Nostalgia Politics and the Fear of the New
A recent draft executive order by the Trump administration called “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” favors neoclassical designs for future federally-funded buildings, setting [...]
Is Your Font Conservative or Liberal?
Is that font you’re about to use conservative? Is it liberal? What does it tell others about you, your business, your political affiliation? It’s a lot to consider. True, fonts are [...]
What Modern Society Could Learn from Charlemagne
Today, we are faced with a curious phenomenon with regard to media. We have more sources today where we can access news and information, thoughts and ideas, while, at the same time, we’re [...]
Creativity Lost
Where did all the typographers go? Not graphic designers with typographic skills, but people who made their living as pure typographers who were responsible for setting cold metal, hot metal, and [...]
Contextual Typography: The (Sorta) Fake History of Real News
The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune, aside from being trusted news sources, share a common design element—the mastheads use a similar type style. Why?A [...]
Chief Wahoo, the Cleveland Indians, and the Religious Nature of Brands
The Cleveland Indians announced that they were retiring their mascot, Chief Wahoo, after the 2018 season. The mascot had come under increasing criticism for being a racist depiction of Native [...]
Judging a Book by its Cover: The 2019 U.S. Budget
The fiscal year 2019 budget proposal was recently released by the Trump administration and I was surprised by how much the cover reveals about the contents and its focus. The overall design of [...]
SOTU and the Paradox of Craft in the Digital Age
This week, the president of the United States invited visitors to his State of the Uniom address. That’s not my typo, that’s his. How can this happen? Carelessness? Laziness? Inexperience? [...]
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS DESIGN POSTERS REVIVED
Between 1990 and 1992, a series of posters was created to announce lectures by famous designers and creative thinkers including Dan Friedman, M&Co., Matthew Carter, and Muriel Cooper. These [...]
Mediocrity Campaign
Subaru has a cool advertising campaign called Mediocrity. They’ve created a fake car called the 2011 Mediocrity, complete with faux ad campaign and complete website. The video above is the [...]
We Interrupt this Package…
Today the FDA proposed a series of required warnings for cigarette packages and advertisements. Initially, 24 concepts were proposed of which 9 will ultimately be adopted. The basic formatting [...]
Legibility, Readability and Memorability
Would you rather be remembered or would you rather be understood? The question is legitimate for written messages and points out the difference between legibility, readability, and memorability. [...]