photo of the Fab Four Modernist quartet includes (from left to right) Ladislav Sutnar, Bradbury Thompson, Alvin Eisenman and Paul Rand. Eisenman ran the design program at Yale, which was taught by Thompson and Rand. Sutnar was, well, Sutnar. Print’s Regional Design Annual 2015: Enter Today. The 2015 Regional Design Annual is now open. Don’t miss your chance to have your work reviewed by the best

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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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Jul 31, 2014
1 min

Book Jacket Modernism

Book jackets are a wellspring of graphic styles and often mirror what is going on in the design culture. I’ve long admired this pastiche of Russian constructivism for the book The Diary of a Communist Undergraduate from 1929. The author Nikolai Ognev (1888-1938) was active as a writer “before the October Revolution,” which, we’re told, he embraced enthusiastically. Ognev wrote a lot about the radical changes in education in the Soviet Union in the twenties, especially the int

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Jul 15, 2014
1 min

Overcoming Graphic Malaise

The American Crayon Company in Sandusky, OH published Everyday Art: News and Comment on the Trend of School and Industrial Arts as a means for the non-professional to enjoy the satisfaction of creation. A selling tool for American Crayon Company, it also suggested that an interest in art and design is an integral part of a well-rounded life. It went through various redesign incarnations; this one by John Follis and Rex Goode, graphic and industrial designers, vividly shows ho

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Apr 18, 2014
1 min

04/18/2014: Helvetica perfume

Here’s a collection of some creative uses for Helvetica, which include a lager, poster design, and this amusing perfume ad campaign. Helvetica Perfume, cleverly described as the ultimate Modernist perfume, is a product of creative collective Guts & Glory and is available to purchase for $32. Ideal for that special someone who wants to show off their traditionalist typography leanings. Via Creative Bloq. #Helvetica #humor #modernism #typography

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Mar 27, 2013
4 min

The History of Graphic Design

Laurence King Publishing recently released two “mini format” editions of books originally published ten years ago: “American Modernism” by R. Roger Remington and “No More Rules” by Rick Poynor. The two books pair well because they make clear how, and why, approaches to graphic design, particularly in America, developed between 1920 at the end of the twentieth century. There are countless lessons to be learned in both titles, but perhaps the most important one is found in Remi

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Nov 13, 2012
4 min

An L.A. View of Meggs's N.Y. School of Design

Everyone will approach the fifth edition of Meggs’ History of Graphic Design through their own personal filters. Steve Heller’s already done his overview of the print and digital versions. Paul Shaw may pick up his Blue Pencil to correct factual and editorial errors. Marxist and feminist critics might deal with the two Martha Stewart Living images used in the final chapter and repeated in the epilogue. And as always, students will view it as time taken away from their portfol

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Aug 29, 2011
7 min

Father of Modern Advertising

He couldn’t hear but he sure could see. Earnest Elmo Calkins, arguably the father of modern art in American Advertising, introduced elements of European Modernism to our shores. This story begins in 1925 at a playground of modernity in Paris along the banks of the Seine. The Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes was laid out in boulevards lined with fun houses of consumerism decorated with geometric ornament and neo-classical friezes incorporat

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Aug 5, 2010
1 min

Today's Obsession: Design Process of an NYC Subway Map

Here’s an interesting counterpoint to one of Steven Heller’s pieces at nytimes.com about the design of the New York subway map. While the Heller piece is a good survey of the history of the maps, this is a good from-the-trenches account of what it meant to actually design it. I like this as an addendum to Steven’s piece because it shows the stark contrast between what designers say they love and what actually works for the medium. Steven asserts in his piece that “aesthetical

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More de Harak Greatest Hits

Weekend Heller: Warsaw Design In Two Museums

Weekend Heller: What is Midcentury American Modern?

13 Best Graphic Novels & Books About Comics from 2016—A Designer’s Guide

A Little Taste of Modernity

Drink ‘n’ Design

Formless, Tasteless, Immortal: Flair Magazine, 1950-51

The Electric Anton Stankowski

The Fab Four (of Modernists)

When Euro Modernist Design Met American Chewing Gum

Book Jacket Modernism

Overcoming Graphic Malaise

04/18/2014: Helvetica perfume

The History of Graphic Design

An L.A. View of Meggs's N.Y. School of Design

Father of Modern Advertising

Today's Obsession: Design Process of an NYC Subway Map

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