Jonathan Barnbrook Also Hates the Word ‘Branding’

Branding is just a funny word for universe. Iconic British designer, Jonathan Barnbrook, insists that what graphic designers do is create worlds. Something is revealed through the work, and he wants designers to use their skill to move society along. He believes that graphic design is personal, so that no projects should ever veer you […]

April Greiman prefers the eccentric

Use “2-dimensions as spatial,” see that “light is volume,” and be at once “terrified and exhilarated,” are just some of the eccentric polarities that make perfect sense to transmedia graphic designer April Greiman. In 1980, Greiman took computer technology from being used solely for information processing and broke the mold by integrating it in graphic […]

Corporate Identity Design is Such a Turnoff

I’ve never liked this word combination: Corporate Identity Design. It just always leads much too quickly into logos and letterheads and brand books and color palettes. I do like the word identity, though, but I’ve found that it’s completely hidden, submerged under the heavy layers of corporate needs and design necessities. Identity? We need to […]

Piet Zwart the “Typotecht” Rebel

Go ahead, make the jump from architecture to typography – we dare you. That’s exactly what Dutch designer Piet Zwart (1885-1977) had done. By the time his career in typography and graphic design took off, he had already studied architecture, taught art history, and worked as an interior, fabric, and furniture design. He was a […]

Herb Lubalin called it “Word Pictures”

Let’s look at typography from the eyes of American graphic designer Herb Lubalin (1918-81). He designed some of the more iconic typefaces and typographic logos of the century, and he always called his work “word pictures”. His approach to typography uses letterforms to express ideas visually. By using “graphic expressionism,” a typeface can tell the […]

Milton Glazer Heart NY

Behind the I ♥ NY logo and slogan is design legend Milton Glazer (1929-2020). Among his many other famous designs is the logo of New York Magazine (which he established), running for over 50 years straight with his original logo on the cover. Milton lived by the adage that ‘doubt is better than certainty,’ which […]