Arts + Culture

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 …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Reflections on The Ephemeral World, Part One: Ink

Half-size manila blank paper notebooks with "makeready" covers by Trip Print Press, TorontoI was on a press check recently, deliriously inhaling the pervasive aroma of ink (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it) whereupon, feeling very …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Iron Man: The Screen Behind the Screen

Robert Downey, Jr. in Iron Man. 2008, Paramount Pictures. Photographs courtesy of Hollywood Chicago.In Barry Levinson’s 1994 thriller, Disclosure, Demi Moore plays a computer specialist who is sued for sexual harassment. (Michael Douglas …

Debbie Millman|Audio

Spoken Word Broadcast

All spoken word show featuring poems, prose and a short story.

Adam Harrison Levy|Essays

The Passion of George Lois

How adman George Lois chronicled the sixties with his cover designs for Esquire magazine, with a peek behind the scenes at the legendary famous Muhammad-Ali-as-St. Sebastian photoshoot.

Tom Vanderbilt|Slideshows

Blast-Door Art: Cave Paintings of Nuclear Era

Photograph by Robert Lyon, courtesy of Daniel FrieseAt the back of what looks like an enclosed porch of an unpretentious ranch house near Wall, South Dakota, a steel-runged ladder leads down a 30-foot concrete access shaft. At the bottom, …

Michael Bierut|Baseball

The (Faux) Old Ball Game

Since 1992, every ballpark in America has been designed on the nostalgic model of Baltimore's Camden Yards, including the new parks for the Yankees and the Mets. Why is it impossible to build a baseball stadium that looks like it belongs …

Steven Heller|Essays

The Magic of the Peace Symbol

Antiwar rally in Heroes' Square, Budapest, Hungary, March 20, 2005. Photo by Zsolt Szigetvary.The symbol for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is 50 years old this year, and despite all the wars fought since its birth, none of them have …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Viewer Discretion Advised

Identification card for Anny-Yolande Horowitz, deported to Auschwitz on September 11, 1942. She was seven years old.Early last month, French President Nicholas Sarkozy proposed a new education plan in which every fifth grader would have to …

John Thackara|Essays

From MySpace to Fake Space

Traveling without moving has become an economic and environmental imperative. Matter is more expensive than energy; energy than information; it is cheaper to move information, than people or things. So what is to stop us moving less and …

Debbie Millman|Audio

Laurie Rosenwald

On this episode of Design Matters with Debbie Millman, Debbie talks with graphic designer, artist and actress Laurie Rosenwald.

The Editors|Essays

Marc Rabinowitz: Prostitution Facts

Marc Rabinowitz, Design to Touch Humanity, Prostitution Facts shown amidst Village Voice escort ads, 2007In spite of the barrage of wisecracks this week involving the tawdry glamour of "high-priced call girls," it's important to remember …