If you are not a designer you are unlikely to have heard of the First Things First manifesto, and why should you? And on reading it for the first time you may think it is navel-gazing of the worthiest order—and it would be hard to disagree. First written and published in 1964 by designer KenContinue reading “Design for life—50 years after First Things First”
Category Archives: Graphic Design
Shelf / life
When I was a design student there didn’t seem to be an abundance of books about graphic design. There were obviously some, such as recommended canons on the discipline like Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, but they were few and far between. And none, to my eyes, seemed particularly contemporary in their approach to relatingContinue reading “Shelf / life”
Design classic
For the last few years I’ve set a short project for my graphic design students to declare what they believe to be a design classic. The purpose of this exercise is for them to think about measurable, objective criteria when judging a piece of graphic design rather than instinctively stating they ‘like’ something. As anContinue reading “Design classic”
Designers’ signatures
It is interesting to think why a signature on a piece of work attracts people to part with more money for an item than it might otherwise be ‘worth’, particularly for work by graphic designers.
The perfect Storm
It was very sad news to hear of the death of Storm Thorgerson last month. Without a shadow of a doubt, Thorgerson was one of the greatest album sleeve designers ever and there are probably few record collections that don’t boast some of his work amongst their ranks.
Graphic obscura
Earlier last month few could have escaped the surprise announcement of a new David Bowie album, scheduled for a March release, titled The Next Day. The artwork dropped with almost as much of a shock, to some, as the album. The artwork places a white square over the original iconic cover of “Heroes”, Bowie’s 1977 collaborationContinue reading “Graphic obscura”
Change a coming?
For a long time I’ve been quietly critical of D&AD’s education stance. Not that it hasn’t had one, but that it is overshadowed by its other activities to the extent it felt like a platitude. Further, it seemed that the opportunities that were available for students and their courses tended to be London centric andContinue reading “Change a coming?”
Someday…
Someday All The Adults Will Die: Punk Graphics 1971–1984, opened at the Hayward Gallery last week. To coincide with the opening private view, curator Johan Kugelberg hosted a panel discussion of some key designers involved in early punk graphics, along with cyberpunk author William Gibson. Apologising for co-curator Jon Savage’s absence—who was very punk byContinue reading “Someday…”
Signal
I read about Signal: A Journal of International Political Graphics & Culture, when Rick Poynor reviewed issue 02 for Design Observer recently, and his is a much better critique of this journal than I could give here, so I’ll keep this brief. Published in the United States, issue 01 came out in 2010, and wentContinue reading “Signal”
Analogue blog
I don’t know whether people still produce fanzines or not, but Kek-W is so tired of writing online that he has decided to produce one. Or rather, as he calls it, an analogue blog. Titled Kid Shirt, this is basically a physically constructed fanzine involving actual cut and paste, which has then been scanned as aContinue reading “Analogue blog”
Nigel Ball 