Born in 1950, Alan Chan grew from a small scene to one deserving of international recognition and establishing his place in the field of visual arts and graphic design. In a rather unconventional way, Alan Chan’s only source of design education came from an evening course that spanned over 10 months in Hong Kong, the…
Tibor Kalman, an influential graphic designer, is best known for his meaningful contribution as editor-and-chief to Colors magazine. As previously stated, Colors is based on radical ideas such as race, AIDS, war, and sex to promote sociocultural issues. As editor-and-chief, Kalman followed his wishes to display controversial topics through design, such as Issue #12 pictured…
This is Wolfgang Weingart’s retrospective book on typography, compiled by Lars Müller Publishers into a volume in ten sections in 2000. In over 500 pages with over 400 illustrations, Weingart recounts his early life as a designer, as well as the years of training and development that he went through to get to the point…
Distruzione della sintassi–immaginazione senza fili–parole in libertà (“Destruction of Syntax–Wireless Imagination–Words-in-Freedom”) is a piece displaying the aspects of the Futurist genre parole in libertà, or “words-in-freedom”, made by Filippo Marinetti in 1913. This work was key in popularizing the new genre, and it was a profound continuation of the Futurist way of straying away from…
This is the 18th Didacta/Eurodidac Worldformat poster for the convention on teaching aids. Wolfgang Weingart created designs for numerous books, catalogs and posters in his career, this series notably being for cultural and educational institutions. He remained one to test and experiment with new ways to “break” Swiss typography, and he took exploration very seriously.…
Wolfgang Weingart is known for his experimentation in typography, becoming a significant figure in its international development in the 1960s, 70s, and onwards. He is not only recognized for his skills as a graphic designer, but as an instructor. While working at the Schule für Gestaltung Basel, he influenced his students to be more experimental…
When one thinks of the late 60s to 70s, bell-bottoms and peace signs may come to mind. While that may be true it was also an era of economic struggle and cultural change that brought in a new wave of design. As wars escalated, youth culture depleted, and as the youth sought to…
One of the biggest milestones for Peter Max, personally, would be his Statue of Liberty paintings. After the publication of Peter Max Paints America, Max began a tradition where he would paint the Statue of Liberty annually for July 4th. Upon emigrating to America, the Statue of Liberty held a wonder and had always held…
Filippo Marinetti created In the Evening, Lying on Her Bed, She Reread the Letter from Her Artilleryman at the Front (Le Soir, couchée dans son lit, elle relisait la lettre de son artilleur au front) in 1917 and it was published in Les Mots en liberté futuristes in 1919. This piece displays parole in libertà,…
Kan Tai Keung is a famous Chinese graphic designer and teacher who is known most for his revolutionary ink paintings and his societal impact on Hong Kong’s art scene. He was born in 1942 in Pangyu within the Guangdong province of China. At the age of 15, he moved with his family to Hong Kong.…
Marlene McCarty, in her later years, moved from graphic design to drawing, specifically with a ballpoint pen and graphite. Focusing on social issues is always her goal, but she moved onto more working on feminist and sexual issues. In her series “Murder Girls,” Marlene drew multiple young women in see-through clothes showing and bringing emphasis…
The Eames House, officially named Case Study House No. 8, was designed and built in 1949 in Los Angeles. The house was designed by Ray and Charles Eames to be their home and a testament to their skill as designers and architects. The home was built with modernism in mind, placing value on efficient design…
In a partnership between Toby Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy, a publishing company known as Unit Editions was created from their joint passion for writing and design. The book “Supernew Supergraphics” actually references a book written in the 1960’s simply known as “Supergraphics.” The original was written by a group of “radical architects” who broke the…
The Eames Chair is iconic. Smooth, curving plywood and soft leather. A gentle recline from which you could read a newspaper or take a nap. Charles Eames described the chair as having “the warm receptive look of a well used first baseman’s mitt”(1). Designed by Ray and Charles Eames and released in 1965, the Eames…
Another famous work from the mind of Mr. Armin Hofmann is the poster advertising the 1963/1964 season at the Staddtheater, roughly translating to “the city theater”, in Basel, Switzerland. This poster, along with almost every piece created by Hofmann, serves as a great example of the ideas of the Swiss International Style, popularized by Hofmann…