Illustration

Rick Poynor|Essays

From the Archive: Graphic Metallica

Heavy metal’s extremity, as a set of aesthetic choices and as a way of life, exerts an enduring fascination.

Amelia Lacy|Unusual Suspects

Gene & Jackie Lacy

Gene and Jackie Lacy, Indianapolis-based graphic designers and illustrators practicing from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Rick Poynor|Essays

The Covers of J.G. Ballard’s Crash: An Update

Some recent covers of J.G. Ballard’s disturbing Crash, a notoriously hard novel for designers to interpret.

Rick Poynor|Essays

Motif Magazine: The World Made Visible

Motif magazine, founded in 1958, anticipated a new way of seeing, documenting and appreciating the “visible world.”

Rick Poynor|Essays

John McHale and the Expendable Ikon

Artist, graphic designer, information theorist, architectural critic, sociologist, futurist: it’s time to rediscover John McHale.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Want to Buy A Valentine?

You can buy a valentine handmade by someone else. You can send your beloved a vintage card using an app. But where's the romance in that?

Rick Poynor|Essays

The Evil Genius of David Shrigley

British artist David Shrigley, subject of a major exhibition in London, is forever tempting and testing the viewer.

Debbie Millman|Video

Malcolm Gladwell

A live episode of Design Matters with Debbie Millman withe special guest Malcolm Gladwell.

Debbie Millman|Video

Malcolm Gladwell

A live episode of Design Matters with Debbie Millman withe special guest Malcolm Gladwell.

Rick Poynor|Essays

How to Cover an Impossible Book

Tadeusz Borowski’s book This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen poses a visual challenge for designers.

Rick Poynor|Essays

Literary Horror from the Chapman Brothers

British artists Jake and Dinos Chapman have created an image of sublime horror for the cover of Granta magazine.

Rick Poynor|Essays

Andrzej Klimowski: Transmitting the Image

Andrzej Klimowski, author of a new book, On Illustration, has used the medium to create a compelling alternative reality.