This illustration was created for The Nose, a publication by Chwast dedicated to relevant (sometimes trivial) social issues. In Number 20, published in 2009, Chwast titles the issue “Crime Today.” The image features a gun loaded with colorful bullets, with each bullet labeled and intended for a specific target. The contrast between the comical coloring…
Created in 1964, Protest Against The Rising Tide is a poster done by Seymour Chwast, for Booth’s Gin company, promoting the sale of Booth’s alcohol. The poster features the words “Protest Against the Rising Tide of Conformity,” with a small line of font at the bottom stating “Serve Booth’s House of Lords, the non-conformist gin…
This piece is called Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge which was made in 1919. This is one of Lissitzky’s more famous pieces and is one of the ones he is most known for. This is a prime example of Lissitzky’s main tools which are primary colors, black and white and geometric shapes. This…
Had Gadya was created in 1919, which was earlier on Lissitzky’s career. Had Gadya is a famous piece by Lissitzky that focuses on the Jewish culture and traditions they had. This is an important piece in his work because this demonstrates his fondness of Jewish culture that is seen throughout the beginning of his work…
It is difficult to talk about Jonathan Barnbrook without discussing his involvement with the 2002 album cover Heathen with late artist David Bowie. This is arguably one of Barnbrook’s most famous contributions to the music industry. Bowie and Barnbrook worked together for 15 years on 5 different album covers. For Barnbrook, this was the introduction…
Piet Zwart started to work for NKF (Dutch Cable Manufacturers) in 1923, and the works of graphic design he created there are his best-known designs. This catalog Zwarts designed for NKF was printed in full color and was 80 pages long. In this work, we can notice Zwart’s use of primary colors, clean sans-serif typography,…
This is a sample from Hagmann’s typeface collection, Cholla, which was created in 1999. The artist was commissioned while at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, to work with art director Denise Gonzales Crisp and associate designer, Carla Figueroa, to develop unique fonts that captured the artistry and creativity of the school. Hagmann…
Jonathan Barnbrook has collaborated with one of the most well-known musicians of all time David Bowie on multiple album covers over the years. The two met when Bowie and his wife were looking for someone to work on her book with. From there, they continued their creative relationship by working on various album covers together…
William Drenttel and his wife Jessica Helfland often collaborate on their design projects. In the early 2000s, the couple oversaw a revamp of Poetry Magazine’s cover art. As described by the Poetry Foundation, the new format features a central art piece that varies in style and execution, with the masthead colored to match (“100 Years…
On August 2, 1972, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York City introduced a new map of the city’s subway system. Although initially met with skepticism and vitriol from local commuters, this map has grown to be loved by designers and users all around the world (Rawsthorn). This map of the New York City Subway…
Before his involvement in the Proletarian Movement and his distancing himself from normal paintings, Yanase was already deeply involved with and inspired by the Futuristic Art Movement that reached Japan. This movement was known for going against the traditional art values, and fully embraced the new age of technological innovations. Futurists artists often incorporated depictions…
This is the first typographic design of Piet Zwart. It is created for the LAGA rubber floor manufacturer while Zwart was still working for the architect Berlage. In the 1920s, the founder of LAGA found out Zwart’s passion for typography and offered him this commission. From this early work, Zwart’s architectural training background appears evident:…
“This is What Democracy Looked Like: A Visual History of the Printed Ballot” is a book written by Alicia Cheng in 2020. Cheng released the book before the election of that year. This book features examples of past ballots used in previous American elections. It also discusses Cheng’s research on the historical design of ballots. With…
The Louvre Museum in Paris asked Grapus to help brand their visual identity and create a new logo for them. The graphic logos would continue being developed by the Aterlier de Creation Graphique group, a smaller group within Grapus, until 1993 (Guillermou & Graphéine). The new logo for the Louvre Museum changed from “Musée du…
Bayer is often credited with modernizing typography in the Bauhaus with his creation of the Universal alphabet. This piece is an example of Bayer’s experimentation in creating the Universal lettering. He wanted to create a type that did not use any upper-case. He observed that we don’t use upper-case when speaking with one another so…