Wax museum. <br /> A collection of Sheffield 78s evokes a forgotten era of music packaging. </br>

Wax museum.
A collection of Sheffield 78s evokes a forgotten era of music packaging.

Interest in record sleeve art naturally gravitates towards the long-play albums that emerged the 1950s, writes Simon Robinson. More »

Filed under: Design history, Music design, Technology, Visual Culture

Type Tuesday: Between writing & type. <br /> Stencils, stencil letters, tools and new fonts on display in Antwerp </br>

Type Tuesday: Between writing & type.
Stencils, stencil letters, tools and new fonts on display in Antwerp

The exhibition ‘Between Writing & Type: The Stencil Letter’, which opened in Antwerp on 19 April 2012, combines two aims, reports co-curator Eric Kindel. The first is to display artefacts gathered over More »

Filed under: Design history, Graphic Design, Technology, Typography, Visual Culture

Batchelor’s mix. <br />Beauty in the streets, unrefurbished spaces and skips of Brighton </br>

Batchelor’s mix.
Beauty in the streets, unrefurbished spaces and skips of Brighton

The skip outside Brighton Town Hall isn’t rubbish, writes Chloë King. A yellow fluorescent tube highlights its edges, a wire fence surrounds it, and a notice pinned to the front reads, ‘What a time to invest public funded money in More »

Filed under: Illustration, New Media, Reviews, Technology, Visual Culture

Full tilt. <br /> Glass & Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach liberates the space-time continuum. </br>

Full tilt.
Glass & Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach liberates the space-time continuum.

Though I missed the UK premiere* of Einstein on the Beach by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass (nearly 36 years after its first performance in Avignon), reports John L. Walters, the performance I witnessed ran flawlessly without a break, clocking in around More »

Filed under: Music design, New Media, Reviews, Technology, Visual Culture

Wanda and Ken. <br /> Riverside pictures & mystery photos in the Garlands’ first joint show. </br>

Wanda and Ken.
Riverside pictures & mystery photos in the Garlands’ first joint show.

Tomorrow sees the opening of a new joint exhibition by painter Wanda Garland and More »

Filed under: Graphic Design, Photography, Visual Culture

Grey matter … in living colour. <br/>The Wellcome Collection slices through the beauty and terror of brains

Grey matter … in living colour.
The Wellcome Collection slices through the beauty and terror of brains

The Wellcome Collection asks: ‘not what brains do for us, but what we have done to brains’, writes Rosie Walters. ‘Brains’, the London gallery’s new showstopper, takes visitors on a whirlwind tour of the role of the brain in culture and society More »

Filed under: Graphic Design, Information Design, Reviews, Visual Culture

Type Tuesday: space exploration. <br />Some reflections upon typography & layout (and why palettes are evil) </br>

Type Tuesday: space exploration.
Some reflections upon typography & layout (and why palettes are evil)

In ‘Lost in flatlands’ in Eye 80, as part of our special ‘20 years of change’ section, Gerry Leonidas asked: ‘Will the next generation of page layout programs give us back our sense of space?’

More »

Filed under: Book design, Design education, Graphic Design, Magazines, Typography

Gonzo graphic design. <br />America’s ‘altweeklies’ are a hotbed of zero-budget cover art direction. </br>

Gonzo graphic design.
America’s ‘altweeklies’ are a hotbed of zero-budget cover art direction.

‘The alternative weekly newspapers of the United States are a hotbed of creative cover design,’ writes Robert Newman in Eye 82. ‘The historical descendants of the underground papers of More »

Filed under: Graphic Design, Illustration, Magazines, Visual Culture

Open and shut cases. <br />Bracewell’s ‘The Space Between’: <br />the essence of a book as artwork </br>

Open and shut cases.
Bracewell’s ‘The Space Between’:
the essence of a book as artwork

It is not often that entire books form the material, or part of the material, of works of art, but two of the nine pieces in ‘The Space Between’, curated by the writer Michael Bracewell, are made from complete books, writes Mark Thomson.

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Filed under: Book design, Illustration, Photography, Visual Culture

Break out of the cloisters. <br /> Explore ‘Socialist Modernity’ at a forthcoming RCA symposium</br>

Break out of the cloisters.
Explore ‘Socialist Modernity’ at a forthcoming RCA symposium

Venture outside the world of blogs and back-slapping designer conferences, writes Jessica Jenkins. Everyday academic life needs your voices. More »

Filed under: Design education, Design history, Graphic Design, Illustration, Magazines