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Articles

A selection of graphic design articles based on the design artefacts in the archive. Articles discussing aspects of design such as logos, advertisements, posters and book covers. Explore historical context and its impact on the field of graphic design.
Design after Capitalism Transforming Design Today for an Equitable Tomorrow By Matthew Wizinsky
  • Design Books

Design after Capitalism: Transforming Design Today for an Equitable

How design can transcend the logics, structures, and subjectivities of capitalism: a framework, theoretical grounding, and practical principles. A new book published by MIT Press written by Matthew Wizinsky.
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Members Content

Trademarks of the World, Yusaku Kamekura, 1958
  • Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content

Paul Rand on Japanese Trademark Design

Paul Rand, one of the most acclaimed American designers is known for his iconic corporate identities, playful illustration and commercial art. Paul wrote the preface for Yusaku Kamakura's book, Trademarks of the World, 1958. He states his influence of Japanese art and design, trademarks as a universal language and his struggles with English grammar.
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Members Content

Scan 415
  • Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content

Manifestos on Kinetic Art

Kinetic art refers to art the depends on movement for its desired effect and is closely related to op art. Upon scanning a few of the inner inserts from the Kinetics exhibition catalogue from the Hayward Gallery, London, 1970, I came across these five small manifestos on kinetic art.
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To Have and To Hold: A visual collection of paper bag ephemera from a bygone era.
  • Design Books

To Have and To Hold: A visual collection of paper bag ephemera from a bygone era

To Have and To Hold, contains hundreds of bag designs collected during over half a century. The book is a must-buy for anyone interested in ephemera, the history of design or British high street history.
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Graphis Magazine - Graphic Design History
  • Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content

Graphis – An inspiring magazine from cover to cover

Graphis is one of the industries most long-standing magazines. It was first published in 1944 and founded by Walter Herdeg and Walter Amstutz in Zurich, Switzerland. It was released bimonthly and was trilingual, with articles in English, French and German.
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Theo Crosby and Architectural Design Magazine
  • Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content

Theo Crosby and Architectural Design Magazine

Theo Crosby was born in South Africa in 1925 and moved to Britain in the late 1940s. He was a highly skilled designer, architect and sculptor. He became the technical editor of Architectural Design magazine in 1953 and remained in the post for almost a decade. The large format magazines feature an array of content including information on buildings, materials and architectural plans.
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montages5
  • Designer Profile

Ken Garland

Ken was born in 1929, in Southampton and grew up in a small market town in North Devon. He was a principled man, with strong values and views against the hyper-consumerism we live with today. Ken studied at the London Central School of Arts and Crafts in the 1950s and was taught by Herbert Spencer, Anthony Froshaug and Jesse Collins. Whilst at the School he studied alongside designers Ken Briggs, Alan Fletcher and Colin Forbes.
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Outdoor Recreation Archive
  • Designer Interview

The Outdoor Recreation Archive

The Utah State University (USU) houses a vast collection of Outdoor Recreation Catalogues and magazines, You can browse and search records of more than 8,000 catalogues and magazines from over 500 companies, including manufacturers like Lowe Alpine and Sierra Designs to retailers like Eastern Mountain Sports and REI.
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Harriet and Sylwia, Projekt26
  • Designer Interview

Projekt 26. An online store dedicated to vintage Polish posters

Projekt 26 is a fantastic online store dedicated to vintage Polish posters, as well as operating online, both Harriet and Sylwia also run poster markets, social accounts full of the vibrant works and have a radiating passion and knowledge of the subject.
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  • Designer Interview

Rob Walker (Signs by Umberto)- Precision, Craft and the Love of Letters

I have known Rob for over a decade and I have been a huge admirer of his work. He specialises in reverse gilded glass sign making, typographic murals and traditional sign-writing.
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Design, Council of Industrial Design, 91, July 1956. Cover design by Ken Garland
  • Design Archive Feature

Ken Garland and the Industrial Magazine, Design

Before setting up Ken Garland & Associates in Camden, London, Ken was art editor of Design magazine in 1956. The magazine was published by the Council of Industrial Design, which was set up in 1944 with the prime focus of supporting Britains economic recovery.
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and-so-to-the-Needlework-Development-Scheme
  • Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content

And So…the Needlework Development Scheme

Both the And So To Embroider & And So to Sew bulletins were published by the Needlework Development Scheme. Established in 1934 and operating until 1961, the scheme was a partnership between educational establishments (Scottish art schools, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow) and industry.
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Ghost-Signs-A-London-Story-Cover-banner-1
  • Design Books

Ghost Signs: A London Story

The most comprehensive account of ghost signs ever published, focusing on London’s hand-painted relics of advertising past
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design-reviewed-twitter
  • Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content

Industrial Design Magazine – American Modernist Inspiration

Industrial design was an American design magazine featuring furniture, ceramics, housewares, appliances, automobiles, buildings, radios, projectors, televisions, and many other objects designed for the postwar middle class. First published in the 1950s by Charles Whitney with Alvin Lustig as art director.
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Gallery-wall-2
  • Events

London – New vintage poster fair ‘Projekt Mkt’ brings soulful sustainability to the affordable art market

The UK’s first vintage poster market is to launch as a 3-day pop-up at the Copeland Gallery in Peckham 14-16 May. Entry is free.
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design-book-recommendations-copy-1
  • Design Books

Graphic Design Books for Students Part 1

From time to time members of the Graphic Design History group and others have asked for a number of recommendations for books related to design history, theory and specific areas of graphic design. This is the first of a series of articles from educators, designers and archivists featuring book recommendations and resources.
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  • Designer Interview

Simon Dixon: Influences, Technology and Creating Work You Love

Simon Dixon is the co-founder of DixonBaxi and has been at the forefront of exceptional design from the start of his carreer. This year, DixonBaxi, celebrated twenty years in business, and their team of forty work with clients such as WWE, MAX, Premier League, Channel 4 and Netflix.
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a-history-arab-graphic-design_0008_Background copy
  • Design Books

Documenting a Century of Design Inspiration – a History of Arab Graphic Design

Both educators have a keen interest in multiscriptual design, Arabic type design, and graphic design and recently released A History of Arab Graphic Design. I contacted Bahia and Haythem to find out more.
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Jazz Journal, 8, 1966. Cover design by Cal Swann
  • Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content

Jazz Journal. Britain’s longest enduring jazz magazine.

Jazz Journal was first published in 1946 by Sinclair Traill, who also had some of his photographs used on the covers. The magazine is now online but remained in print for several decades, as Britain's longest enduring jazz magazine.
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THE IBM POSTER PROGRAM VISUAL MEMORANDA Robert Finkel and Shea Tillman
  • Design Books

The IBM Poster Program: Visual Memoranda

In the late 1960s, IBM was one of the world’s pre-eminent corporations, employing over 250,000 people in 100 countries. While Paul Rand’s creative genius has been well documented, the work of the IBM staff designers who executed his intent outlined in the IBM Design Guide has often gone unnoticed.
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The Complete Film Posters of Hans Hillmann
  • Design Books

Moving Pictures – The complete film posters of Hans Hillmann

This book shows, for the first time, all of Hans Hillmann’s film posters. Unpublished sketches and drafts from his estate along with commentary from conversations and interviews provide an insight into the creative process of the award-winning designer.
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Online Archive - Hans Hillmann
  • Design Inspiration

Rediscover Hans Hillmann digitally

A new online archive makes the complete works of the famous graphic designer accessible
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hilately · Bicycle Lane System · Martín Azambuja · 2019.
  • Design Inspiration, Designer Interview

Gabriel Amijai Benderski Perez and the Uruguayan Graphic Design Archive

Gabriel sent me a link to his amazing Uruguayan Graphic Design Archive when I launched Design Reviewed. The content was so amazing, I ended up spending a good hour looking through the content and it has definitely made it to my bookmarks.
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de_harak_11
  • Design Books

Volume launches the first major retrospective of American graphic design polymath and mid-century modernist master, Rudolph de Harak

In the ambitious new monograph Rational Simplicity: Rudolph de Harak, Graphic Designer, Volume shines a light on the complete arc of the exceptionally rich and varied career of Rudolph de Harak, showcasing his vibrant, graphic, formally brilliant work, which blazed a colourful trail through the middle decades of the twentieth century.
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Artefacts designed by Ken Garland
  • Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content

Ken Garland and Galt Toys

I first came across Kens work in the Unit Edition’s superb monograph, Structure and Substance, published in 2012. Although I had owned a few of the British industrial design magazines, Design, for a few years before, in which Ken had designed numerous covers for.
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DSC_0677
  • Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content

Ken Briggs and his iconic designs for the National Theatre

The typographic designs produced for the National Theatre by Ken Briggs are not only iconic and depict the Swiss typographic style of the time, but remain a key example of the creation of a cohesive brand style.
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Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1 opus 35 & No. 2 opus 102. Record 2 Rudolph de Harak.
  • Design Archive Feature, Members Only Content, Music Artwork

Rudolph de Harak and Westminster Records

Rudolph de Harak designed over 50 record covers for Westminster Records as well as designing covers for Columbia, Oxford and Circle record labels. His bright, geometric graphics can easily be distinguished and recognised.
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Interviews

Designer Profiles