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…
Jonathan Barnbrook was born in 1966 in Luton, United Kingdom, and still works there today. He is a graphic designer, filmmaker, and typographer. He spent 8 years at college and he says his education was free. He studied at Luton’s Barnfield College, Croydon College, Saint Martin’s School of Art as well as Royal College of…
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…
This poster was made in 1982 by Grapus, mainly illustrated by Pierre Bernard. This poster, Expo Grapus, was supposed “to represent the studio, for a retrospective in Paris” (Poyner). In 1982, Grapus was an internationally famous design group despite the fact that their work was more anarchist, rebellious, and punk then the popular modernism seen…
This Herbert Bayer piece is housed at the Smithsonian and was commissioned by Schering pharmaceutical company in 1938. This was during Bayer’s long design career in America, making graphics for a variety of big-name magazines and companies. Stylistically the most Bauhaus aspect of the piece is its minimal type. Bayer believed that image was…
Alicia Cheng is a female Asian American designer, educator, and writer based in Brooklyn, New York. She has almost 20 years of experience in her field. Cheng has served as a designer for many well-known establishments. For instance, Method, New York (as a senior designer), the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum (as a co-design director), and…
In 1983, Yusaku Kamekura completed a work for a project called “Hiroshima Appeals”, run by the Hiroshima International Cultural Foundation in partnership with the Japan Graphic Designers Association. Kamekura was the first artist to contribute to the 21 piece collection, with his work “Burning Butterflies”. The purpose of the project as explained by these two…
Grapus Studios was a group of between three and 20 graphic artists who joined and left the group at different points in time. The group worked together “between 1970 and 1991, [seeking] to combine excellence of design with a social conscience (“Grapus”). Grapus was formed following the student revolts in 1968 in France against…
Herbert Bayer was an influential student and teacher of the Bauhaus movement. He advocated for the integration of all arts into Bauhaus and created their signature font, the Universal alphabet. The commercial typography he designed for the Bauhaus was a defining feature of the Dessau period and popularized the movement. He was born April 5th,…
Massimo Vignelli was a massively important industrial and graphic designer throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Born in Milan, Italy on January 10, 1931, Vignelli studied art at Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. He later obtained a degree in Architecture from Politecnico di Milano in 1953. Between the years 1953 and 1957, Vignelli attended…