Media

Gong Szeto|Interviews

Interview with Brian Oakes

It’s not often that graphs and numbers take center stage in a popular film, but in the brilliant hands of graphic designer Brian Oakes, information design is not a backdrop but a main character in the recently released documentary …

The Editors|Essays

Books Received: Fall 2008

New books have been piling up again at Design Observer. For the Fall season, we thought we'd share some of the many recently published titles we have received over the past couple of months. Maybe you'll find a surprise or two...

Steven Heller|Reviews

Breakdowns: A Review

Cover of Art Spiegelman's new book BreakdownsArt Spiegelman’s Breakdowns, his first anthology of autobiographical and experimental comics was originally published in 1978. Hard to believe that thirty years later, a new edition, …

Michael Bierut|Essays

David Foster Wallace, Branding Theorist, 1962-2008

Rob Walker|Essays

Shared Memories

Many of the images reproduced in Scrapbooks: An American History, by Jessica Helfand, date back 50, 80, even 100 years. Reproduced in color and spread across wide pages, the anonymous scrapbook creators could hardly have imagined such …

Jessica Helfand|Essays

Biblionomatopoeia

Trauma by Patrick McGrath, cover design by Peter Mendelsund, 2008Onomatopoeia is the term used for words that sound like what they are describing — words like zip and boom, for instance — although the concept, it should be …

Michael Bierut|Essays

There is No Why

Philippe Petit, New York City, August 7, 1974  The best design movie of 2008 is not about a typeface. It's about a tightrope walker.  Man on Wire, a thrilling new documentary directed by James Marsh, tells the story of Philippe …

Paula Scher|Essays

It’s How You Said It

Paula Scher: “The problem with the New Yorker’s controversial Obama cover is not that it’s dangerous and tasteless. The problem is that it isn’t dangerous or tasteless enough.”

William Drenttel|Essays

I Was A Mad Man

Mad Men takes place in 1960. Just seventeen years later, I went to work at an ad agency and became a Mad Man. This is my story...

Steven Heller|Essays

Vanity Fair Type: 1930 Style

Vanity Fair cover illustrated by Paolo Garetto, December 1931 In 1929, Vanity Fair magazine, the jewel in the crown of Condé Nast’s publishing empire, made typographic history. Influenced by Modern design trends throughout Europe, …

The Editors|Miscellaneous

Books Received: Summer 2008

New books have been piling up again at Design Observer. We thought we'd share some of the many recently published titles we have received over the past couple of months — with a few older titles just stumbled upon. Maybe you'll find a …

Becky Neiman|Essays

Taking Things Seriously XIII