Two years ago I wrote about Bob Linney, opening with: “I didn’t think I knew Bob Linney. It turns out though that I did—he was the mysterious designer behind a print that had been hanging in our house for some time. Bought by my wife from an antiques centre several years ago… I’ve been staringContinue reading “Finding Jacky Linney… and Tony”
Category Archives: Research
Graphic commons: A memory drift
Date: 18.05.2025Distance: 4 milesSteps: 9150Start: 11:50Ground covered: Town centre and feeder streets It’s been a while. Four hours to kill in the East Midlands gave me time to visit a town I lived in for five years in the 1980s, exactly 40 years ago. The intention wasn’t nostalgia, but that naturally occurred as memories jarredContinue reading “Graphic commons: A memory drift”
Apostrophizing
As we were finishing off writing the panel text for our forthcoming Picture Books For All exhibition about the Ipswich printer W. S. Cowell Ltd, Rob Ramsden, Vassiliki Tzomaka and I had an interesting debate around whether to apostrophize their name or not. Colloquially known as Cowells, we questioned whether this should be written asContinue reading “Apostrophizing”
Picture books for all: the journey of an exhibition
Nearly 3 years ago, when staring out of the window of a staff room at the University of Suffolk and watching Suffolk Archives’ new headquarters be built right next door to us, my colleague Rob Ramsden and I ruminated on what the archive of W.S. Cowell Ltd might have in it. That this archive wouldContinue reading “Picture books for all: the journey of an exhibition”
Graphic commons: End of year dérive
Date: 29.12.2020Distance: 5 milesSteps: 10,812Start: 13:34Ground covered: Residential to industrial area to dockside, return via town centre side-streets and residential areas As the end of the year looms I felt it was appropriate to head out into Tier 4 territory for one last dérive of 2020. Fearing a Tier 5 being implemented, given the dramaticContinue reading “Graphic commons: End of year dérive”
Graphic commons: an unexpected drift
Date: 10.12.2020Distance: 2.4 milesSteps: 5271Start: 07:37Ground covered: Residential area to dockside, return via university campus What started as simple exercise, to try to stave off a bad back from sitting at a desk for far too many hours, turned into a drift; the first one proper since my Lockdown 1.0 Constitutionals side project back inContinue reading “Graphic commons: an unexpected drift”
Virtually speaking
I recently wrote an article for Eye magazine’s blog about the wealth of online talks and interviews that have sprung up as a result of Covid-19 and lockdown. These have been a godsend to my students, and I’m sure a great many more. I go on to write about my hope that such initiatives continueContinue reading “Virtually speaking”
Graphic commons: Government sanctioned dérives
Making the most of the ‘sanctioned’ time I am allowed out to exercise during the UK government’s coronavirus pandemic ‘lockdown’, I have been drifting through my neighbourhood on a daily basis for the last week. Despite the awkwardness of swapping sides of the road every time I see someone coming in my direction, this hasContinue reading “Graphic commons: Government sanctioned dérives”
The Fundamentals of Graphic Design
It was an honour to have my revision of The Fundamentals of Graphic Design published by Bloomsbury recently. It was a daunting job to take on, given how good the original edition by Gavin Ambrose and Paul Harris was. Early on I decided I didn’t want to radically alter vast amounts of what they hadContinue reading “The Fundamentals of Graphic Design”
Aesthetics of convenience
In the first of a series of publications that investigate different aspects of the graphic commons, Aesthetics of Convenience explores the vinyl window displays of convenience stores. Through a photographic and textual discussion of how these ‘little and often’ shop window displays affect human behaviour and environmental ambiences, the paper seeks to encourage a discussion aboutContinue reading “Aesthetics of convenience”
Nigel Ball 