Arts + Culture

Jessica Helfand|Essays

First In A Series: Cartophily

Ogden Optical Illusion Cards, early 1930sThe practice of saving cigarette cards — a sub-genre of collecting known as cartophily — formally lies somewhere on the spectrum between postage stamps and posters. (If they resemble the former …

John Thackara|Essays

Alternative Trade Networks and the Coffee System

Alterative trade networks are emerging in the coffee industry, attempting to eliminate the middle man.

Michael Bierut|Essays

My Handicap

I've come to know a little bit about demographics, customer profiling and market segmentation, and I can tell I'm supposed to care deeply about golf. But I don't.

William Davies King|Essays

Collections of Nothing

Collections of Nothing, detail of cover, design by Jill ShimabukuroPart personal memoir, part laundry list, and all of it enriched by extraordinary wit and honesty, William Davies King's new book proves that you don't have to be a designer …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Annals of Ephemera, Part III: Aging 2.0

Aging dye, one of the many materials found in the Making Memories Distressing Kit When I was little, my mother had an acquaintance who purchased, at considerable expense, a piece of brand-new furniture. Soon afterwards, she paid someone …

Michelle Hauser|Essays

Folk Photos

Girl Double Exposed, 1940s, 3 1/2 x 3 14/15 in. Photography’s inception in 1839 planted seeds that not only germinated into a new art form in the hands of professional photographers, but also quickly took root within the general …

Randy Nakamura|Essays

Steampunk'd, Or Humbug by Design

Illustration by Suzanne R. Forbes: Jake Von Slatt and Datamancer working on a steampunk keyboard. Image courtesy slurkflickr “A little reflection will show that humbug is an astonishingly wide-spread phenomenon — in fact almost …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Reflections on the Ephemeral World, Part Two: Food

Summer, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1573. (Oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris)A year or so ago, I was invited to tea, with perhaps half-a-dozen other women, at the home of the mother of one of my children's friends. Upon arrival, I noticed …

William Drenttel|Slideshows

Thoughts on Democracy, July 4 2008

During the summer of 1942, the American painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell embarked on a series of paintings that would come to be known as "The Four Freedoms." Inspired by an impassioned speech President Roosevelt had made a year …

John Thackara|Essays

We Are All Emerging Economies Now

I recently received an invitation to discuss design and development with a wonderful group of design peers in a beautiful location. But I have decided to decline the invitation. Why?

Alice Twemlow|Essays

Graphic Design at the Museum

The work of Graphic Thought Facility, a London-based graphic design consultancy, is on exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago until August 17. It’s the first time the Art Institute has staged a show solely on contemporary …

Andrew Blauvelt|Essays

Over the Rainbow

June marks the start of a month-long series of LGBT Pride celebrations in cities around the United States and the world, as well as the 30th anniversary of the rainbow flag — the de facto symbol of the LGBT community. While the visual …