I’ve just finished reading Paul Sahre’s autobiography: Two-Dimensional Man: A Graphic Memoir, and it is one of the most untypical graphic design related books I have ever read. ‘Untypical’ because for much of the book Sahre writes about his personal and private life; and graphic design ‘related’ because, at times, his profession seems incidental to theContinue reading “A (very) graphic memoir”
Category Archives: Graphic Design
McJunk, accentuated
Although my McJunk project has been on hiatus for a while, I do occasionally post the odd example to Instagram. Believing that one person’s litter in the gutter is another person’s advert glaring from a billboard—because regardless of context, any representation of the McDonald’s logo reinforces brand recognition—I never thought that the company would sanction a marketingContinue reading “McJunk, accentuated”
Can graphic design kill you?
There is an irony to the fact that four days after the Can Graphic Design Save Your Life? exhibition opened at the Wellcome Collection, the biennial Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair kicked off at the ExCeL centre in London’s Docklands. The former, in the words of Creative Review, showcases graphic design usedContinue reading “Can graphic design kill you?”
Festival of Britain benches
I have had a fascination with the Festival of Britain since I came across one of its guidebooks several years ago and wrote an article about it for Eye magazine’s blog. In my day job I have also had the pleasure of hearing Abram Games’ daughter, Naomi Games, talk to students about her father’s work,Continue reading “Festival of Britain benches”
To Hull and back
In October last year I wrote about the visual identity for Hull City of Culture 2017. I’d mostly only ever heard negative things about the city but vowed to go there this year after seeing this deliberately attention grabbing piece of branding. Claire and I duly booked our summer holiday in the beautiful Lincolnshire WoldsContinue reading “To Hull and back”
Run / ? / tell
In the aftermath of the recent horrendous Manchester and London terrorist attacks, I was puzzled by the imagery used to accompany a new police warning advising people to RUN, HIDE and TELL if they should find themselves in the midst of such a situation. Seeing this for the first time on the Channel 4 news,Continue reading “Run / ? / tell”
Graphic commons: more banner frenzy and other temporalities
After my last walk in Chelmsford, I’ve been noticing more and more temporary banners tied to railings. So today I took a short walk around my local area to capture those I had seen whilst in the car. Unlike many that I saw in Essex, the ones I saw today were mostly ‘official’, in thatContinue reading “Graphic commons: more banner frenzy and other temporalities”
What goes around…
In the last few weeks I have seen several examples of a typographic strikethrough or other obscuring devices being used as metaphors within different projects. The first I noticed was in a Design Week article about Hope Not Hate’s rebrand, designed by Blue State Digital.
Graphic commons: progress and an Essex drift
Notes on current research As my graphic commons project grows and I’m formulating links between different urban studies and theories, I’m finding out how little research there appears to be into graphic design in shared environments, (within both current or historic thinking around the topic). This may obviously be because I just haven’t found itContinue reading “Graphic commons: progress and an Essex drift”
The definitive article
The Guardian have done it again in creating dynamic and impactful graphics to carry a story. But then I would have been disappointed had the triggering of article 50 for the formal start of Brexit been visualised by the paper in anything less than a dramatic style. While I have some sympathy with some design criticism onContinue reading “The definitive article”
Nigel Ball 