This year’s Valentine card from Marian Bantjes was a design laser-cut from a repurposed Christmas card. (Weeks in advance of the day, she was soliciting donations of old cards via Facebook.) Each card is therefor unique, as far as the card design is concerned. An additional delight was the illustration of a Cupid’s arrow-shot Santa [...]
Authenticity is a Groove
Years ago, I worked at a national historic site on Boston’s Freedom Trail. A frequent question of visitors was “How much of the building is original?” I knew what they meant by the question but sometimes I felt waggish (or was a smarmy asshole, depending upon your point of view) and would answer that it [...]
Has design been “Dirty?”
I’ve posted two relatively lengthy responses to a new essay by Steven Heller, “The Decade of Dirty Design,” at Voice: AIGA Journal of Design. I contend that the label doesn’t encompass the entirety of design activity, focusing on a singular but not definitive exponent of design activity. I first offer a deliberately provocative (and arguably [...]
Essays and more in Emigre No. 70
Emigre No.70: The Look Back Issue: Celebrating 25 Years in Graphic Design, the 512-page compendium of the storied magazine has been published by Gingko Press. It includes full reproductions of three of my essays, a handful of quotes on the end papers, and my original letter to the editor in 1996 in a small [...]
