Category: Slideshows

John Corbett|Slideshows

Sun Ra, Street Priest and Father of D.I.Y. Jazz

Sun Ra, photographer unknown, circa 1950, Chicago.The space-voices got me on a space wisdom beam, and the beam led me to Chicago.— Sun Ra, 1962April 13, 1956, Chicago. Sun Ra and his friend and manager Alton Abraham arrive at Balkan …

Steven Heller|Slideshows

The Other Monocle

Monocle, cover detail, design by Phil Gips, 1963.A whole lot of blog hoopla has been recently generated about Monocle, the spanking new art, culture and issues magazine from Wallpaper's creator Tyler Brûlé. He's the guy who …

William Drenttel|Slideshows

The Good Citizen's Alphabet

Cover design, Gaberbocchus Press, illustration by Franciszka Themerson, 1953.In these political times, so polarized with heated rhetoric, I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across a copy of Bertrand Russell's The Good Citizen's …

Lorraine Wild|Slideshows

Sister Corita: The Juiciest Tomato

In Daniel Berrigan’s words, Sister Corita is a "witch of invention." And there is no doubt that at least in those tumultuous years of the 1960s, her powers of invention seemed supernatural, if not divine... Corita’s work stands …

William Drenttel|Slideshows

Diversity as Form: The Yale Architecture Posters

Cover detail, Forty Posters for the Yale School of Architecture, 2006.Since 1998, Design Observer's Michael Bierut has worked in close collaboration with Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, designing more than 40 …

William Drenttel|Slideshows

Voting & Religion in America: A Slideshow

"Intermingling of Church and State," Boise, Idaho, anonymous photographer, 2006.I have voted in over twenty elections, including national, state and local elections. Two times I voted by absentee ballot from Europe. I have voted in three …

William Drenttel|Slideshows

Dangerous Beauty: The Art of the Shiv

A shiv is a weapon crafted from the limited resources of a prisoner's closed world. Crudely constructed from such things as spoons, shoelaces and upholstery tacks, shivs lie somewhere between the graceful and the grotesque. They're …

Michael Bierut|Slideshows

Variations on a Theme: New York's High Priorities

A half-page weekly feature in New York magazine has become a showcase for some of the world's best graphic designers.

Julie Lasky|Slideshows

Edward Hopper, Village Person

An acquaintance of mine teaches at New York University's School of Social Work. Not long ago, while I was visiting her in the department's Greek Revival mansion at 1 Washington Square North, she led me upstairs to the fourth floor with the …