Graphic Design

Michael Bierut|Essays

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mentor, Or, Why Modernist Designers Are Superior

Does a strict upbringing make you a better designer?

Michael Bierut|Essays

The Typeface of Truth

What are the implications when Errol Morris declares the typeface most likely to induce credulity is Baskerville?

Steven Heller|Essays

User-Friendly Paul Rand

Paul Rand did not coin the term “user-friendly.” He would have hated its trendy sound.

Kathleen Meaney|Essays

Greening the Grocery Store

It turns out that the recycling symbol at the bottom of my yogurt container had nothing to do with its recyclability. So why was it there? My curiosity led to findings around which I built a design class.

Rick Poynor|Exposure

Exposure: Andy’s Food Mart by Tibor Kalman and M&Co

The virtue of the vernacular

Michael Bierut|Essays

In Praise of Slow Design

Is there a such a thing as slow graphic design? A look at 80 years of barely perceptible design changes at The New Yorker.

Debbie Millman|Audio

Design Matters from the Archive: Timothy Goodman

Debbie talks to Timothy Goodman about how, after barely getting through high school, he went on to a very visible career that he is still in the process of defining.

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Logocentrism

For Paul Rand, a modern mark was a simple mark, and the secret to making things last lay in keeping them simple.

Scott Henderson|Collections

Independence Day

A collection of early 20th-century postcards manufactured for the Fourth of July.

Michael Bierut|Essays

All That Jazz: Posters by Niklaus Troxler

Niklaus Troxler’s jazz posters can be viewed as a single, self-initiated project that has developed over five decades, a body of work with few precedents.

Rick Poynor|Essays

The Art of Punk and the Punk Aesthetic

Punk has two graphic histories: Punk: An Aesthetic and The Art of Punk. What conclusions do they draw?

Jessica Helfand|Chronicles

The Pipeline

A Personal History as Told Through a Straight Line