Good and inspirational design is eternal. Some artists have the ability to transcend time and touch the hearts of many generations with their artistic visions. One example of a timeless designer is Charles-Édouard Jeanneret. He renamed himself Le Corbusier (inspired by his grandfather’s name, Lecorbésier) in 1920, when it was trendy for artists in Paris […]
Henryk Tomaszewski was an award-winning Polish graphic designer, poster artist, and the father of the Polish Poster School, which combined the aesthetics of paintings with the succinctness of design, and was particularly popular in the 1950s through the 1980s. The School put at the forefront the characteristics of linear quality, vibrant colors and the idiosyncratic […]
When talking about typography and graphic design, one cannot ignore the phenomenal, subversive influence of Jan Tschichold. A German book designer, calligrapher, typographer, and artist at heart, Tschichold was one of the most influential 20th-century figures in the field, forever changing the path of graphic design and typography. In 1923, Tschichold presented his works in […]
When it comes to interior design no one was better at uplifting our spirits and beautifying our most intimate sanctuary – our home – than George Nakashima. A Japanese-American designer, carpenter and architect, Nakashima was a 20th-century woodworking maven, one who didn’t abide by the mainstream perception of interior design and managed to combine beauty, […]
The Czech graphic designer, Ladislav Sutnar (1897-1976), put information into action using visual design. He created order in chaos, by making function, form, and flow work together in a simple way that reduced complexity and intensified understanding. He blazed a path forward for graphic design to transmit large amounts of information much, much quicker. Trained […]
Influenced by Constructivism and Dadaism, Cohen Lustig became one of very few mid-century women designers who are celebrated at the same caliber as their contemporary male designers. She was also one of the few women at the time to run an independent design business. She never ceased to create artwork alongside her designs, and after […]
Alvin Lustig found all sorts of ways to pull out rabbits from hats and show us an alternate reality. His was a visionary mind, drawn to disrupting the normative patterns of seeing and thinking, because, as he put it, “the incomplete relationship between society and form” troubled him. For Lustig, social needs are inseparable from […]
Avenir, Frutiger, Univers, Vectora, are just some of the +30 fonts designed by the iconic typeface artists, Adrian Frutiger (1928-2015). His typefaces grace signage and print across the world, from London, to eBay, to highway signs everywhere. What made this versatility possible, was Frutiger’s ability to create something new, again, and again, and again. He […]
Take two opposing forces, put them together, and let the energy of this unlikely union burst out and bring transformative change. That’s what we did with iconic performer, Céline Dion, and trailblazing kidswear-brand, nununu. When they first approached us, wanting to create something with each other but unclear on how and what exactly, we were […]
Order isn’t wishful thinking, especially not for designers. Design work has to really rely on the underlying grid of rationality and efficiency, to get simplicity, legibility, and objectivity. Celebrated Swiss designer and teacher, Joseph Müller-Brockmann (1914-1996), called this approach a “clear identification of priorities.” The influential pioneer of functional, neutral, and objective design, Müller-Brockmann insisted […]