Category: Essays

Bruce Kennett|Essays

W.A. Dwiggins — The Greatest Designer You’ve Never Heard Of

Although Dwiggins’s name is less prominent in the world of design than it once was, he remains a potent and inspiring figure.

Jason Tselentis|Essays

The Annals of Smart Speaker Advertising: Overused Advertising Copy

Amazon, Google, and Apple promise that each of their smart speakers will do what you want and get what you need. And they all promise it using the same language.

Steven Heller|Essays

Notgeld: Emergency Money in Inflationary Germany

A look at the exemplary artistic quality of emergency substitute paper money created in Germany after WWI.

Steven Heller|Essays

Paul Rand’s Monkey Modernism

Paul Rand kept a file folder of sketches in his desk with the title “Monkeys and Elephants”. Why?

Toby Bottorf|Essays

Past Security: Notes on the Experience of Airports

Airports are designed to feel deliberately like nowhere. It’s sterility as a design choice.

Steven Heller|Essays

Benjamin Sherbow: The First Typographer?

Steven Heller brings us the story of Benjamin Sherbow, who revolutionized typography in the early 20th century.

Steven Heller|Essays

Everything Goes With Everything...

A document summing up Eliot Noyes design philosophy: found in Paul Rand’s papers.

Steven Heller|Essays

Creative Action Network: Profiting From A Nonprofit

CAN’s mission is putting artists to work telling stories that matter.

Steven Heller|Essays

Initial Caps: The Birth of Illustrated Typography

The “clip art” of Medieval manuscripts.

Véronique Vienne|Essays

Tell, Don’t Show: Algorithmic Thinking for Beginners

Algorithmic thinking: the ability to state precisely what you only know intuitively.

Steven Heller|Essays

Vanishing Mom and Pop Store Signs

It is, of course, inevitable that modernity subsumes the old. But for a New York minute, we can still enjoy these disappearing store fronts.

Steven Heller|Essays

Here Comes The Judge

A brief history of Supreme Court robe design.