There are many familiar books on view, and rare discoveries as well. The overarching goal was to show through design and illustration how the industry has evolved from past and present.

Below, Fuchs tells us more about how the exhibition came about.

How long has the Die Neue Sammlung been collecting children’s books, and what was the motivation?
The motivation for this part of the collection lies in the founding idea of the museum. Die Neue Sammlung was founded as a museum dedicated to collecting industrial design with two main focuses: Firstly, contemporary design was to be collected and, secondly, internationally. The aim of this collection policy was, on the one hand, to be able to show designers of the time a collection of outstanding examples and, on the other hand, to give the public the opportunity to select good design for their own needs. It was an explicit aim to show affordable good design in particular. The 1927 exhibition, which showed picture books and toys from many different countries, combined both objectives of the newly founded museum.

How many books are in the show?
The exhibition shows around 180 books, a selection from the museum’s collection of around 750 children’s books.

The oldest children’s book in the collection is a volume of the Münchener Bilderbücher (Munich Picturebooks) from around 1870, one of a 23-volume series of picture books illustrated with hand-colored wood engravings, and thus one of the few books that were not produced by machine. The focus of the exhibition begins at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, i.e., at the time when the children’s book developed from an educational book into a medium dedicated to leisure.

What criteria did you use for inclusion in the exhibit?
For us as a design museum, the design of the picture books is at the center of our interest. How a book was illustrated, set and realized determined the selection, not the story it tells. Outstanding early examples of picture book design are, for example, the children’s books by Lothar Meggendorfer from the end of the 19th century. Although they are books on the outside, they contain entire worlds of play between the covers. With their ingenious folding and pulling mechanisms, they can be transformed into three-dimensional worlds that can be used as play backdrops. One example is the doll’s house from around 1889, which hides five different living rooms between the two book covers that can be placed next to each other.

The exhibit is organized in various ways: chronologically, thematically and technically. What was the thinking behind this process?
The exhibition aims to achieve two goals: On the one hand, it wants to show the museum’s own collection of picture books, which has not been exhibited since 1960. The chronological part of the exhibition, which shows the development of international children’s books from around 1900 to the present day, is primarily intended for this purpose. On the other hand, the show focuses specifically on the design of children’s books. To achieve this, the second part of the exhibition sorts the books according to four different design criteria that are characteristic features of them.

The first is color. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the majority of children’s books have been designed in color. The selection and limitation of colors is therefore in almost all cases not an economic but a design decision. The juxtaposition of black-and-white books and books that use only a few or special colors asks about the reasons and spaces of experience that result from the deliberate omission of colors or their special selection.

The second design category is perspective. Due to their height alone, children have a different view of the world to many adults. Changes of perspective are therefore celebrated in many picture books, whether the life of particularly small or particularly large creatures is the subject or we are shown the world in close up or from a bird’s-eye view.

The third category is dedicated to signs and shapes. The focus here is on characters and numbers, but also on shapes that can be used to tell a whole story. ABC books demonstrate the play with letter shapes and phonetic and semantic associations. Warja Lavater-Honegger tells the entire Little Red Riding Hood story using circles alone, while Sven Völker creates ever new animal worlds from the keys of a piano. Entire worlds can be created with a very limited range of visual vocabulary.

The fourth category brings together all kinds of picture books that open up into the third dimension, i.e., pop-up books, fold-out books and books whose pages have holes and allow you to see through them. Here, for example, Seymour Chwast’s Limerickricks can be seen, in which the art can be observed of how one form can be completely transformed into another through expansion, which is nevertheless convincing in terms of color and contour.

What did you learn from curating the material? And what do you hope visitors (old and young) will take away?
I hope that visitors will enjoy discovering the creative diversity of picture books and discover them as a medium of excellent design. Throughout the ages and across different countries, picture books have been a field of artistic innovation and creative experimentation. The vitality of this genre stems from its existence as a special branch of the book, in which imagination and the joy of experimentation are more important than in other areas of book production. It is no coincidence that famous graphic designers have repeatedly turned to children’s books in order to be able to work completely freely without a client. At the same time, there were already children’s book designers in the middle of the 20th century who have dedicated themselves entirely to this genre, and there are others now. They usually create both text and images themselves and have a great influence in their era. One realization that I was particularly delighted about when preparing the exhibition was the fact that in recent years there have been new startups of small publishing houses all over the world that have dedicated themselves entirely to the special picture book. They enable a current diversity and quality in picture books, in the diversity of the current digital range of media, to provide a bridge for a new golden age of children’s books.

If I may add some information on the exhibition design: The exhibition architecture is designed to allow people of all ages and abilities to be able to see the books. Exhibition architect Carina Deuschl designed houses for the books so that they can be presented vertically instead of horizontally. They replicate the joy of opening a book and finding new worlds between its covers. While the books in the museum collection have to be presented behind glass, 50 duplicates of the books exhibited were acquired secondhand. They allow visitors to explore the books haptically and in their entirety.

Christoph Niemann created the drawings in the exhibition space [specifically] for the show. He takes up the title of the exhibition (itself an allusion to Maurice Sendak’s famous children’s book) and presents fantastic creatures whose form is characterized by a playful juxtaposition of lines and color fields.

The catalog is a further treat:

All photos courtesy Die Neue Sammlung—The Design Museum.

The post The Daily Heller: Wild Lines on the Loose at the Design Museum in Munich appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

And if you’re still reeling from it, the holidays are a perfect time to get punch-drunk distracted on a bounty of brilliant book covers.

For as much insanity as the year held (and it was … a lot!), it was offset by a constant stream of cathartic tomes and jackets. To that end, in 2023 our annual December list featured 50 titles—and it has now doubled to 100. 

Some of my personal favorites: Thomas Colligans’ beautiful cover for Beautyland, which has been stuck in my head for the better part of a year. Janet Hansen’s work on Ask Me Again, is equal parts electrifying and haunting. Pablo Delcan’s genius VanderMeer covers the best encapsulations of the Southern Reach series since his Spanish editions. Arsh Raziuddin’s jacket for Knife. Alex Merto and Seymour Chwast’s Tom Wolfe reissues. Pete Adlington’s utterly perfect Not Waving But Drowning. Grace Han’s take on God of the Woods, which disproves the theory that great covers are only the stuff of niche imprints and genres and not mainstream bestsellers. And so many others, which you’ll see below.

Here’s to all the striking work in 2024, and all that we have to look forward to in 2025. There has truly never been a better time to get lost in a book—or a book cover.

The post 100 of the Best Book Covers of 2024 appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

Are you a book lover short on shelf space? isolarii makes tiny books with big words—and they’re perfect for a holiday stocking.

isolarii take its name from the extinct genre of Venetian Renaissance “island books.” Month to month, they map the extremes of human knowledge and creative endeavor, assembling perennial legends and emerging icons—scientists and novelists, philosophers and activists, architects and technologists, from the counterculture to the avant-garde—pioneering new ways of understanding ourselves and the Earth.

isolarii is a subscription service, and subscribers receive their first book immediately after joining.

The most recent is a Philip K. Dick story that can be read in one sitting. Who needs ebooks when you have one as small and collectable as this?

The post The Daily Heller: A Handbook for People With Tiny Hands appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

“Many of us didn’t fully know what that impact and influence looked like back then, and how it still carries forward,” Sykes told me. “But as we turned more pages and did more research and had more pre-interviews with experts, with curators, with museum owners, with founders of different types of companies, and with artists themselves, we learned more and more and more.” 

It’s through this extensive research process that Sykes and her team honed in on the creation of a two-part zine series entitled, “Legacy: A Modern Renaissance,” designed to shed light on diverse communities through the lens of Black excellence and achievement. These stories highlight the ways that passing wealth to the next generation is fueling community while celebrating the innovative period of Black art, music, poetry, and literature that launched in Harlem, New York, in the 1920s and ’30s. In partnership with U.S. Bank, the campaign is the first of its kind for The New York Times, paying homage to the lasting impact of the Harlem Renaissance and its 100th anniversary through the power of print.

T Brand Studio has commissioned work from Black writers, storytellers, artists, and designers for the two 12-page zines, highlighting the immense contributions of Black creatives to the arts and wider society. The zines feature work from typographer Tré Seals, poet Mahogany L. Browne, cultural critic and writer Michaela Angela Davis, collage artist Magdaline Davis, and photographer Ivan McClellan. The first zine, “Legacy: The Wealth Issue,” was released as a printed insert in The New York Times Sunday issue on August 18, with the second zine, “Legacy: The Culture Issue” set to be distributed with the December 29 print issue. Both zines are now available to view digitally through an innovative online hub unveiled by T Brand Studio last week. The online hub continues the theme and tradition of accessibility that the zine form is already emblematic of. 

To highlight this thoughtful and poignant campaign and continue to honor the lasting legacy of the Harlem Renaissance, I spoke in-depth with Sykes about the Legacy project, from development to distribution. Our conversation is below, lightly edited for clarity and length.  

Let’s rewind to the genesis of “Legacy: A Modern Renaissance” zine series. How did the idea first develop?

This time a year ago, U.S. Bank, who’s our partner for this program, came to us and said, “Hey, can you create a coffee table book?” They understood that The New York Times would be doing an editorial alignment with the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance. We said, “We could, but as a custom content studio, our lane really evolves around creating storytelling opportunities.” That’s when we started talking about maybe not a coffee table book, but what could be more realistic is a series of zines.

We wanted to bring the story forward. What does this idea of a Modern Renaissance look like? That’s when we came up with a “Legacy Fulfilled.” We wanted to spark this idea of a national dialog to really show and demonstrate that the Harlem Renaissance was this cultural phenomenon that continues today.

This is a first-of-its-kind program for T Brand Studio and U.S. Bank, where every single contributor on our platform and on this content is Black.

What was your T Brand Studio team hoping to accomplish with this project? 

This is a first-of-its-kind program for T Brand Studio and U.S. Bank, where every single contributor on our platform and on this content is Black. We wanted to remove barriers for Black creatives by not only giving them a platform to share new and untold stories but also to say to us, “These are the stories that I want to tell.” It’s a really huge deal.

The series leverages the talents of Black award-winning writers, poets, journalists, photographers, illustrators, and even a typographer, to specifically do a few things: We wanted to build awareness around the impact and influence of the Harlem Renaissance and grant access and opportunity to a new generation of Black cultural thinkers, which we’re really doing in our culture zine. We also wanted to shine a light on Black affluence because that was a specific, targeted area that U.S. Bank wanted us to speak to, and show people that wealth shows up in a myriad of ways. People are building wealth differently today. It’s not just the financial wealth, but it’s also the intellectual capital, and the historical value that brings to bear when we’re talking about inheritance.

We wanted to ask, across poetry and music and art and fashion and culture, What does the Black diaspora look like today, and how is the impact continuing globally? That’s where the zines come into play. 

People are building wealth differently today. It’s not just the financial wealth, but it’s also the intellectual capital, and the historical value that brings to bear when we’re talking about inheritance. 

Why did you decide on the zine form for this project?

The reason we chose zines is that during the Harlem Renaissance, zines were really designed (around 1918 through the 30s) to allow people without a voice to express themselves, to really communicate with others in the community, and lean into their artistry at the same time in a way that they hadn’t been allowed to do. So we said let’s use this idea of the zines as information for what we do today. 

The zines pay homage to the powerful underground press that existed during the Renaissance that became known for delivering prolific poetry and prose, delivering local news, and giving people cultural information. We wanted to create today’s zines to run as an insert inside The New York Times. It runs in a Sunday newspaper for all of our 600,000 home delivery subscribers. Each zine specifically amplifies how the Harlem Renaissance continues to inspire some of our most powerful cultural moments in America. 

Also with these zines, so much of it has been about giving access to people, but it’s also giving space and making space for new voices, for poetry, for prose, for local news, for cultural information. They’re inspired by that tradition that gave birth to this idea of old voices and new voices. So that’s what these zines do; they not only give access and opportunity, but they give space to people whose voices hadn’t been heard and were traditionally not heard in a mainstream environment.

What are some of the stories told within the pages of these zines? 

One is about a Black family of ranchers, The Bradfords— a fourth-generation family of Black ranchers in Oklahoma. I got to go out there and see them, and talk about what it means to really grow the foundation from the roots. What does that mean for family? What does it mean for legacy? What does it mean for the future? In my mind, that was a really important story to tell, and I knew we could do it through Black farmers, who represent less than 1% of all farmers in America today. 

We also spoke with Julian James, who shared a story about inheritance and the idea that money can mean a myriad of things. He had a Movado watch that was passed down to him by his stepfather. He was a man who thought about not the clothes making the man, but the man making the clothes, and how important it was for you to carry yourself as you went out the door. So that was something that Julian took from him, and now he says that every time he wears this watch, he thinks of his stepfather and his legacy. 

We had Mahogany L. Brown, the current poet-in-residence for the Lincoln Center, write a custom poem for the wealth zine, and she said that everything about this project just felt like home to her. Her marching orders were simple: I said, “If Langston Hughes talked about this idea of a “dream deferred,” how do we bring it forward and speak to what a dream fulfilled looks like?” So she took us to Harlem. She took us to education. She took us to inheritance. She took us to all of the places and spaces that Black folks lived in during the Harlem Renaissance and said this is where and how we’re succeeding today. I thought it was a beautiful nod to the Harlem Renaissance, and it really hit on all of the cylinders as it related to this storytelling.

Can you walk me through some of the editorial design decisions that were made when bringing these zines to life? I know you worked with typographer Tré Seals, for example, to create a custom typeface for the project.  

This is a project that is rooted in the research of the Harlem Renaissance. Many of us didn’t fully know what that impact and influence looked like back then, and how it still carries forward, but as we turned more pages and did more research and had more pre-interviews with experts, curators, museum owners, with founders of different types of companies, and artists themselves, we learned more and more and more. 

In that research process we learned that the original zines during the Harlem Renaissance were designed to allow people without a voice to express themselves, to communicate with others in the community, and lean into artistry. We did a handmade approach to texture and color, and used layered compositions as an intentional nod to those artists who had bootstrapped. 

We used custom typography called VTC Sarah, created by Tré Seals, the founder, designer, and typographer at Vocal Type. VTC Sarah was inspired by his great-grandparents. They were entrepreneurs and business owners, and their names were Sarah and Henry Johnson, and they were pillars of their community. They had provided financing and resources to their neighbors when banks wouldn’t, and that really helped facilitate hundreds of purchases and land sales to the Black community. Our art director, Bri Moran, literally held up Tré’s great grandparents’ marriage certificate at one point and said, “This is what is inspiring, the typeface throughout our zines.” So in working with Tré at every iteration, he made sure that the typeface spoke to those words and the stories that we were telling. 

With the zine’s digital hub launching last week and the physical culture zine mailing out in December, can you shed a bit more light on what’s depicted in that issue in particular? 

We’re celebrating what culture looks like through a lot of different Black creatives. It’s an homage to the arts, literature, dance, and music industries created by Black artisans during the Harlem Renaissance. 

Who are some of the creatives featured in the culture zine? 

We asked Emil Wilbekin, the former editor-in-chief of Vibe Magazine who now runs the platform Native Son, to take us back to having a parlor conversation. These were conversations that were happening in speakeasies and basements during the Harlem Renaissance, where people could really talk about the issues of the day. So we said, “What does that look like if we bring that 100 years forward?” Emil helped to not only moderate the conversation with other Black creatives from different fields, but he also was able to facilitate a Q&A at the Freehand Hotel in Manhattan. I loved this conversation. They talked about what the Harlem Renaissance means today, and the impact that the Harlem Renaissance is having on these particular creatives. 

We also talked to Naima J. Keith, an art curator and an educator at LACMA. She talked about paying tribute to the artisans that came before us, and this idea that because of those artisans in particular, now we can talk about skin tones. Now we can talk about Blackness and all of its authenticity, and how that comes to the table today in ways that it wasn’t before. 

Then there’s Shanari Freeman, who’s the executive chef of Cadence in Manhattan, and she talked about the idea of paying homage to the Harlem Renaissance through collaboration. She said that oftentimes we know what to do, but sometimes we don’t necessarily know how to do it, so let’s teach each other this idea of “each one, teach one.” 

Then we have Fredara M. Hadley, who’s an ethnomusicologist over at the Juilliard School. She talked about the idea of how dances from the Harlem Renaissance are being brought back today through troupes like THECouncil, a collective of five black women who are choreographers, producers, and directors who work with global brands and celebrities. 

What was the process like for developing the digital adaptation of the zine? What considerations went into that?

In addition to the print version of the culture issue, people across the globe will have access to a digital, flippable booklet of both zines, and those are going to be housed online, within a New York Times URL that encourages people to learn more about the resources and opportunities offered by U.S. Bank.

We had a long conversation early on about this idea of a digital hub, and I would always say, “Well, what would be the point of us creating something else if we already have our print zines?” And my team explained to me that it’s because not everybody has the same level of access, which is very important here. The one thing that we wanted to do with both of these zines is to give people opportunity and access, not only to the information but to the history. So that’s exactly what the hub is set out to do; now everyone—subscribers and non-subscribers of the New York Times—will be able to have access to it. 

It’s a great opportunity for us as a custom content studio to be able to take these zines and this content in its physical form and then allow it to live on digitally while also giving people this access. That was the lesson learned for us in our wealth zine— people were like, “This is amazing. How do we get it? How do I share it? How do I link to it?” But as opposed to thinking of it as a problem, we saw it as an opportunity in order for the zines to continue to live and give access to everyone.

The post T Brand Studio Celebrates the Centennial of the Harlem Renaissance with Zine Series & Digital Hub appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

This isn’t just a book—it’s a time capsule. Inside, you’re presented with 1,000 symbols and logotypes crafted by Pentagram’s legendary partners since the firm’s founding in 1972. Each mark tells a story, capturing brands from all corners of the world, from grassroots nonprofits to multinational corporations to cultural institutions (there’s even a logo for a country). The beauty lies in their diversity: bold wordmarks, intricate symbols, and abstract designs—all stripped back to black and white, letting the forms take center stage.

Pentagram—founded by graphic designers Alan Fletcher, Colin Forbes, and Mervyn Kurlansky, architect Theo Crosby, and industrial designer Kenneth Grange—has always been about pushing boundaries. While the tools and trends of design have evolved, one thing hasn’t changed: the logo remains a keystone of identity design.

What struck me most while flipping through 1000 Marks is how timeless great design can feel. These marks aren’t just logos; they’re cultural symbols that connect us to brands and experiences. And for designers like me, this book is pure gold—equal parts inspiration and education.

Whether you’re a designer, a brand enthusiast, or just someone who appreciates good design, 1000 Marks is a reminder of why logos matter. They’re more than just pretty pictures; they’re visual ambassadors for ideas, values, and stories. And Pentagram’s collection shows us just how powerful a single mark can be.

The post A Journey Through Pentagram’s Legacy in Logo Design appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

Design creativity blooms in spaces where curiosity meets intention, where ideas are nurtured into forms that resonate and inspire. It’s a process marked by exploration, experimentation, and the willingness to challenge conventions to uncover new perspectives. In this fertile ground, creativity is more than a spark—it’s a cultivated journey, drawing from diverse influences and blending intuition with technique.

Celebrating our 45th year, the 2025 PRINT Awards honors design in every shape and form. And, as our industry continues to evolve and our practitioners continue to explore new mediums and methods to advance their creativity, the PRINT Awards have found new ways to recognize outstanding work.

2024 PRINT Awards First Place Winner in Self-Promotions. The Office of Ordinary Things and D&K Printing. D&K Printing also printed the beautiful 2024 PRINT Awards certificates.

Categories for 2025

The 2025 PRINT Awards offer 28 categories for entries, ranging from Illustration to Motion Design & Video. In recent years, we added In-House, Design for Social Impact, and Packaging and expanded our branding categories. We also expanded the awards to offer students a chance to enter work in each category instead of only one student category. And, this year, our jury will also consider entries in Social Media + Content Design, Title Sequence Design, and Graphic Novels.

Learn more about the 2025 PRINT Awards categories.

2024 PRINT Awards Third Place Winner in Packaging, CF Napa Brand Design; Second Place Winner in Logo Design, Onfire. Design.

Citizen Design Award

Each year, the PRINT Awards highlight a free-to-enter Citizen Design Award to celebrate design work focused on one annually chosen social issue. With societies facing global challenges like climate change, economic instability, and technological shifts, our Citizen Design Award this year will honor work that speaks to social justice.

Social Justice ensures that all people are entitled to human rights and societal respect regardless of race, gender, religion, health, and economic status. Discrimination in the form of economic and educational inequities, combined with enduring legacies of oppression continue to impact many communities, creating toxic cycles of privilege and disadvantage.

Design can profoundly influence social justice through graphic tools that amplify awareness and drive change. Design can make complex issues more accessible, spark debate, inform audiences, and motivate positive engagement. This year’s PRINT Citizen Design category recognizes and celebrates the most impactful work that fosters empathy and action. From social awareness campaigns to apps, community-centered design projects, infographics, posters, social media graphics, and interactive experiences, Citizen Design will honor work that strives to make our world more compassionate and just.

2024 PRINT Awards First Place Winner in Design for Social Impact, Clinton Carlson and Team.

Our 2025 Jury

With a global jury representing a wide range of disciplines, each entry will continue to be judged on four key criteria: Craft, Longevity, Innovation, and Originality. Top winners will be featured on PRINTmag.com and receive trophies, certificates, and social media promotion. We’ll be adding jury members in the next few weeks. In the meantime, we welcome a few here!

A few of the 2025 Jury Members: Marisa Sanchez-Dunning, Bennett Peji, Jennifer Rittner, Eleazar Ruiz, Lara McCormick, Mike Perry, and Miller McCormick. More jurors are to be announced soon!

The 2025 PRINT Awards Presenting Sponsor

The team at PepsiCo Design + Innovation believes that good design is a meaningful experience. A functional product. A rich story. A beautiful object. Design can be fun, convenient, precious, or fearless, but good design is always an act of respect, empathy, and love.

That’s why PepsiCo Design + Innovation has joined PRINT this year as our Presenting Sponsor—to recognize, honor and, above all, to celebrate the joy of design in all its forms. That’s why PepsiCo Design and Innovation has joined PRINT this year as our Presenting Sponsor—to recognize, honor, and, above all, celebrate the joy of design in all its forms!

Dates and Deadlines

As in years past, we’ve broken the deadline schedule for the awards into four simple tiers—Early Bird, Regular, Late, and Final Call. The earlier you enter, the more you save because it helps us plan judging schedules and other tasks in advance. Enter now for the best price! (And it’s worth noting that to enable students to enter, the pricing is consistent across the board no matter when they submit their work.)

Join us as we recognize the talent that colors our world and celebrate the beauty of fresh ideas, bold solutions, and impactful storytelling. From emerging talents to seasoned visionaries, each submission is a testament to the boundless growth of design.

Submit your work today, and let’s cultivate the next generation of creative vision!

The post Announcing The 2025 PRINT Awards Call For Entries appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

The Artifacts from the Eames Collection is a series of catalogs that comprehensively documents pieces from the Eames Institute collection, making these iconic designs more widely accessible to all, thus further advancing the legacy of 20th-century designers Ray and Charles Eames.

The Eames Institute has already offered themed virtual exhibitions and is thrilled to continue its growth into the physical print medium. Forty-thousand+ objects have been lovingly collected, preserved, restored, and documented by the Eames Institute so far, with Artifacts from the Eames Collection presenting curated selections from these objects in six thematically themed catalogs: Tables, Ray’s Hand, Eames Aluminum Group, Toys & Play, Steinberg Meets the Eames, and Postcards. (The first five have already been released, with the Postcards catalog coming soon.) Many of the objects featured in these editions have never been seen before, and all have been newly photographed to highlight design details.

Each catalog includes an introductory note from Llisa Demetrios, Chief Curator of the Eames Institute and granddaughter of Ray and Charles, and an essay written by a leading design expert. The catalogs also present a variety of archival material and photography from the Eames Office, Library of Congress, and the archives of Herman Miller and Vitra.

The catalogs are softcover with a short cover wrap and a special insert and range from 122–172 pages. They are available for purchase from the Eames Institute here.

The post All the Eames That’s Fit to Print appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

According to the publication, the mission is to inspire children to embrace the joys of healthy food. (CHEW acknowledges that not all families have access to food and will be donating 10% of the magazine sales to food banks, as well as offering a 30% discount to schools.) Studio Anorak’s founder Cathy Olmedillas says, “There increasingly seems to be a disconnect between the food on our plates and its source. In our humble way, with CHEW we want to educate children (and their families!) about how incredible a simple vegetable or fruit is, and inspire them to cook and eat healthily.”

Below, Olmedillas and I bite into CHEW.

What inspired you to produce CHEW?
CHEW almost came instead of DOT, 10 years ago, but I ended up publishing a children’s food book, which was called Food is Fun. The reason I launched DOT first is because parents were asking us for a younger version of Anorak, so I obliged! In the summer, I revisited the plans I had for CHEW, and I was struck how fully formed the ideas for it were. Around the same time, I came across some depressing stats about children’s diets in the U.K. and USA, so it felt like CHEW could be of use, too. Not just a pretty mag!

Why did you launch it as a print magazine?
I think the magazine format helps children to get interested in many different things, outside of the school curriculum. It’s also less of a commitment than a book. It’s an easily digestible format (pun intended!) and I hope that it will ignite curiosity in children about the joys of simple food and the amazing larder Mother Nature gives us.

What has the early feedback been like?
So far, so good—everyone we have shown it to has fallen in love with the mixture of beautiful illustrations, all done by Sara Arosio, and the fun content.

Do you have enough funding to continue publishing it?
Yes, we have funding aside for six editions, which is nearly two years, as the magazine is quarterly.

Do you believe the magazine will reach its audience? And who is the audience?
Well, I hope so and think we will, because we have a good network of parents who follow us already. The audience is children aged 6+ and their families. Like with DOT and Anorak, I would love for CHEW to become a shared experience, but this time around food.

What is your favorite part of the magazine?
I love everything about it. I feel like a spoilt magazine-mamma with this one! If I had to pick one thing, it would be how we take one humble fruit, the orange, and build a whole around it: from a wacky comic about oranges and lemons fighting for centuries, to a cow that steals oranges, educational pieces about the history of the orange trade, and recipes.

The post The Daily Heller: Yummy, I’ve Got “Chew” in My Tummy appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

Now, however, I have another vision in my mind’s eye as I re-read the book. Igor Karash‘s illustrations for a forthcoming limited edition from Easton Press bring more nuanced darkness to Vonnegut’s shadows. Karash, known for his satiric depictions of Stalinist Soviet Union, brings into play dramatic shades of light and dark that illuminate Vonnegut’s personal feelings about the horror of war.

Below, Karash and I discuss the making of this emotionally tense, tactile rendition of a 20th-century classic, which is bound to become a 21st-century treasure.

I’ve read Slaughterhouse–Five at least five times over the past 20 years (and saw the film three times). I am very taken by your visual interpretation. How did this project begin?
In the fall of 2021 (about five months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine) I was approached by the publishing company Easton Press in Connecticut. Honestly, I believe it was only the second or third time in my illustration career that a publisher contacted me directly with a commission. Easton Press is best known for deluxe editions of illustrated classics. When I heard they were interested in me illustrating Slaughterhouse–Five, a book I always admired, it only took me a few seconds to reply with a confirmation that I was fully on board.

My initial step was to formulate a few possible visual scenarios—concepts and mood boards consisting of sketches, previous work that could stylistically work for Kurt Vonnegut, and inspirational images, including war-time photography. One particular concept titled “SO IT GOES” was inspired by an event in the book when Billy Pilgrim watched a black-and-white newsreel backwards and how the Tralfamadorians viewed reality as a thousand images in one glance. The other two concepts involved integrating religious imagery from the early Renaissance, or, quite the opposite, visuals inspired by American sci-fi illustrations of the ’50s and early ’60s.

The “SO IT GOES” concept was chosen by the publisher and I began to develop the series.

You mentioned that you started working on it at the outset of the Ukraine-Russia war. How did it impact your work?
Not in the greatest way. When I started developing the visuals, I was predominantly moved by the idea of examining the “horrors of war,” bouncing on the borderline between the darkest side of human nature and the paradoxical presence of good (this is the main message of the book for me). And then, the first war on the European continent since WWII turned everything upside down. Ukraine for me isn’t just another country—this is where I went to art school, where I met my wife, and where both of my children were born. From day one of the Russian invasion I was closely watching and following all news from Ukraine, contacting my friends there, etc., and almost immediately my drawings of the “horrors of war” on the surface of my drawing tablet started to feel bleak, unimportant and fake compared to the tragic reality unfolding before me, and I more deeply sunk into the hole of “PEOPLE DO NOT LEARN FROM THEIR PAST. SO IT GOES.” It took me a while to find enough inner peace to continue the project.

When were you introduced to Vonnegut’s writing, and what was your initial impression?
I was first introduced to Kurt Vonnegut’s prose during my “previous life” in the Soviet Union. There were few translations of his novels published in the USSR—most notably Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five. Not a lot of American authors were lucky to be published in my country (I say this with sarcasm in my voice). I think the Soviets liked Kurt Vonnegut’s rebellious criticism of the West, satirical commentary of the system, and anti-war sentiment. For us, the then-young generation (in contrast to the official government’s stance), his books were a small window to the West and we mainly enjoyed Vonnegut for his dark humor, surreal settings, fantastic worlds, elements of eroticism, and the oftentimes unusual structures and timelines in his books.

I only read Slaughterhouse–Five in English when I started working on this project. I have read it in its entirety about 10 times during the illustration process, and would periodically revisit specific chapters and sections.

What I like most is that none of the images you’ve made conform to my vision of the book, which I think is dictated by the movie. What is your thinking behind the pictures?
Somehow, perhaps subconsciously, my experiences in the Soviet military (1979–1981) shaped my vision for this project. Let me explain: There was a very strict draft system, so everyone had to serve in some capacity. I was drafted into the army while I was a student taking evening classes at an architecture college in Baku, Azerbaijan. I was a young 19-year-old dreamy/artistic type, so even though they found a military uniform and a pair of boots for me, I was very unprepared and quite unfit, a Soviet-style Billy Pilgrim.

I think what came through in my drawings based on my personal experiences is the feeling of being a misfit and a deep loneliness. The places I was stationed shaped my vision—I found myself in the midst of former German lands in the Kaliningrad Region (the city of Kaliningrad was built on the remains of the German city of Königsberg). When the city was taken over by the Soviets at the end of WWII it was somehow rebuilt as a typical Soviet city, but the region as a whole looked like a “frozen in time” war zone. One of these places, a small village called Kornevo with a dying collective farm, was at some point a fairly prosperous German town called Zinten. Not a lot remained of Zinten except for a few ruins. Scars of war were everywhere—holes from artillery shells on the buildings, wild apple trees where blossoming apple orchards once were, and ruins of homes with swimming pools in their backyards. Our regiment was stationed in former German barracks—a really well-built former German Tank School. These buildings were the only well-kept structures in Kornevo. When I started working on Slaughterhouse-Five, all my memories of this place came back, and now looking at my drawings I see some resemblance and reflection of these experiences.

On a general note, I always think my primary goal (when illustrating classic literature or modern classics) is to formulate a fairly independent and novel visual experience for the reader. But it is also important to me to find some balance between audience expectations regarding the theme, characters, time period, etc., and my artistic freedom. In the end, I hope the work has contemporary relevance and presents a balance of three worlds: “the world of the book,” “the world of the author” and “the world of the artist.”

You’ve also focused more on the return to Dresden than the character’s life in the suburbs. Did you prefer to stick to the surreal aspect of the plot?
This book, despite its small size, has a very complex structure (like the time travel) and an exceptional number of characters, so I had to make a decision very early in the process to limit my choices and focus on a few primary themes, like the Dresden bombing/scars of the war and the time/space travel that is part of Billy’s mental state … or is it?

This is a full-throttle deluxe visual experience. Do you feel it enhances or complements the reading?
A well-produced illustrated edition of an important influential book is something that, in my mind, corresponds to seeing a great theater performance or watching a great film based on a well-known classic. Yes, the story is familiar, but a new production or fresh creative direction adds new relevance and surfaces overlooked nuances. I think the modern reader is less interested in seeing visually what is already well-described in the text and appreciates illustrations that are more atmospheric, conceptually sophisticated and enigmatic.

This special edition also reflects the full creative freedom endowed to me by Easton Press—not a single concept or image I proposed was dismissed—including the most bizarre and strange imagery. I hope Kurt Vonnegut would like that!

The post The Daily Heller: Kurt Vonnegut’s Time Traveler Reimagined appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

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Luigi Maldonado, an Argentine immigrant, and Michael Tabie, a New York expat, landed at Austin, Texas-based creative agency Guerilla Suit for different reasons. Maldonado, partner and art director, started as an intern in 2011 and, over the next 13 years, has played a crucial role in the agency’s brand and culture. Tabie joined Guerilla Suit as design director in 2020. In four years, he has earned his title as a production pro, working with clients such as Yeti, Academy Sports+Outdoors, ESPN, and Nike.

The pair have made their mark on Guerilla Suit and the design world, bringing home first and second place in The 2024 PRINT Awards Branding Campaigns category.

SXSW

Luigi Maldonado – First Place in Branding Campaigns

Founded in 1987, SXSW is best known for its annual conference celebrating the convergence of
the interactive, film, and music industries. What began as a vehicle to showcase Austin’s creative and music community to the world has done its job. The first year saw around 700 attendees. Today, it’s an essential destination for global professionals, welcoming over 300,000.

Since 2021, Guerilla Suit has collaborated with SXSW to develop the theme for each year’s conference and refresh the design system as the foundation for all visual communications and wayfinding for the annual SXSW festival. In 2024, with the pandemic era in the rearview, the team, led by Maldonado, landed on the theme of Global Reframing.

The design team’s challenge was to create a look and feel inspired by the new generation of global citizens bringing about change from the ground up. Guerilla Suit provided art direction, campaign, social media, content, guidelines, graphic design, merchandise, motion graphics, signage, and wayfinding. The team’s innovation won them first place in the Branding Campaigns category.

East Side Pies

Michael Tabie – Second Place in Branding Campaigns

Four years into his role as design director at Guerilla Suit, Tabie seems to have grown accustomed to the Texas sun. He’s also made his mark on beloved Austin institutions, like East Side Pies, the pizza choice for many a team lunch.

There’s more to East Side Pies than meets the eye. Its Austin-style pizza is bigger than its signature thin crust or sauces. ESP takes pride in quality ingredients and community by working with local farms and ranches. For 20 years, East Side Pies has marched to the beat of its own drum, delivering the best culinary-inspired cracker crust pies using fresh, handpicked ingredients. ESP tapped the Guerilla Suit team to refresh their iconic look and feel as they entered a new growth phase, opening their first brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Guerilla Suit’s work helped to deepen the brand and allow East Side Pies to embrace their status as a hometown original. The identity showcases Austin and leans into the acronym ESP by refreshing the All Seeing Pie logo and introducing mystical taglines and motifs across the brand story. The team’s work earned them second place in the Branding Campaign category.

The post ATX’s Guerilla Suit Delivers a Double-Dose of Hometown Brand Love appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

“When I dreamed up this idea, there was no place for Muslims of a left-leaning political ideology to engage in critical discourse about the world we live in and how we want it to look different,” she says, noting that there were indeed magazines focusing on Black Muslim identity like Sapelo Square, or gender identity, like altMuslimah—but nothing broadly focused on the left side of the political spectrum. “Islam informs so much of my political values, and I knew the same was true for others. I saw that magazines such as Jewish Currents had created this space to critically reflect on community and politics, and I thought that was so needed in the American Muslim community.”

Ahmed partnered with creative director Arsh Raziuddin—former AD of The Atlantic and The New York Times’ Opinion section, and former creative director of Bon Appétit—and Acacia was born online and semi-annually in print.

Its first issue released earlier this year, covering a broad spectrum of politics and culture, with fiction, poetry and art to boot: In “The Myth of Bodily Autonomy,” Natalia Latif explored the impact of the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the Muslim response; Sarah Aziza penned an essay on growing up the child of a Palestinian Muslim father and an American Christian mother; Shamira Ibrahim documented the use and impact of “Arab scales” in Western music; Mariam Rahmani and Lamya H discussed Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir.

The latest issue, released this month, meanwhile, focuses on Palestine. There’s Sanya Mansoor’s “Fury at the Ballot Box”; Matene Toure’s interview with scholar Zoé Samudzi on the historical use of the word genocide; Maira Khwaja’s look at torture, from Guantanamo to Gaza; a profile of poet Mosab Abu Toha.

Underscoring it all: Raziuddin’s deft design and art direction, supplemented by visual contributions from some of the industry’s best creatives. 

Below, Ahmed and Raziuddin tell us more about the publication, which is further building out a community through sold-out launches and other events. 

Tell us about the need for a publication like this today.
Ahmed: It’s no secret that Muslim-, Arab- and Palestinian-allied journalists are being censored in mainstream media, especially in the last year. We think in light of that censorship, it’s more critical than ever that Muslim voices have a platform to report honestly about the state of our world. 

Raziuddin: This kind of censorship seeps into the world of art, affecting what stories we can share visually and how they are commissioned. It’s important to involve Muslim artists and photographers in a wide range of topics, so we aren’t limited to narratives of war, pain, and exoticism.

Arsh, at what point did you get involved? How did the two of you first connect?
Raziuddin: Hira and I had a meet-cute in an elevator. We were both going to another literary magazine party and introduced ourselves. I asked if she was a writer and she said she’s starting a lefty Muslim magazine. The rest was history. 

Tell us about the significance of the name Acacia, and how it represents your overall mission.
Ahmed: Our name is a reference to the acacia tree (Vachellia seyal). It’s generally thought to be a tree under which Prophet Muhammad and early followers of Islam sought respite and prayed. In that same tradition, Acacia is a gathering place.

Raziuddin: I imagine the tree taking on various forms, adapting alongside different letters, abstracting itself into varied versions as the magazine evolves.

What made you decide to launch Acacia in print?
Ahmed: Publishing a print edition allows us to build a tangible and enduring legacy of American Muslim political, cultural and artistic production. The internet may seem like forever, but everything on it is ultimately ephemeral. Because most of us don’t own the platforms that host our data, apart from some commendable archival efforts, we have limited tools to preserve our stories for future generations.

We hope that years from now, the back issues of Acacia will tell the story of what it meant to be a Muslim in America during critical political and cultural moments. 

Hira Ahmed

Tell us a bit about the editorial breakdown/architecture of the magazine, and how it’s arranged.
Raziuddin: Acacia is broken down into different sections, similar but not necessarily dependent on the front, middle, and back of a book, like a traditional magazine. We have a mix of personal essays, reported essays, feature stories, interviews, poetry, and a photo essay.

How have you selected the issue themes so far?
Ahmed: Our first issue was finalized before Oct. 7, 2023. In some ways, that feels like a different world, and the American Muslim community is certainly in a very different place since the beginning of the genocide. But in the pre-Oct. 7th world, we wanted to tell stories that were affecting us intra-communally. Our cover story “Navigating Culture Wars” from the first issue really captures that effort. It was about rising homophobia in the American Muslim community and specifically an open letter penned by prominent American Muslim imams condemning queerness. I think it resonated with readers because it was something everyone was talking about in the group chat, but, prior to Acacia, there was no space to formally unpack and analyze the subject matter of that story. 

The second issue is about Palestine. The genocide has been an all-consuming issue for American Muslims in the past year. It’s hard to imagine how that isn’t the case for everyone. As the genocide worsens, Gaza moves further back into the pages of newspapers. It’s a real shame. 

What has been your approach to the stories within? You have assembled such a powerful collection across a broad swath.
Ahmed: We are lucky that such incredible writers want to work with us! There is no shortage of talent in our communities and it’s been such an honor to be able to highlight that. A lot of writers are already thinking about the issues we discuss in the magazine, and we provide a home for that writing. Other times, as fans of certain writers, we will commission pieces that we think our readers would want to read. We have a brilliant group of editors who commission pieces and we deliberate together about what makes it into the issue. 

What are your favorite pieces that you’ve run to date?
Raziuddin: It’s hard to pick just one favorite, but I really loved Shamira Ibrahim’s piece on the Arab Scale from Issue 1, and Matene Toure’s interview on genocide in the latest issue. Amir Hamja’s portrait of Noura Erakat in this second issue was absolutely stunning and complemented her interview perfectly.

What has been the most challenging part of the whole endeavor so far?
Ahmed: It’s a logistically large undertaking.

Raziuddin: Especially with a small team, we’re really breaking new ground. There aren’t many folks doing what we’re doing in this way, and we’re creating our own path.

Tell us about the look you set out to achieve through the design.
Raziuddin: I want to strike the right balance between showcasing our community’s artwork and styles that we cherish, while also embracing a modern editorial language and design system. It’s a tricky line to walk.

Tell us a bit about the first two covers.
Raziuddin: In our inaugural issue, we were so lucky to feature Cassi Namoda as our cover artist. Her work is so beautiful—steeped in history and rich with narrative. Sad Man With Roses (awaits his beloved), 2020, captures a tender, poetic quality that was a perfect fit for our first cover. …

For our second cover, we were honored to feature a photograph by Taysir Batniji, a gifted Palestinian artist born in Gaza. His photo essay, Fathers, carries a haunting depth. Each image tells a story of lineage and family, echoing profound themes of loss and memory. It captures what we leave behind in times of war and genocide, highlighting how we, as a community, navigate and reshape our history. This issue confronts the ongoing devastation in Palestine and its broader impact on the Muslim world, while also addressing the rising tide of Islamophobia. We’re thankful for the artists who help us uncover and share the truth through their work. This series was captured back in 2006, many years before Oct. 7, 2023. 

Overall, what has the reception been like so far?
Ahmed: We’ve been really moved by the response. There’s nothing more rewarding than having a journalist or a fellow reader express gratitude for Acacia. My favorite anecdote is when we heard from a college student that he was going to cite one of our stories in his senior thesis. 

Raziuddin: A friend shared that a young Muslim girl, a budding artist, cried when she held the magazine. It made me cry!

Editor’s Note: PRINT Magazine is committed to publishing a diversity of opinions.

The post Meet ‘Acacia’, a New Print Magazine for the Muslim Left appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

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If any brand has an opportunity to take advantage of its leadership position in the category and elevate itself from a functional to an emotional brand, Bear Naked can. The team from Leo Burnett Chicago designed a campaign for hikers (and adult outdoor recreation enthusiasts in general) to think “Bear Naked” instead of “granola” because the company is a brand people love for its real ingredients, incredible taste, and commitment to the things they care about.

As part of this campaign, Leo Burnett designed a guidebook, “The Guide to Hiking Naked: The Essential Handbook for Nude Hikers,” winning first place in The 2024 PRINT Awards’ Brochures and Catalogs category.

Powered by Gaia GPS, a popular trail app, the design team deployed a new tool that replaces what used to be primarily done through word-of-mouth, marking trails as either friendly or unfriendly. The designers created an ownable moment for Bear Naked, kicking off on Naked Hiking Day 2023, that not only brought attention to the activity but empowered current (and curious) naked hikers to explore nature and reap all of its benefits confidently and safely. They achieved this through a bold, multi-pronged experience that grabbed the attention of hikers and non-hikers alike through its bare-all, grass-roots approach.

To get the word out, the team partnered with the name in all things outdoor, Outside Inc. Together, they embarked on a journey that included custom articles and how-to’s for enjoying hiking nude, partnership with influential outdoor personalities, video content delivered via CTV in outdoor-related contexts, cross-platform social engagement encouraging use of the app, a home-page takeover, and media outreach to garner earned coverage.

Oh, and so hikers don’t have to worry about leaving their granola at home, the design team created a hiker’s belt that holds a strategically placed bag of granola to cover up those who dare to be bare.

The post Leo Burnett Chicago Gets Bare Naked appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

These are some of the questions UK-based graphic designer Conor Foran found himself asking, spurred by his own journey with stammering. This reflection led to his development of the Dysfluent Mono typeface along with his wider project, Dysfluent, in 2017.

Through art, design, and curation, Dysfluent intersects the lived experience of dysfluency with creativity, activism, and social justice. Through Dysfluent, Foran collaborates with people who stammer, artists, speech therapists, academics, activists, organizations, and allies. One component of the Dysfluent project is an independent magazine of the same name, that explores the lived experience of stammering. Designed by Foran, the publication deploys the Dysfluent Mono typeface throughout its eye-catching and thoughtful pages, that visually portray the sounds, rhythms, patterns, and experiences of a stammer.

Foran has released two issues of the magazine, with a third currently in production. A digital version of issues one and two are available through Dysfluent’s online shop, with a hard copy of issue two distributed in the UK, Europe, Asia, and North America by Antenne Books.

More than a magazine, Foran has created a movement. Using his skills as a graphic designer and keen editorial design eye, through Dysfluent, Foran has helped cultivate a community centered around celebration and reclamation for those who stutter.

Stammering pride contends that verbal diversity is rich with meaning in its own right, and deserves to exist outside of a clinical lens of needing to be “fixed” or “cured.” 

Today, October 22nd, marks International Stuttering Awareness Day, a moment dedicated to sharing information about the realities of stuttering more widely and honoring the stuttering community at large. We’re thrilled to highlight Dysfluent and Foran’s work as part of the international celebration. Foran answered a few of my questions about the Dysfluent story below, including reflections on his editorial design, developing the Stammering Pride flag, and what he has planned next for the project.

Can you describe Dysfluent and its mission? What are you hoping to accomplish with Dysfluent?

Dysfluent is a collaborative and creative practice about stammering, a speech disability (also known as stuttering). Through art and design, it intersects the lived experience of dysfluency with creativity, activism, and social justice. So far, it has produced a stammering font, a magazine, a stammering pride flag, and, most recently, a billboard for Whitney Museum’s 2024 Biennial in New York City.

Dysfluent is led by me, Conor Foran. I collaborate with people who stammer, artists, speech therapists, academics, activists, organizations, and allies from around the world to contribute to a growing stuttering culture based around pride. Stammering pride contends that verbal diversity is rich with meaning in its own right and deserves to exist outside of a clinical lens of needing to be “fixed” or “cured.”

What’s the origin story of Dysfluent? How did the idea for a magazine reflecting the stammering community come about?

Dysfluent as a project happened very much organically, as I investigated my relationship with my own speech. While I am a proud person who stammers now, I wasn’t back in 2017 when I started creating the Dysfluent Mono typeface and magazine in college. Looking back, the project was a form of self-therapy that I still practice today. 

My experience with speech therapy was limited, and I wasn’t part of the stammering community as I am now. When creating content for the magazine, I met another person who stammers for the first time. What was an intensely personal project naturally evolved into a community-facing one. I’m very grateful to the stammering community that has embraced all the Dysfluent projects, from everyday people who stammer and parents of kids who stammer, to academics and therapists. 

The typeface is used in the magazine to proudly represent the voice of the interviewees. The magazine explores the lived experience of stammering through interviews and essays, facilitating contrasting and challenging views. It has published two issues so far. 

When it comes to the design of the magazine (and your beautiful website, merch, flag, etc.) can you speak to some of the visual choices you made to reflect stammering and how those were developed?

The typeface Dysfluent Mono is based on the three kinds of stammering: repetitions, prolongations, and blocks. I made special letterforms that repeat parts of themselves until they form the actual character, as well as characters that stretch their forms. Blocks are represented as multiple spaces. While ideas of stammering pride didn’t really exist when I created the typeface, looking back, the approach I took was very pride-coded. I interpreted my speech as forming over time, rather than being fragmented or broken. To consider stammering or dysfluency as not the antithesis of fluency is still a radical idea for a lot of people. 

To consider stammering or dysfluency as not the antithesis of fluency is still a radical idea for a lot of people.

For Issue 2 two, I asked how can a magazine itself stammer? The cover unfolds to reveal an inner dialogue amongst stammering letterforms. The issue’s title stammers across the spine. The “pull quotes” remain in their paragraphs, challenging the idea of the perfectly said phrase. Each interview is set in Dysfluent Mono. The expressive, typographic illustrations are inspired by the uniqueness of the interviewee’s voice. The magazine creatively questions society’s obsession with hyper-fluency, which leaves little room for organic moments in language.

Outside of the magazine, the typeface has been used in ZEIT and the “Stuttering Can Create Time” billboard for Whitney Museum’s 2024 Biennial with the collective People Who Stutter Create.

How have your skills as a graphic designer given you the power to make such an impact in stammering awareness?

My interest in typography in college laid the foundations for me to reconsider how my own voice could be represented in text. Making stammering visually beautiful, striking, and in some ways appealing empowers, me (and other people) to be proud of how I talk. I think it also speaks to a wider idea of what it means to be legible in both a linguistic and typographic sense. There is value to be found in visual and auditory dysfluency.

Making stammering visually beautiful, striking, and in some ways appealing empowers, me (and other people) to be proud of how I talk.

The medical model of needing to “fix” the stammer has dominated the stammering community up until a few years ago. As such, the graphic design of stammering only existed in clinical or organizational spaces. A lot of this visual design relies on tropes such as mouths, speech bubbles, and splintered, fractured, or broken typography.

There is now an emerging stuttering culture of visual art, design, music, poetry, and literature that explore the generative power of dysfluency by people who stammer, such as JJJJJerome Ellis, Willemijn Bolks, Paul Aston, and Jordan Scott. I consider my work in the stammering community to push past awareness and instead instill action. As the world becomes more and more accepting of difference, why shouldn’t stammering be included too?

I consider my work in the stammering community to push past awareness and instead instill action. As the world becomes more and more accepting of difference, why shouldn’t stammering be included too?

What was the development process of the Stammering Pride flag like? Can you unpack the design for me a bit?

The Making Waves flag was made by seven people who stammer from various countries: JJJJJerome Ellis, Kristel Kubart, Laura Lascău, Patrick Campbell, Paul Aston, Ramdeep Roman, and myself. We’ve titled it “a stammering pride flag” as it’s up to people who stammer if they identify with this design and approach we have taken. This flag is an invitation.

Water has long been associated with stammering and speech. We were eager to build upon work by the stammering community in a meaningful way, emphasizing that stuttering is as natural as whirling waves and calm creeks. The design visualizes three values: the sea-green symbolizes the existing community that has used this color for stuttering awareness since 2009; the wave motif symbolizes stammering as a natural, varied phenomenon; and the ultramarine symbolizes the progress and passion of the stuttering pride movement.

The flag has been flown by people all around the world. Kids who stammer and their parents have also responded to it so well, which has been a really amazing surprise!

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced with this project so far? What’s been the most rewarding aspect?

The biggest challenge I’ve faced is finding time to work on it! While I feel like I’ve produced a lot under the Dysfluent name, I still have so many ideas I want to develop. But because it’s a niche, there isn’t much money to be made, so it can be hard to devote time to the work.

My biggest reward has definitely been finding community. It still amazes me when I get an email or message from someone in a far-away country wanting to collaborate or just describing how Dysfluent represents them so well. The project also allows me to be a designer, artist, writer, facilitator… basically anything that needs to be done. While I enjoy being a generalist, it’s also taught me the importance of collaboration. 

What do you have planned next for Dysfluent?

The next Dysfluent-ism is an upcoming visual art exhibition in London, titled “Wouldn’t You Rather Talk Like Us?” with painter Paul Aston. It’s opening on November 29 and is supported by Arts Council England. The hand-made Making Waves flag will be on show in addition to some new work I can’t wait for people to see!

I’m also excited to start working on Issue 3 of the magazine next year. Overall, I’ll continue to position Dysfluent as a collaborative practice— forming alliances with people who stammer, therapists, and academics, to create work that both celebrates and challenges what we think about stammering.

The post Conor Foran Spreads Stammering Pride through ‘Dysfluent’ Magazine appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

In the past few weeks, Will Welch has taken a bit of flack for letting Beyoncé promote her new whiskey label on the cover of GQ’s October issue, with an interview that one X user described as “an intimate email exchange between GQ and several layers of Beyonce’s comms team.”

Whether that kind of thing rankles you or not—and yes, we asked him about it—in the five years since Welch took over, GQ seems to be doing as well or better than everybody else in the industry. Why? Ask around. He’s got a direct line to celebrities, who consider him a personal friend. He’s got real credibility with The Fashion People. And because of both of these things, advertisers love him.

Perhaps most importantly, his boss, Anna Wintour loves him.

The Atlanta-born Welch started his career at the alternative music and culture mag the Fader in the early aughts and jumped to GQ in 2007. For a decade under EIC Jim Nelson, he operated as the magazine’s fashion-and-culture svengali, eventually becoming the creative director of the magazine and the editor of the brand’s fashion spinoff, GQ Style.

In 2019, Wintour tapped him for the big job: Editor-in-Chief of GQ—a title that in 2020 was recast in the current Condé Nast survival mode as Global Editorial Director of GQ, overseeing 19 editions around the world.

After speaking with Welch only a few hours after the Beyonce cover dropped, we get what all the fuss is about. He is a great sport with good hair and just enough of a Southern accent who is confident-yet-never-cocky about his mission at GQ.

Let other people bemoan the “death of print.” Will Welch is having a blast at the Last Supper.

Read the full episode transcript here.

Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!) is a podcast about magazines and the people who made (and make) them. Magazines that combined thought-provoking attitudes and values with a distinctive look and feel, and cast a long and powerful shadow on American culture and public discourse. Hear stories and learn lessons from legendary designers, editors, writers, publishers, photographers, illustrators, photo editors, and more—stories and lessons that capture a magical history of innovation and inspiration, and that point the way forward. We’ll go deep into the lives and careers of this astonishingly talented group of creators, and tease out what these giants—past and present—have to teach the next generation of creators.

If you’re in the magazine business—if you’re in any business focused on content creation—this podcast is for you.

This episode is a special collaboration with The Spread and is made possible by PIDLLP sponsors Commercial Type, Mountain Gazette, and Freeport Press.

The team behind Print is Dead (Long Live Print!) also produces The Full Bleed, a podcast about the future of magazines and the magazines of the future.

The post Smiling Through the Apocalypse | Will Welch appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

Dominique Browning jokes that after the interview for this episode, she might end up having PTSD. After more than 30 years writing and editing at some of the top magazines in the world, Browning has blocked a lot of it out.

And after listening today, you’ll understand why.

At Esquire, where she worked early in her career, Browning says she cried nearly every day. There were men yelling and people quitting. Apartment keys being dropped off with mistresses. A flash, even, of a loaded gun in a desk drawer.

At House & Garden, where she ended her magazine career in 2007 after 12 years as the editor-in-chief, the chaos was less Mad Men and more Devil Wears Prada. It was glitzy Manhattan lunches mixed with fierce competition and coworkers who complained that her wardrobe wasn’t “designer” enough. The day she took the job, she says she felt like she had walked into Grimm’s Fairy Tales. (Her friends had warned her that it was going to be a snake pit.)

When the magazine unexpectedly folded on a Monday, she and her staff were told they had until Friday to clear out their offices. “Without warning,” she says, “our world collapsed.”

In this episode, Browning talks with Lory Hough, editor of Harvard Ed. magazine, about those chaotic years, which, she admits, could also be fun. (Spoiler: The fun had nothing to do with the loaded gun.) You’ll also hear why in her editor’s columns she often wrote about her kids, why she still thinks of herself as an editor, and why a certain bit of advice from a golfer friend helped her during the stressful parts of her life when she worried too much about what others were thinking: Keep your eye on the ball and just swing through.

Read the full episode transcript here.

Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!) is a podcast about magazines and the people who made (and make) them. Magazines that combined thought-provoking attitudes and values with a distinctive look and feel, and cast a long and powerful shadow on American culture and public discourse. Hear stories and learn lessons from legendary designers, editors, writers, publishers, photographers, illustrators, photo editors, and more—stories and lessons that capture a magical history of innovation and inspiration, and that point the way forward. We’ll go deep into the lives and careers of this astonishingly talented group of creators, and tease out what these giants—past and present—have to teach the next generation of creators.

If you’re in the magazine business—if you’re in any business focused on content creation—this podcast is for you.

This episode is made possible by PIDLLP sponsors Commercial Type, Mountain Gazette, and Freeport Press.

The team behind Print is Dead (Long Live Print!) also produces The Full Bleed, a podcast about the future of magazines and the magazines of the future.

The post When House is Not a Home | Dominique Browning appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

The accomplishment Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. is most proud of, is that 6,000 Americans display his prints on their walls. There’s perhaps no better anecdote to describe Kennedy’s humble, generous, thoughtful spirit, on full display in the pages of the gorgeous monograph Citizen Printer and in our Book Club discussion.

If you missed our live conversation, this one was truly special and worth a watch!

Kennedy was exposed to letterpress printing as a ten-year-old in Louisiana with his Cub Scout troop. He rues that in our contemporary, digital culture, people don’t always have access to see how things are made. “I just watched him work,” Kennedy said, “The pride that he took in making these things, in workmanship, I picked that up.”

One doesn’t realize what effect an encounter will have on our lives.

Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.

Kennedy talked about his career trajectory from a “one-time business bureaucrat,” to taking what he deemed the easy path: “I decided to do what made me happy.” He’s a practitioner of bad printing, a term he uses to describe his lack of formal training, his use of layering, and his self-described sloppy, hurried technique.

There are other followers of “bad printing,” notably the Dutch experimental artist and typographer HN Werkman. Kennedy, like Werkman, values the power and influence of printed matter, saying, “Printing is always a dangerous business. The dissemination of information is dangerous.”

Dangerous, and important. Kennedy’s manifesto is passionate and provocative: I PRINT NEGRO. “Those voices that have been suppressed, I have to use my press to put those voices out in the world,” he says.

He considers himself an agitator (and our culture is better served with his hard truths). Listening to Kennedy, one can’t help but absorb his palpable joy and contentment in his work.

I try to put ink on paper everyday. Then it’s a complete day.

Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.

We’ve only scratched the surface of this incredible conversation. We hope you’ll register here to watch the recording. Psst: Kennedy offered a free postcard print to everyone who attended. You’ll have to watch it to find out how!

If you haven’t purchased your copy of Citizen Printer, order one here. Your design bookshelf will thank you!

Links & diversions from this live stream:

Kennedy refurbished an old building as his print shop, starting in 2016. Check out the photo album.

Clear some space in your studio. Posterhouse NYC has two Kennedy prints in the shop. We Tried to Warn You! (2023) and the Posterhouse 2021 anniversary print. Smaller in scale, Kennedy’s Sista Said postcard set at Letterform Archive offers words of wisdom from Black women in social justice and the arts.

Go see the gorgeous exhibition that accompanies this monograph at Letterform Archive in San Francisco! On view until January 2025, Citizen Printer showcases 150 type-driven artifacts produced throughout Kennedy’s career, including broadsides, maps, church fans, handbills, and oversized posters.

The post PRINT Book Club Recap with Joyful Agitator, Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

There are many reasons for you to hate Fabien Baron (especially if you’re the jealous type). Here are seven of them:

• He’s French, which means, among other things, his accent is way sexier than yours.
• He’s spent more than his fair share of time in the company of supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, and Kate Moss.
• He gets all of his Calvin Klein undies for free.
• Ditto any swag from his other clients: Dior, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, or Armani.
• When he tired of just designing magazines, magazines went and made him their editor-in-chief.
• He was intimately involved in the making of Madonna’s notorious book, Sex. How intimately? We were afraid to ask.
• Also? Vanity Fair called him “the most sought-after creative director in the world.”

With our pity party concluded, we admit “hate” was probably the wrong word, because after spending time talking to him, it’s easy to see why Baron has been able to live the kind of life many magazine creatives dream of—and why he’s been so incredibly successful.

His enthusiasm is contagious. It’s actually his superpower. And it’s a lesson for all of us. When you get next-level excited, as Baron does when he can see the possibilities in a project, his passion infects everybody in the room. 

And then, when you learn that Baron believes he’s doing what he was put on this earth to do, and claims that he would do it all for free. You’ve kind of got to believe him.

I never, ever worried about money. I never took a job because of the money. Because I think integrity is very important. I think, like believing that you have a path and that you’re going to follow that path and you’re going to stay on that path and that you’re going to stick to that. And that’s what I’m trying to do.

Fabien Baron

Read the full episode transcript here.

Print Is Dead (Long Live Print!) is a podcast about magazines and the people who made (and make) them. Magazines that combined thought-provoking attitudes and values with a distinctive look and feel, and cast a long and powerful shadow on American culture and public discourse. Hear stories and learn lessons from legendary designers, editors, writers, publishers, photographers, illustrators, photo editors, and more—stories and lessons that capture a magical history of innovation and inspiration, and that point the way forward. We’ll go deep into the lives and careers of this astonishingly talented group of creators, and tease out what these giants—past and present—have to teach the next generation of creators.

If you’re in the magazine business—if you’re in any business focused on content creation—this podcast is for you.

This episode is made possible by PIDLLP sponsors Commercial Type, Mountain Gazette, and Freeport Press.

The team behind Print is Dead (Long Live Print!) also produces The Full Bleed, a podcast about the future of magazines and the magazines of the future.

The post Fabien Baron | Vive la Créativité! appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

*Thanks to Mirko Ilic.

The post The Daily Heller: Art Directing the Real Sopranos appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

The ABC Book of Media Literacy isn’t just another textbook. It’s a primer covering the media landscape, literally from A to Z. Each letter of the alphabet represents a key concept or area in media literacy, from algorithms and bots to watchdogs and zines. It’s a comprehensive guide designed to equip young people with the tools they need to navigate an increasingly complex and often perilous media environment.

Finland has always been at the forefront of progressive education, and this initiative is a testament to that commitment. Today, when disinformation and hybrid warfare pose significant threats to democracy and societal well-being, media literacy isn’t just important; it’s essential. According to Susanna Ahonen, Project Manager at NMF, the need for such education has only intensified since Russia’s war in Ukraine and Finland’s subsequent entry into NATO. The amount of disinformation and information influence aimed at shaping public opinion and behavior has skyrocketed, making it crucial to prepare the younger generation to recognize and combat these dangers.

But what makes this initiative particularly powerful is its focus on trust—a quality Finland holds in high regard. Jukka Holmberg, President of NMF, emphasized that while trust in journalism remains exceptionally high in Finland, it must be actively maintained. This primer reinforces the role of independent journalism in a healthy democracy and teaches students to be vigilant watchdogs.

The creative force behind The ABC Book of Media Literacy, United Imaginations, has done a remarkable job of bringing this concept to life. Collaborating with type designer Ville Salervo, they’ve crafted a book that isn’t just educational but also visually engaging—a critical factor in capturing the attention of young minds.

I had the absolute pleasure of asking Ahonen some questions about this initiative. Our conversation is below, edited for clarity and length.

How did the concept of The ABC Book of Media Literacy evolve from an initial idea to a fully realized primer, and what were the key challenges you faced in this process?

Based on research, we know that young people have difficulty distinguishing journalistically produced information from other digital messages on, for example, social media platforms. We thought about how to clarify the concept of journalism and emphasize different ways of producing information. United Imaginations came up with the idea of ​​an old-fashioned ABC book to give away to school children. They hired an illustrator, Ville Salermo, to visualize the book, and News Media Finland came up with a word for each letter that you need to know to understand the reality of digital communication. The most difficult task was choosing only one word per letter because there are so many issues and perspectives. It was also difficult to condense the message into something short and simple but still informative and interesting for young people.

Finland has consistently ranked high in media literacy and trust in journalism. What is unique about Finnish society and education, and how does this primer build on those strengths?

Finland is a small country, and the Finnish language is very special. Language has protected us in many ways. The amount of disinformation in Finnish has remained moderate. Chat GPT and powerful translation programs challenge this now. Finnish society is built on trust. We trust institutions such as the police, the defense forces, and the judiciary. Our journalism institution is also doing well for now. In Finland, education is free of charge, and the entire age group, regardless of socio-economic background, attends the same elementary school. Income differences are low; the population is educated and well-off. The primer builds on these strengths to the extent that, due to trust, it is easy to say that the Finnish journalistic media is reliable and hardly questioned. Teachers also appreciate the news media, enthusiastically accept the media education materials we produce, and invite us to speak to pupils. Journalism is trusted, e.g., because we have an excellent media self-regulation system maintained by journalistic guidelines. Media publishers, journalists, and representatives of the public are involved.

Read more about the Council of Mass Media in Finland.

In the context of hybrid warfare and the rise of disinformation, what specific strategies does the primer employ to be relevant to young people?

We are talking about hybrid warfare because it is important to understand how dangerous the influence operations of a foreign state (i.e., Russia) can be for our democracy and independence. Russia (the former Soviet Union) has tried to invade our country twice. All Finns know that we have a dangerous neighbor. Today, we are not only threatened by guns and bombs but also by disinformation, which tries to undermine our democracy and create chaos in our homeland. Therefore, every Finn must know about information warfare and how to defend against it. Our strategy is to provide information in an interesting and effective format and disseminate it widely.

Do you see the potential for similar educational initiatives to be adopted internationally? How might the success of this project in Finland serve as a model for other countries?

Media education work has been done in Finland since the 1950s. In the national curriculum, media education has been included in some form ever since. Over 70 years of long-term work is an excellent foundation to build on. The cultures of other countries differ so much, so it is difficult to assess whether they could take our model as it is. For example, how would it go over in the US or the UK if you hand out a book telling all students that BBC News and CNN provide correct information everyone should trust? Or that all journalists are committed to the journalist’s professional ethical principles and, as a general rule, never fall for fake news? First, a media self-regulatory body should be established in each country whose members commit to ethical principles. After that, our model can be exported to the world. There are models like this in many European countries. Next year, for example, News Media Finland will start helping Ukrainians make their self-regulation model known and increase its reliability in the eyes of the citizens as well.

As someone who works in branding and design, I recognize the importance of such initiatives in shaping a better future. Media literacy is the second most important skill after reading, especially when the lines between fact and fiction are increasingly blurred. The rest of the world can learn from Finland’s proactive approach. It’s not just about teaching students to consume media critically—it’s about empowering them to be informed citizens who can navigate the complexities of our age with confidence and discernment.

In an era of disinformation, the real power lies in education and trust. And Finland, once again, leads the way.

Imagery courtesy of United Imaginations.

The post Media Literacy A to Z: How Finland is Arming Students Against Misinformation appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

I was a huge New York magazine fan from a year after its founding to the late 1970s. (Over the past half dozen years, I’ve renewed my subscription.) Part of its appeal to this twenty-something was the visual concoctions by Design Director Milton Glaser and Art Director Walter Bernard. There were always engaging stories, thematic issues, and just plain surprises. Compared to the then-stolid New Yorker, the magazine was dynamic, both from an art direction and editorial perspective. Remarkably, both publications have survived into the first quarter of the 21st century, and show no signs of losing relevance or appeal. In fact, they have risen as the tide of digital media has washed so many others out to sea.

I saved issues of New York, notably ones that I either wanted to copy, savor or retain for historical reference. Of course, even the most heroic hoarders cannot hold onto all their junk like the Collyer Brothers. But I saved the Dec. 29, 1975, issue because it was about my favorite New York theme: movies. And in particular the increase in filmmaking throughout the city. Watching the craftspeople build on New York streets was a big thrill, as I wrote in 2015.

This special end-of-year number was right for the time and for now. The issue was flooded with stories that extolled the virtue of using New York as both setting and character. And as the years have flown by, the city has grown as a movie capital, with studios in Queens and Brooklyn, as well as countless location shots.

I recall with contempt the movies and TV shows that invoked New York but were filmed in Toronto. It may have fooled some, but despite the garbage cans, police cars, and characters with Brooklyn accents, shows like “Kojak” (and others I’ve blocked from memory) always faltered on the details, especially the street signs.

This issue of the magazine was devoted to classic, contemporary and futuristic films that physically used the city. Jim Hoberman regaled the reader with a guide to the once-ubiquitous revival houses that have since greatly decreased in number, owing to physical media and the streaming wave.

There was also a new feature by Edward Sorel of satiric film posters: David Rockefeller’s failing mammoth development scheme, the World Trade Center, which in light of Sept. 11, is rather haunting today. Most contemporary readers will not remember the saga of Rabbi Bernard Bergman, whose temple was devoted to Mammon, and who triggered a nursing home scandal fueled by greed. And the acerbic Gentlemen Prefer Bonds, starring Nixon’s attorney general and Nelson Rockefeller, both in caper-coms as rapacious developers.

New York in its current incarnation continues the legacy begun by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser, and I save the print versions for about six months, but my stack from the golden years cannot be sustained. So, with the untouchable exceptions of the first issues, these publishing treasures have been relegated to junk and torn asunder.

The post The Daily Heller: When New York Was Starstruck appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

Few resources shine as brightly as Designing Brand Identity in the ever-evolving landscape of design. Now in its 6th edition, Wheeler brought on Rob Meyerson to coauthor and steward the book. With practical advice, case studies, and step-by-step strategies, this book is a beacon for anyone seeking to navigate the intricacies of branding with confidence and creativity.

Wheeler’s vision and expertise have left an indelible mark on the field, empowering countless professionals and students to transform how brands are conceived and executed. Her dedication to demystifying the branding process is a testament to her passion for design education, and her legacy lives on through this book. For more on that legacy, PRINT honored her memory this year. You can also listen to Debbie Millman’s 2011 interview with Wheeler on Design Matters.

The introduction of the 6th edition offers an insightful look back at the last two decades of branding. We’ve excerpted the intro Q&A with Wheeler and Meyerson below, with permission.

What are your biggest takeaways from twenty years of writing Designing Brand Identity?

Alina Wheeler (AW): Since the first edition, we’ve put supercomputers in our pockets, fallen in and out of love with social media, weathered a pandemic, and witnessed massive change in the climate and global politics. At the same time, branding has changed immeasurably. Now, major rebrands are mainstream news. People use (and misuse) phrases like “on brand” in daily conversation. Brand expression is omnipresent across all digital platforms, content marketing is a cost of entry, and armies of algorithms track our every move. We continue to see a dramatic increase in best practices across organizations big and small, B2C and B2B, driven by new generations of agile leaders. And companies are rebranding more often—identities that would have once lasted 20 years are now revised after just five. Writing Designing Brand Identity has reminded me how much courage it takes to effect change. And that no one does it alone. Through this book, I’ve aspired to capture the strategic intelligence and boundless creativity of our colleagues around the world. We are infinitely grateful to all who have shared their time, stories, wisdom, and insights as they build the brands of the future.

Why a sixth edition? Why now?

AW: When I began writing Designing Brand Identity in the early 2000s, there was no comparable book. It was the resource I needed in the heat of a new engagement—a book that would provide a shared vocabulary and process for management and the marketing team, supply a list of the major brand name changes in the last century, and remind me of the irrefutable fundamentals of branding. It was a way to keep me up to speed on the most current thinking on user experience, approaches to decision making, and global best practices. Since then, hundreds of smart, new branding books have come out. But Designing Brand Identity remains the most comprehensive resource available. Over 20 years, five editions, and eleven languages, it’s been a living document in which I’ve continuously collected and updated best practices, processes, and trends. The sixth edition is the strongest one yet. As long as branding exists, Designing Brand Identity will always have new insights to share.

How (and why) did you select a coauthor?

AW: After 20 years, it’s time for a new generation of brand thinkers to take the lead. Two things have allowed me to be effective writing this book: being “in the game” — working with clients, attending conferences, networking with peers—and committing to creating the best book I could. So, when I began the daunting search for a co-author, those were my top priorities. Who’s in the game? Who will truly commit to helping me create the best possible version of Designing Brand Identity? Rob Meyerson has occupied every seat at the branding table, from start-ups to mature, multinational, public companies. He’s led strategy teams at world-renowned brand consultancies and boutique agencies. He has lived and worked in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Southeast Asia; he understands the importance of cultural insights. As Global Head of Brand Architecture and Naming at HP, he hired and managed top-tier branding firms and was “in the room” helping to create a new, multi-billion-dollar brand—Hewlett Packard Enterprise. And as an independent consultant, he’s demonstrated his commitment to understanding, improving, and educating the global branding community through his writing and podcast.

What’s changed in the sixth edition?

Rob Meyerson (RM): Our main goal was to ensure the book is not only up to date, but forward thinking in terms of how brands are built and maintained, trends impacting the world of brands and branding, and examples of amazing work. We’ve added detail and rigor to pages about brand strategy, brand architecture, and naming, as well as ideas that have more recently gained relevance in branding, such as AI, social justice, and evidence-based marketing. And we continued our efforts to feature a diverse cross-section of work in terms of geography, agency size, and types of client companies. Just as important is what hasn’t changed. We’ve preserved the three-part structure (Basics, Process, Best Practices), built on the comprehensiveness of previous editions, and factored in insights from dozens of industry experts. Designing Brand Identity is still organized as a reference book, with bite-sized pieces of useful information—a book for busy people undertaking the monumental challenge of building or overhauling a brand.

What did you learn working on this book?

RM: Creating a new edition of Designing Brand Identity is a massive undertaking: Over 150 two-page spreads, each with its own set of challenges, examples to source, and experts to consult. It means capturing, distilling, and organizing the collective wisdom of an industry, then sharing it back in an easily digestible format. Doing so forced me to gain a deeper understanding of some topics and learn about others for the first time. Alina’s assertion that “no one does it alone” is more than a statement of fact—it’s a mindset. It’s been an honor to work with Alina on this iconic book. Doing so gave me a front-row seat to the impact she’s had on the lives and careers of so many people in our industry. Time and again, senior executives and acclaimed designers would jump at the opportunity to contribute to the new edition—not only because they relied on this book early in their careers (many of them did) but because of how giving Alina is with her time, attention, and expertise. I’m certainly not new to collaborating, networking, or community building, but working with Alina on this book has been a master class.

What’s next for Designing Brand Identity?

I reached out to Rob, curious to hear his perspective on leading the way forward as he takes the helm.

What do you believe have been the most significant changes in the branding landscape in the last 20 years, and how have these changes influenced the updates in the sixth edition?

RM: In some ways, it feels like everything has changed. When the first edition was published, none of us had heard of an iPhone or Twitter, and most of us had never heard the name Barack Obama. And changes like these—in technology, culture, and elsewhere—have had immeasurable changes in how we build and manage brands. Meanwhile, branding professionals and academics continue to advance the thinking on how marketing and branding work. Every edition delves into relevant topics, updates best practices, and provides fresh examples and case studies. For example, in this edition, we added information about AI, evidence-based marketing, and how brands responded to the murder of George Floyd.

We added a two-page spread on social justice, which shows examples of how brands have stood up for social justice, provides dos and don’ts, and highlights some of the brands that changed their names or logos in the wake of George Floyd’s (2020) murder. We also added over 50 new case studies in this edition—the first time since the first edition that the book has had a full refresh on case studies—and aimed to highlight some environmentally friendly and socially responsible brands. Brands featured in the case studies include nonprofits, fully electric cars, reusable packaging, and even a sustainable alternative to cemeteries.

What are some of the most compelling case studies or examples included in the sixth edition?

RM: Of the 800+ images, diagrams, and examples of brand touchpoints in this edition, over 75% of which are new, it’s tough to choose favorites. What I like most is the diversity of work highlighted in this edition—and I mean “diversity” in just about every sense of that word. Big, famous brands, like Pepsi and Nike, and smaller, local brands, like a convenience store in Costa Rica. Work from every continent. From well-known agencies like Pentagram and COLLINS to boutique agencies. B2C and B2B. For-profit and nonprofit. We wanted to show a range, and I think we succeeded.

Why do you believe Alina Wheeler’s impact continues to resonate with today’s brand strategists and designers?

RM: Alina’s known globally as the author of Designing Brand Identity, and of course, that book has had—and will continue to have—a huge impact on branding professionals everywhere. (As an example, Alex Center of CENTER says it’s “the book that first taught me how to build brands.”) But, Alina made a significant impact even before she wrote the book as a female agency founder, a founding member of AIGA Philadelphia, and an advisor and mentor to countless agencies and young professionals around the world. And those who had the chance to meet her personally will remember her generosity, humility, wisdom, and humor. She loved helping people in their careers, she was passionate about design and branding, and she was optimistic about the future. In many ways, Designing Brand Identity is just an extension of those traits.

Anyone working on future editions of this book should constantly be asking themselves, “What would Alina do?” We’ll do our best to make some of her ideas a reality, and I think she’d love to know that we’re continuing to push the envelope. She wouldn’t have had it any other way.
—Rob Meyerson

Thanks to Alina Wheeler for her monumental contributions to the branding world, which continue to inspire and guide us. And here’s to the next chapter of Designing Brand Identity — I’m looking forward to what comes!

What do you want to see from Designing Brand Identity in the future? Sign up at dbibook.com/news to send feedback and stay in the loop on future plans.

The post The Enduring Legacy of Alina Wheeler’s ‘Designing Brand Identity’ appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

I have been on Torosian’s mailing list for over two decades, and an admirer of the books he has created on photographers he deeply admires. Samples of the books he’s made of their work, as well as his own photographs, supplemented by the essays he’s written and reprinted by others, make this volume both readable and collectable.

Although I’ve written in the past about specific Lumiere Press books, I’ve not, until recently, talked to Torosian about his work. The recent creation of the Lumiere Press Archives at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, was a good excuse to learn more about this printer/photographer.

How do you define the title Printer Savant?
This was a title bestowed upon me the evening of my very first book launch. I was explaining to a guest how the books were made—that I had cast the type from molten lead, printed the sheets on a hand-cranked, hand-fed press, and bound the books entirely by hand. She was astonished at how complex and labor-intensive it all was and asked me where I had learned how to do all this stuff, assuming perhaps I’d gone to an industrial trade school. When I told her that I was self-taught, she said, “You must be a printer savant.”

I loved it. The implication that I had some kind of extraordinary ethereal native talent was delightful, but I also liked the clever turn of phrase. I thought it was so novel it ultimately found its way into the title of the newest book, which surveys my entire career.

And the term served as a contrapuntal device in the book’s narrative to understand the path of my education in the book arts—that my “savant-like” aptitude was actually the result of an array of factors—an obsessive devotion to learning; the aesthetic tools I brought with me from my background in the art of photography; and the experience of meeting and working with some of the most important artists of the 20th century.

I still like the idea of being called a “savant,” even though the reality is less dreamy and more the product of thousands of hours of intense work.

How did you become a printer, and how did you decide what to print?
I had my first one-man show as a photographer in 1974. I was deeply immersed in the artform. In those years exhibitions were few and far between, so it was primarily through books that I developed a mature understanding of the medium and found inspiration.

And I had two key revelations—because the reproductions in a book could retain the fidelity of the original photographic print and the structure of the book enabled the photographer to make a sophisticated statement through the selection and sequencing of images, the book in itself was a work of art. From that, I arrived at the conviction that the book was truly the medium of photography. The question: How could I pursue the book arts?

In 1976 I was working on a portfolio of prints that required some typesetting and printing, and I was introduced to a designer who offered to help me out. When I arrived at his home, he led me into the kitchen. The room was dominated by a Vandercook cylinder proofing press. He was hand-setting type and printing books. I thought you needed a factory to make books, and this guy was doing it in his kitchen.

This was my introduction to letterpress. But just as importantly, it was also my introduction to the ethos of the “fine press,” a philosophical perspective founded on the idea of the book not as the product of an editorial board and an array of industrial tradesmen, but as the expression of one person’s conceptualization, design and craftsmanship.

I was absolutely captivated by the craft. For the next 10 years I committed myself to an intense, personal education in the book arts. I studied design and typography and the history of the book. I acquired and learned how to operate an Intertype machine and a printing press and, for three years, I took night school classes in traditional book binding.

One of the great advantages of devoting a decade to this personal education is that it gave me the time to seriously consider what shape a publishing program should take. I was guided by my mantra that I wanted “to be part of the dialogue of my medium.” The heart of my mission became the examination of the artform through the biographies and philosophies of photographers who had inspired me.

There is such a perfection in what you do. How did this ingrain itself in your being?
I’m tempted to credit heredity for that. My father was a meticulous craftsman. He built the house I grew up in—by hand. And my mother was cut from the same cloth—very fastidious and well-organized.

In my book I quote Mies van der Rohe’s famous line, “God is in the details,” and I make the point that the allusion to the divine elevates the aspiration. The way we work is not just a matter of striving for perfection, it is an ethical imperative.

I take the position that every minute of every hour should be one of concentration and commitment. Whether I’m writing, or photographing, or gluing up a spine, it is all of a piece: I make no differentiation in the meaning of a task. It all has to be done, and done well.

It’s a way of living and learning and being.

Books obviously are not disappearing, but how do you viably preserve the species in the work you do?
I started out in the fine press world because the craft appealed to me. There is nothing more rewarding than to make something with your own two hands.

But in addition to the sheer pleasure of making books the way I do in my workshop, I soon discovered that I’d come upon a form of publishing art books that had a lot of merits.

When you look at the tidal wave of trade books that are produced every year, you realize it is so overwhelming that many books don’t have a chance of finding an audience or enduring. As Calvin Trillin once quipped, “The average shelf life of a book is somewhere between milk and yogurt.” A trade title is easily pushed out by the next thing coming down the assembly line.

In contrast, in the world of publishing I have my own unique bandwidth. Lumiere Press is the only fine press in the world devoted to the art of photography. The books stand apart. Private collectors and institutions have responded to the “object quality” and the art historical scholarship, and for 40 years I’ve sold out every edition. And because the books are not an ephemeral product, but are preserved and treasured and studied, the impact of each book is curiously much greater than books published in bigger numbers.

There are so many ways to make a good book. What is the line below which you will not descend as a bookmaker?
I can only answer this by inverting the equation and saying that there is no limit to what I would do in the pursuit of perfection. I’ve learned that perfection as an absolute is unattainable, but I think striving for it does possess a certain nobility.

The Lumiere Press Archives at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, are packed with the evidence of this striving—trial pages, prototype bindings, maquettes—a profusion of artifacts attesting to the compulsion to find a way of expressing in paper and ink the intellectual and creative substance of the project.

My assistants have sometimes wondered why we would devote weeks, sometimes months, to one small detail of the project, and my answer is always the same—everything I do is my legacy.

The plaque on the cover of the new book might look like something you’d knock off in one day’s work, but in fact it was the result of weeks of experimentation with an array of papers and ink formulations. The printing and trimming were very painstaking processes. As I say in the book, “Fanaticism and toil are de rigueur in this trade.”

Personally, there are the books I preserve and look through once (but will not sully), and books that I avidly read, and treat like any consumable. What category, or where in between, is your space?
Judging from the response over the years, I can see that there is a strata of collectors who consider Lumiere Press books in the same classification as “works on paper”—like woodcuts or lithographs—that is, works of art. And they are handled and savored in that spirit.

And there is also ample evidence that the books are carefully read. Multiple requests have come in from scholars working on theses and dissertations seeking permission to cite material. Additionally, the full text of a number of Lumiere Press titles has been reprinted in books issued by Yale University Press, the National Gallery of Canada, Steidl, and the University of Toronto Press—ample confirmation of their art historical value.

Critics routinely remark on how people visiting a museum walk through galleries of masterpieces and give each work no more than a few seconds consideration. I’ve seen people go through my books, and as they realize that it is not the typical kind of book they are accustomed to, they begin to savor the presence of the materials, the architectonic forms of the lead type, the sculptural aura of the letterpress printing.

We’ll just say the books are their own species.

What does your and Lumiere Press’ future have in store?
For the past 40 years, the day after I finished a book, I started work on the next book.

I’ve now almost finished work in the bindery on the latest book. However, rather than plunging into the next thing, I want to pause for a minute to consider the future.

With the passing of the years I’ve become more aware of the physical demands of the craft. The tools and machinery and lead are pretty hefty. There are days when it feels like nothing in the shop weighs less than an anvil.

In spite of that, I’d like to think I’ve got it in me to work until I’m 80, which means I’ve got 10 years to go. However, because the books have become progressively more ambitious, it now take two to three years to execute a project. What this all means is that in all probability I have three books in me.

So the issue occupying my mind is what are the three books—potentially the “last three books”—that are the most meaningful to me? What do I have to say? What do I want to discover?

I want to keep going because I want to keep learning, and there is a phenomenon that replicates itself with every project. After months and months of labor, the workshop is full of components—specimen pages, galleys, press sheets, trial bindings—and one day, this mass of stuff congeals into a recognizable book for the first time, the physical manifestation of an intellectual concept. It is gratifying. It is exhilarating. It is addictive. It pushes me forward.

The post The Daily Heller: Shedding Some Light on Lumiere Press appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

The DuMOL Dirt, a quarterly publication from Russian River Valley winemakers DuMOL takes you deep into the world of winemaking—from the vineyard, through the earth, into the bottle, and onto your table. DuMOL believes everything, from the soil underfoot to the oak in the barrels, shapes the wine you love. And the more you know, the more you’ll appreciate not just DuMOL but all wines and the dedicated people and land that cultivates them.

I wanted to learn more about the process behind The DuMOL Dirt, created by writer and chief curiosity officer Simone Silverstein and designer/illustrator Craig Frazier. Frazier was kind enough to indulge me on their behalf. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

The DuMOL Dirt is a refreshing departure from traditional wine marketing. What inspired you to take an educational approach, and how has the audience responded?

I’ve been working with DuMOL for eight years since I redesigned their label. DuMOL is considered a “luxury” brand and is only available to allocation members, high-end restaurants, and a select few wine shops. The luxury market tends to be a bit braggy and promotes scarcity of product (and information). The winemakers at DuMOL are farmers and scientists striving to make excellent wines. Their practices are both exact and authentic—they make what they like—not what they think the market will like. I brought the original concept of The Dirt well-formed. Our idea was to create a series of print tabloids that micro-dose fine winemaking’s myriad complexities and processes. We wanted to create a repository of information for the everyday wine drinker that would have staying power on desks and in libraries. While a finished bottle of wine is discarded and no longer in view, The Dirt can hang around like a good book or magazine.

Consumers love to know the backstory of the methods and discipline of art and finely made things—especially the artisan commitments. This was a hole in the industry we could fill—the opposite of exclusivity. We, simply and humbly, wanted to bring readers into our world and share the joy. The response is overwhelmingly positive. People are learning and appreciating at the same time. DuMOL is talking to its customers in ways they never have. 

The Dirt demystifies winemaking for readers. How do you ensure accessibility for a broad audience of wine enthusiasts?

It’s all in the writing and design. Simone writes with an unpretentious and witty voice and goes just deep enough not to lose a reader. We also have a couple of tiers of information, from a conversational main narrative to technical data on the diagram and even a “Did you know?” panel. You can consume as much as you are thirsty for. The readability of the typography and the hand-drawn illustrations make it accessible and interesting. As Milton Glaser says, our job is to inform and entertain—those are not mutually exclusive.

Also, the name. Dirt stands for everything the publication is about—the nitty gritty, the basics, the facts. It’s a fun double-entendre that also points to farming. You can’t get any more basic than dirt. “Getting down in the dirt” is an idiom that speaks to seeking understanding. It’s also the opposite of the traditional boasting about critic’s scores and wine notes on your palate.

The decision to have one independent voice in Simone Silverstein is quite innovative. How has this approach impacted engagement and the community around The Dirt?

I agree; this novel approach has made a tremendous difference. We announce to the reader that these are not committee/consensus-generated pieces. We also give Simone complete ownership of her words. She is not a DuMOL employee but essentially a guest writer. The title we gave her, Chief Curiosity Officer, further promotes that she and The Dirt are here to expand people’s knowledge of a complex and fascinating practice. The Dirt features an illustration of Simone—not unlike what you might see in The Wall Street Journal or New York Times. We also published her email to field questions like “Ask Heloise” (originated in 1959)—the opposite of automated chatbots and AI-generated response mechanisms. The reader responses have proved our hunch right.

The tone is the heart of the project, so we operate from that premise. Simone and her conversational writing style deserve credit for this. She has a test that asks the question, “Who gives a f@##?” If she doesn’t find the messaging inviting, friendly, or helpful, she won’t include it. She takes great pains to ensure that the reader isn’t being marketed to.

How do you balance visual storytelling with written content, and what unique challenges or joys does this collaboration bring to the project?

A big part of our successful collaboration is respecting each other’s roles. Once we pick a topic, Simone and I interview the winemaker and hear the stories together—a pivotal moment for each Dirt. A certain energy happens for us as we acquire new knowledge—and we become excited to share it. As for our process, we quickly arrive at an angle for the piece that directs the main visuals and steers the narrative. I’ll give Simone a rough design so she can work her text into the layout very early. I finish up the illustrations while she continues to refine the copy. It’s a sort of ping-pong. We never show it to the client until it’s 95% there. The editorial input we need is generally factual and technical. It’s important to keep the client from their tendency to be transactional and sell wine. We believe that creating interest and goodwill sells wine—not boasting about quality.

Why did you focus on print as the primary medium for The Dirt? How does the tactile experience enhance the reader’s engagement with the content?

This was yet another hole in the industry we saw. While everyone has gone digital, most of the remaining print communications are shlocky direct mail. Print was the most fitting way to create a timeless library of information. We still feature The Dirt on the company website, but it doesn’t compare to the experience of holding it in your hands. Making print communications is a natural extension of the craft of making wine. The Dirt is beautiful and well-suited to being left on the coffee table or desk. The tabloid size allows them to carry a lot of information without binding multiple pages (each issue is four pages).

The Dirt’s design approach is part infographic, part art. What role does illustration play in shaping the publication’s aesthetic?

My intention is to make information beautiful to look at. It’s a fine line but one I’m comfortable defining. The secret to illustrations and diagrams that are understandable, is making them attractive and fun. The tone must always be accessible and compelling, not stiff or technical. I draw according to the nature of the information we want to convey. Usually, simpler is better. There are also subtle touches, such as the icons and rough sketches of tools that appear ghosted behind the cover masthead. I also draw the cartoons that we have featured in caption contests in several of the issues.

How do you select the themes for each issue, and what can readers expect in future editions of this series?

Given the name of the publication, it was only natural to make the premiere issue about soil. It set the stage for the depth (pardon the pun) that we wanted to take readers into farming and vineyards. All the topics are fundamental to all winemaking and offer the opportunity to describe DuMOL’s distinct approach. All the topics could easily lend themselves to 2.0 versions in the future—they are that complex. We want to do one on the life of a grape and move on to talking about the stories of key people—the winemakers and the work required in the vineyards. It’s endless— it’s an evergreen subject.  

Could you share a specific topic that was particularly challenging to translate into both visually engaging and informative content? How did you approach this challenge?

Issue #4, The Bottle issue, was particularly challenging because—unlike harvest, barrels, or soil—there is less of a process to describe. We had to examine the bottle and look at every detail as part of the puzzle supporting the kind of wines that DuMOL makes. I created a cross-section of a bottle and identified every nuance I could find interesting and relevant. The thickness of the glass has an eco message, and the corks do as well, not to mention a taste and preservation component. The label says so much about the brand. The hierarchy of the label’s typography is very important from both a design and regulatory perspective. The challenge of the story involves integrating the bottling decisions that affect the final wine from year to year. Our job is to discover and express the tiny choices and distinctions that DuMOL makes. The message is that every detail matters and there is a price to pay for cutting corners—which DuMol doesn’t. We want the reader to come away arriving at their own conclusions about the integrity of their wine because they gained a new understanding of DuMOL’s practice.

The post DuMOL Digs Up the Dirt on the Art of Winemaking appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

His new print above is part of the “Unfolding” series, a set of accordion prints from Flecha Books. “The artists are given this format, a folded problem/opportunity,” says Francisco Roca, who in 2018 co-founded the indie press with Leandro Castelao. “We like to think of it a bit like a portfolio piece, something that can capture the graphic essence of the person—as much as that can be done. … When viewers are confronted with these prints, they unfold the artist’s work, hopefully to a pleasing surprise.”

The images are hand-printed in silk, four inks on the front, one on the back. They can be kept closed in a library, unfolded on a shelf or framed on a wall.

Roca notes that there is more to come: At the end of the year, a new title, Iris Alba: Gráfica, will be out. They are also working on an ephemera book about Buenos Aires bookstore labels, and tracking down Milton Glaser’s only conference appearance/interview given in Buenos Aires in 1987 (a significant event for the community, because it took place just two years after the creation of the graphic design curriculum at the University of Buenos Aires).

The post The Daily Heller: Watch as a Drawing Drama Unfolds appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

Advertising

First Place

Literary Mixtape
NaRe Hong – School of Visual Arts
USA

Blending nostalgia with innovation, Literary Mixtape reintroduces Penguin’s iconic literary figures through the retro charm of cassette tapes. Aimed at rekindling Generation Z’s love for literature, this project bridges classic literature and contemporary music. Shareable cassette tapes feature imagery and quotes from beloved literary heroes, inviting readers to explore literature and music together. These playlists evoke the essence of literary figures and offer a fresh, engaging way to rediscover timeless classics, celebrating the enduring appeal of analog media.

Additional credits: Jueun Kim; Instructor, Gio Serrano

Second Place

Stuf by Oreo
Elyza Nachimson – School of Visual Arts
USA

Oreo, a beloved sandwich cookie brand with over a century of legacy, introduces Stuf, a new home goods collection inspired by its iconic black-and-white layers. This innovative extension explores brand identity, social challenges, and an out-of-home campaign, leveraging Oreo’s reputation to captivate a new market. With Stuf, Oreo redefines boundaries and delights consumers with its inventive approach to product innovation.

Additional credits: Instructor, Dirk Kammerzell

Third Place

Verizon
Hongjin Li – School of Visual Arts
USA

Verizon’s campaign, centered on the one-liner “The Gear you need is closer than you think,” promotes its accessories by highlighting their accessibility and indispensability. This multifaceted initiative showcases a range of essential accessories, from headphones to phone cases, through captivating visuals and persuasive messaging. The campaign underscores Verizon’s commitment to convenient, high-quality gear that enhances digital lifestyles, aiming to drive sales and foster brand loyalty.

Additional credits: Instructor, Jay Marsen and Lex Beltrone

Annual Reports

First Place

Victims First Annual Report
Aurora Schafer – University of North Texas
USA

Victims First is a nonprofit organization that aids in the aftermath of mass casualty crimes. The educational goal was to redesign the 2022 annual report and create more impactful visuals to reflect the importance of the issue. After researching Victims First, Aurora wanted to maintain a sense of quietness while also conveying strength, creating a more impactful experience for viewers, and showcasing the gravity of the cause. Bold typography, halftone photos, and bright risograph-printed colors compliment the hairline details and airy layout, ultimately creating a quiet, yet impactful annual report.

Additional credits: Photography, Siphosethu Fanti and Colin Lloyd; Instructor, Whitney Holden

Branding Identities

First Place

Museum of the Moving Image
Mina Son – School of Visual Arts
USA

The Museum of the Moving Image’s (MoMI) rebranding revolves around the brand attributes of ‘Sequence,’ ‘Verisimilitude,’ and ‘Frame,’ which capture the duality in images and sequences and the interplay between reality and constructed reality. The concept “Beyond the Frame: Duality” guides this reimagined identity, inviting visitors to explore the complexities of visual storytelling and fostering a deeper appreciation for the artistry and intricacies of the cinematic experience.

Additional credits: Instructor, Joseph Han

Second Place

POT.ION
Mina Son – School of Visual Arts
USA

POT.ION is a fertilizer brand for indoor plants, cleverly named to combine ‘pot’ and ‘potion.’ Designer Mina Son aimed to modernize traditional plant nutrient packaging with aesthetic elements, incorporating a logo symbolizing blooming, growth, and healing. She focused on user experience by including a beginner’s guide, poster, and postcards to engage users. The cohesive design features complementary colors and clean typography, creating an aesthetically pleasing and informative experience for beginners in indoor plant care.

Additional credits: Instructor, Justin Colt

Third Place

Found Sound Music Festival
Don Park – School of Visual Arts
USA

The Found Sound Music Festival celebrates artists who integrate found sounds into their music. Designer Don Park used AI and a modular grid system inspired by vintage synthesizers to design the venue, representing individual artists with distinctive shapes. Despite the project’s limitations, Park meticulously documented the process, gaining invaluable insights and enhancing his understanding of design principles and creative problem-solving. This challenging endeavor served as a springboard for exploration and growth.

Additional credits: Instructor, Andrea Trabucco-Campos

Brochures

First Place

FORM
Fiona Tran – Drexel University
USA

Form is an experimental, mid-century-inspired furniture catalog that redefines function and comfort by juxtaposing traditional and alternative design standards. It offers readers a fresh perspective on functional design through unconventional displays of art and furniture. The catalog features contrasting layouts, intricate typography, and textured digital mixed media. Printed in a tabloid-sized newspaper, it provides ample space for visual exploration and a more interactive, intimate experience.

Additional credits: Instructors, Mark Willie & Eric Karnes

Editorial

First Place

FORM
Fiona Tran – Drexel University
USA

‘Damaged goods’ are products that are broken, cracked, scratched, and no longer desirable. But in this project, a contemporary newspaper about film photography, it’s quite the opposite. Every page in the newspaper is somehow damaged and exposed to light, though remaining visually pleasing. The names of the journalists are also placed irregularly to convey the moments of unexpectedness that is a critical element of the film camera. Fiona also was selected as the Student Project Best in Show by this year’s PRINT Awards jury.

Additional credits: Instructor, Pedro Mendes

Second Place

Experiments in Type Zine
Yerin Lee – School of Visual Arts
USA

Experiments in Type explores the versatility of the lowercase ‘a’ through a series of typographic studies. It features single-story and double-story renditions crafted with diverse materials and techniques. The zine documents these experiments, with each ‘a’ meticulously printed on tinted green paper, adding a unique aesthetic. This project invites readers to rethink type design and discover the creative potential of manipulating a single letter.

Additional credits: Instructors, Kenneth Deegan & Brankica Harvey

Third Place

Gestalt Tattoo
Jung Youn Kim – School of Visual Arts

Gestalt Tattoo is a tattoo genre invented by the designer, combining diverse and complex personalities into geometric shapes. The book Gestalt Tattoo: Geometric Reflections of Personalities introduces this genre, showcasing geometric symbols and tattoo designs while explaining their meanings. Rooted in Gestalt psychology, which views parts as forming an integrated whole, Gestalt Tattoos express complex human personalities in single designs. Each design is inspired by specific German words that capture unique states or personalities, like “fernweh.” By translating personal experiences into geometric figures, Gestalt Tattoos blend historical geometric symbolism with modern personal expression.

Logos

First Place

Architectural Digest
Mishen Liu – Art Center College of Design
USA

Architectural Digest, known for its monthly magazine and online video content, explores topics ranging from interior design to architecture and real estate. It showcases international design talents and innovative homes and products, aiming to inspire ideas, culture, and travel. AD’s rebrand strategy focuses on positioning the brand as a leader in interior design, architecture, and travel inspiration, particularly targeting a younger audience. This involves a new logo, vibrant colors, a sans serif typeface, and playful image treatments that reference foundational architectural design elements like simple shapes and forms. These elements are integrated across various branding assets, such as posters and video play buttons, enhancing the overall brand experience.

Additional credits: Instructor, Ming Tai

Second Place

Tiger Ale
Emily Brown – The University of Texas Arlington
USA

Tiger Ale is a student branding concept for a local Dallas-Fort Worth, TX brewery that is playful, approachable, and neighbor-oriented. It thrives on the idea that “you only live once.” The goal was to create a colorful, eye-catching, and easy-to-read logo and supporting elements that could be used for a brand identity. The color palette references the playfulness of mini-golf and combines a sense of nostalgia and a modern feel. The secondary logo is a badge design, and the dots and stripes are meant to add some movement and fun.

Additional credits: Instructor, Ben Dolezal

NEXT: Check out student winners in book design, hand lettering, illustration, photography, social impact, and citizen design.

The post PRINT Awards 2024 Student Spotlight: Winners in Branding, Advertising, Editorial & More appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

When he decided to portray the remarkable story of The Lobstermen of Little Cranberry Island, award-winning photographer Tadd Myers committed to a design and production process as sustainability oriented as its subject.

Myers’ 40-page book marries words, images, and carefully selected paper to depict the inspiring heritage of a community and the industry that has supported it for generations. Founded in 1978, The Cranberry Isle Fishermen’s Co-Op comprises 28 independent fishermen and one woman from Little Cranberry Island, Maine. The Co-Op delivers its daily catch live or cooked and vacuum-sealed, marketed as Little Cranberry Lobsters, to restaurants, distributors, specialty stores, and individuals across the country. Though the 200-acre island has only 85 year-round residents, one grocery store, one pier, and one restaurant, it boasts an abundance of rugged natural beauty and a strong commitment to preserving its lobster legacy through careful environmental stewardship.

In this spirit, the Co-Op has collaborated with government agencies in establishing trap limits, size limits, and safe-guarding egg-bearing females. All lobsters are Marine Stewardship Council certified, sustainable, and traceable. In March 2019, the Co-Op began the process of solar power installation, projected to cover 110% of its energy needs and reduce its carbon footprint by 22,073 pounds every year.

After learning about the Co-Op’s multi-generation lobstermen members and sustainability bona fides, Myers was determined to tell their story. The Lobstermen of Little Cranberry Island showcases a selection of 24 stunning images culled from thousands that Myers and his team captured over a week of shooting on board the lobster boats and on the island.

Myers has spent the last two decades working with clients including American Airlines, Apple, Chevrolet, Harvard University, New Balance, Sprint, The United Way, Titleist, and Walmart, and in 2020 he was named one of the world’s best advertising photographers by ARCHIVE Magazine.

When conceiving this project, Myers kept an eye on sustainability at every step.

“This is my fifth and largest book project, and I wanted to make a piece that was not only beautiful but also deeper in concept,” says Myers. “Once we started talking about this book with the Co-Op leaders – who are incredibly enviro-conscious in how they source their lobsters – I was determined to find a printer and papermaker, also based out of the Northeast, who were equally sustainable in their approach and values.”

He selected Villanti Printers (doing business out of Milton, Vermont), the first printer in that state to receive Forest Stewardship Council certification, and the ninth in North America. Founded in 1959, the third-generation, family-owned business unites a “Culture of Craftsmanship” with on-going sustainability investments, including the installation of one of Vermont’s largest rooftop solar arrays, VOC-free inks, and a comprehensive recycling program which includes all wastepaper, bindery scraps, plastic, wood, metal, and more.

The promotion was designed by Jeff Barfoot and Geoff German, who were creative collaborators at the time. Both have continued to impact the design world; Jeff Barfoot is now Co-CEO and Chief Creative Officer at *TraceElement and Geoff German serves as Creative Director at Squires&Co.

“Designing a promotion like this is easy when you have images like this to showcase. The key is to not overcook it. Let the amazing images be the hero, pepper in some fresh typography, add a conceptual support element (we loved the idea of using the rubber band to play off of the lobster claw bands) and don’t let the design get in the way and spoil it,” says Barfoot, reflecting on the creative process.

Myers knew from the project’s outset that he wanted to showcase the Co-Op story on uncoated stock. “I loved the idea of uncoated — it fits the imagery,” he says. “If you were only worried about perfectly toned and contrasted imagery you’d go with coated, but then you lose the feel. Everything I saw I was shooting I was seeing on uncoated stock.”

The path to paper led Myers to Monadnock Paper Mills, the oldest continuously operating paper mill in the United States, and its Astrolite PC 100® uncoated fine paper. Based out of Bennington, New Hampshire, the over 200-year-old mill’s longevity matches its high sustainability profile. Astrolite PC 100, like all Monadnock materials, is FSC Certified (FSC C018866), manufactured carbon-neutral (VERs), and made with 100% renewable Green-e certified wind-powered electricity (RECs) under a third-party certified ISO 14001 Environmental Management System.

“Tadd’s book is such a testament to his creative chops, ability to tell a story through great photography, and insight into how printing and paper can help to tell that story on a deeper and more meaningful level,” says Julie Brannen, Director, Sustainability Solutions for Monadnock. “We couldn’t be more pleased to help him achieve his sustainable vision along with our two long-term partners, Clampitt Paper and Villanti Printers.”

The meaning invested in this project’s design is mirrored in a quote from Co-Op member and Captain Steve Philbrook in The Lobstermen of Little Cranberry Island, which is both available to view online and for purchase at Myers’ website.

We are bound by the ocean on this island. It creates a spirit of cooperation and neighborliness that brings us all together. It gives us a shared purpose and shared goal of making this business work. You definitely feel like you are part of something bigger than yourself when you are on the ocean.

Steve Philbrook

The post Lobster Tales, Sustainably Told appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

I was delighted to attend the launch event for “Made in Italy NYC,” an exclusive two-day event celebrating the rich heritage of post-war Italian graphic design and its enduring relationship with the United States. This two-day exhibition offered a unique opportunity to explore original pieces from significant Italian and American designers produced between the 1950s and 1980s. The exhibition drew from the collections of AIAP CDPG, the Milan-based Graphic Design Documentation Center of the Italian Association of Visual Communication Design.

Italian graphic design has a rare power that can still surprise us. Made In Italy NYC contains examples of the warmth, humanity and verve that excited designers half a century ago and continue to inspire today.

Michael Bierut, Pentagram

Beyond Vignelli: A Broader Connection

The iconic figure of Milan-born Massimo Vignelli often epitomizes the graphic design connection between Italy and the U.S., as he is renowned for his extensive body of work after moving to New York. However, this exhibition aims to illuminate the broader array of Italian and American designers who contributed to this vibrant exchange post-WWII. Many of these designers are well-known in graphic design history, while others have recently been rediscovered, highlighting the depth and diversity of this cross-cultural design relationship.

The exhibition and accompanying book feature work by a stellar lineup of designers, including Massimo Vignelli, Heinz Waibl, Giulio Cittato, Bruno Munari, Roberto Mango, Mario, Dagrada, Albe Steiner, Bob Noorda, Giulio Confalonieri, Anita Klinz, Ferenc Pinter, Balilla, Magistri, Max Huber, Milton Glaser, Bruce Blackburn, Saul Bass, Ivan Chermayeff, Leo Lionni, Paul Rand, John Alcorn, Silvio Coppola, Franco Grignani, Alfredo Mastellaro, Claudia Morgagni, Enzo Mari, Giovanni Pintori, and Walter Ballmer.

The event focused on four areas of this cross-cultural design conversation: Italian Designers Who Worked In The U.S., Italian Designed Book Covers For U.S. Authors, U.S. Designers Who Worked In Italy, and Influential Italian Graphic Design.

This book and exhibition is a celebration of all things Made in Italy, exploring the rich and untapped vein of Italian graphic design with rarely seen and published work.

Bryan Edmondson, SEA

Designed by SEA in collaboration with Pentagram, the exhibition presentation was visually striking and intellectually engaging. SEA, a London-based brand agency, is renowned for its powerful ideas and meticulous attention to detail, making it an ideal partner for the project. Pentagram’s storied history and global influence added another layer of expertise to the exhibition’s design.

The event was proudly supported by Fedrigoni and Monotype, two industry giants whose contributions have been invaluable.

Fedrigoni, synonymous with excellence in specialty papers since 1888, is the global leader in wine labels and premium papers for luxury packaging. Their commitment to sustainability and quality is reflected in their support for this exhibition, which aligns with their dedication to art, design, and creativity.

Monotype, with a library of over 150,000 fonts, provides the tools for creative expression through type. Their support celebrates the post-war Italian graphic design period, when typography reached new heights, showcasing the innovative and poetic forms of expression that define this era.

The Italian Association of Visual Communication Designers (AIAP) meticulously curated the exhibition’s content. Founded in 1945, AIAP promotes design culture and preserves Italy’s design history through its Graphic Design Documentation Center, which houses over 100,000 artifacts.

More than an exhibition, “Made in Italy NYC” was a collaborative event celebrating the creative synergy between Italian and American graphic design, honoring the legacy of past masters and bringing to light the lesser-known contributors who played pivotal roles in this dynamic exchange. The evening was about appreciating the global influence of Italian design and its profound impact on visual communication. The cherry on top was the beautiful, limited-edition metallic-covered book I gingerly placed into my bag as I left the venue, beaming into the warm summer air.

The post Celebrating Post-War Italian Graphic Design and its Transatlantic Influence in NYC appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

John Kelly is no dummy (in the pejorative sense). But his new magazine is titled dummy. And that leads me to wonder whether this smart guy—”I have been a writer/editor for many years, including my time at jobs at Sarah Lawrence College, Columbia University, the National Basketball Association and other places”—knows something we don’t. I mean, PRINT magazine is no longer printed. But dummy, a magazine about comics in the broad sense, is only in print.

Well, as I said, Kelly’s no dummy! For the last 30-plus years, he has regularly contributed work about comics history, and interviews with cartoonists, to The Comics Journal magazine. He used to direct The ToonSeum, a small “museum” for comic art located in Pittsburgh. And he’s hosted panel discussions and interviews at comics festivals, including Small Press Expo (SPX), Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC), Comic Arts Brooklyn (CAB) and others. So he is well-qualified to edit a bright, vibrant and entertaining new print magazine.

After reading the first issue featuring oral histories on “The Art of Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” I was excited to get to the bottom of this minor enigma. dummy + print = smart, or what?

What is the origin of dummy magazine?
I used to publish a zine called XYY in the late 1980s/early ’90s—back when people did such things.  Before the internet took over … everything. The internet is great for many things, but I really miss printed materials. And I tend to write pretty long pieces, and sometimes I wonder if I would even read them myself; scrolling through on a phone or desktop, with small images randomly placed wherever, can be pretty tedious. So I’d been thinking about starting up a zine again for a while.

The tipping point came in November of 2023, when Mark Newgarden asked me to speak about zines at his class (“Thinking in Words and Pictures”) at the School of Visual Arts’ Illustration as Visual Essay MFA program. As I was putting together my material for my talk, I mocked up a cover for a fake zine about the artists who designed Paul Reubens’ television show, “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” It wasn’t too far a stretch; I had done a long two-part series about that topic for The Comics Journal shortly after [Paul] Rubens died on July 30, 2023. For that series, I spoke with the artists who had worked on the show—Gary Panter, Wayne White and Ric Heitzman—and was friends with several of the artists who designed the show’s merchandise products, including Mark Newgarden and Kaz. They provided me with an insane amount of never-seen production art and behind-the-scenes materials. I thought it was a shame that all those great images could only be seen digitally—and tiny—on a phone or computer screen. 

When I showed the SVA students my mockup fake Pee-wee zine cover, I said, “If I come back here next year to do this class again, I’ll bring an actual printed copy of this.” I had intended to make just one copy, for myself. But I wanted to send a copy to Gary Panter and the rest of the artists in the story. So, maybe 10 copies. I mocked up a copy, printed it out at home and the Pittsburgh cartoonist Frank Santoro ran off a couple more copies on his color copy machine. I thought I was done.

But a few people saw what I was carrying around, which I called the “dummy” copy of my “new zine.” Mostly as a joke. I still thought I would make 10 copies at the most. Who would want an actual printed thing in this day and age anyway? Well, it turned out that there are people who do.

This thing didn’t even have a name at that point, and I was just calling it the “dummy” copy of my Pee-wee zine. I thought, That’s not a bad name for a zine, actually … dummy. At the last moment I slapped on a logo in very basic Futura Condensed Extra Bold—to contrast with the funky content.

I printed 100 copies and posted one announcement on Facebook with some images, saying that dummy was available—if anyone wanted a copy. I wasn’t sure if anyone would actually want one, but I didn’t really care. Those initial copies sold out in three hours, which shocked me. I guess there’s an audience for people who are hungry to have actual printed material. I certainly was one of them. Who knew there were others?

You may not know this, but the printed #0 issue of Sports Illustrated was called Dummy (designed by Leo Lionni) … and it was a real dummy with fake ads and real stories.
Ha. I didn’t know that story, but I’m not surprised. I would think that there might have been a number of publications that called their first mockup issue “Dummy.” Calla, my 15-year old step-daughter, is an editor at her high school newspaper and she calls their production copies of each issue “dummy copies.”  So the term “dummy” is still used by people who grew up in the digital age.

What did you learn from the Pee-wee artists that surprised you?
There was an incredible number of bizarre toys, clothing, stickers, trading cards and other merchandise that was created for the show. But there were many other equally wonderful things that didn’t get made, for various reasons. The talent of the people working on that show was ridiculous, from Paul Reubens on down. And the generosity of the artists involved when sharing their stories and rare artwork was truly amazing. They all wanted the story to be told as accurately as possible.

The design and illustrations that you reproduce give the zine an intimate feeling of a scrapbook, while retaining the feel of a bona fide mag. Was this your intent?
Absolutely. I wanted to present intimate, personal memories of a very special time in history and do it in a way that was appropriate for the crazy aesthetic of the show’s design. I wanted to have dummy’s design complement the artwork, not compete with it. I did it all in Adobe PhotoShop and InDesign myself, except for the cover, which Norman Hathaway designed. That was perfect because Norman is not only a great designer, but had also worked on some of the Pee-wee merchandise.

Did you know Paul Reubens, or are you just a rabid fan like so many of us?
I never met Paul Reubens, but I sure would have loved to. I think he was a genius, in many ways, and his impact on our culture is still present today. Maybe the smartest—and luckiest—thing he ever did was choose Gary Panter as the artist to design Pee-wee’s world. Gary is one of our era’s greatest artists and his work continues to influence the visual vocabulary of our culture.

I like that you included a page of legal paper with Paul Reubens’ comments. Was he totally in command of all creative content?
Those are Mark Newgarden’s notes, taken in real time, during a meeting with Paul about the Pee-wee’s Playhouse Fun Pak. I think they’re a great snapshot of Paul’s attention to details. My understanding from talking to those who worked with him is that Paul had to approve every single aspect of the show and its merchandise. And he was smart enough to trust Gary Panter to set the template for the way everything should look.

What’s next for dummy?
I’m just finishing up issue two, which will be about the notorious Air Pirates, a group of rebel cartoonists who in the early 1970s did a series of Mickey Mouse parody comic books that got them in a lot of trouble with the mighty Walt Disney Corporation. And the courts. Disney’s case against them dragged on for nearly 10 years and took all kinds of turns. It went all the way to the Supreme Court and is still studied as a major copyright and trademark case by law students. This issue of dummy will have extensive conversations with all members of the group and around 50 pages of extremely rare and little-seen artwork. The great magazine art director Mark Michaelson (Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, New York), is designing the next issues and his pages perfectly capture the look I’m going for. So it’s extremely fun and I have endless ideas for future issues.

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The post The Daily Heller: You Can’t Tell a Magazine By Its Title appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

For over 40 years Summit Magazine was a top periodical in its genre. “And its impact was—and continues to be felt—well beyond the climbing world, in large part due to the avant-garde aesthetic that Jean and Helen cultivated with the Summit‘s covers: sometimes chic, sometimes stark, sometimes playful,” says Michael Levy, its new publisher and editor-in-chief.

This spring, a refurbished Summit Journal (issue 320) was reborn as a print-only, biannual, oversized, coffee-table-quality magazine devoted to longform storytelling and large-format photography. The first issue came out in February, and the next is due in August. Previously, Levy spent five years working for two other outdoors magazines, Rock and Ice and Climbing. As has happened with so many other print properties in recent years, the print editions of those titles “went the way of the dodo.”

“As someone who loves print as a medium for longform storytelling, it seemed like the perfect time to take a crack at starting a new print magazine,” Levy says. “Rather than start a brand new magazine, though, I loved the idea of breathing new life into a historic title. Summit, in the climbing world, is as historic as it gets.” He acquired the rights in February 2023, and put out the first new issue in over 27 years.

Here he talks about his climb back up the summit, as well as some of the covers art directed by Kilness and Crenshaw, who have been unheralded in the history of magazine design.

Why have you revived the magazine as a journal in print only? Doesn’t that seem to be counter-intuitive?
On its face, there’s definitely something counterintuitive to being print only. But in another way, it seems exceptionally rational to me? That is, if you can get the material in the magazine online, doesn’t that decrease the perceived value of the print product?

My feeling is that with the glut of content online, there’s something to be said for a highly curated physical product. There’s so much out there on the internet that a lot of stuff, much of it quite good, just gets lost in the noise. But something tactile that you can feel between your fingers and read over a cup of coffee or a beer, that prioritizes longform … it might not reach as many people, but the people it does reach will be that much more invested. Print feels a bit like vinyl to me; what’s old is new again, and the collectability of it, the quality of the physical thing itself, is important. Just like vinyl isn’t going to replace Spotify, print isn’t going to replace digital, but there is a very real audience out there (and I’m in it) that likes analog media, and appreciates reading things that aren’t on a screen.

And building off that, print also felt like a more achievable business model, in a strange way. Though print has a higher bar to entry–the hard costs to get it off the ground were greater, and if I didn’t attract enough subscribers, the whole thing would have been dead on arrival–once cleared, the way forward felt much clearer. You can only fill a magazine with so many articles, after all. 

Of course, I’m a storyteller: What matters most to me is pursuing quality longform journalism. If the articles and image curation inside the magazine are no good, it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on. But given what I think is the extremely high quality content we have managed to fill the magazine with, my feeling is that the exterior should match.

The magazine was founded by two committed climbers. Tell me a little about their goals and feats of magazine publishing.
Jean and Helen were trailblazers, plain and simple. … They were iconoclasts.

Jean and Helen were serious and eminently capable climbers. They lived in Big Bear, CA, in the San Bernardino Mountains, and would head out for adventures in the mountains, and climb at smaller cliffs close to home. Another fun story: Sometimes, so busy were they with their adventuring, they’d forget what issue number they were on, so there are a couple of the old ones that have the same month!

In the hundreds of issues they published, they were actively shaping the culture of the nascent sports of rock climbing and mountaineering in the U.S., pursuits that had a longer history in Europe. In addition to publishing the essays and accounts of cutting-edge ascents by the best climbers of the day—guys like Yvon Chouinard and Royal Robbins, who are household names today—they also published trip reports by families out in the hills or on a fishing trip. They cultivated an egalitarian ethos with their magazine, in content and authorship, publishing an outsized number of women.

What do you think is or are the most significant graphic element(s) of the magazine in its original form and format?
Summit’s old covers are just so distinctive. Particularly in the 1960s, they had a really bold aesthetic, combining bright colors, illustration, playful geometric shapes and different media. Most of the covers are devoid of coverlines, and many have a very minimalist look, e.g., a single pinecone against a blue background, or a silhouetted climber on a cliff against a bright yellow background. My favorite cover is probably September 1967: a minimalist illustration of a lone figure silhouetted on a hill looking up at the night sky. It’s beautiful in its simplicity.

They also used color in paradoxical ways—e.g., a mountaineering scene bathed in neon green or neon pink—and sometimes used ultra close-up shots—e.g., one section of a climbing rope.

One of the cool things in resurrecting the magazine has been to see how far its legacy extended beyond the fairly insular climbing world. I’ve had a whole host of people from the design world reach out to me to express their love and affinity for the old covers and their style.

What have you done to bring it valiantly into the 21st century?
One of the fun parts of reviving an old magazine versus starting one from scratch is that we can lean into the old stuff. The new Summit very much has one eye on the past, while also keeping one eye on the present and future. One example of this: For our debut issue in February, we had two covers. One was an illustration, one was a photo. The illustrated cover, by a great young French artist named Thomas Danthony, was very much an homage to Summit’s covers in the ’60s. The photo cover is very much a splashy, modern climbing photo, full of motion. The stories inside reflect this duality too: We publish both modern reportage, and stories about the history of climbing and climbing culture.

Physically, the magazine has also gotten a big overhaul. The new version is 10″ x 13″, so quite large. It’s printed on heavy stock, uncoated paper. It feels closer to a coffee table book than a newsstand magazine.

In terms of the aesthetic, the inside has what I’d consider a pretty modern look overall: Most of the imagery is displayed in full-page or spread format to really take advantage of the magazine’s size. My art director, Randy Levensaler, has been working on print magazines for decades, and has an incredible eye for effective yet eye-catching layouts

That being said, in terms of the text, we’re very much charting a classic look. I can’t tell you how much Randy stressed over the font choices, text size and spacing—and I think it shows.

We also retitled it as Summit Journal. For six years in the 1990s, after Jean and Helen sold the magazine, it was rebranded as Summit: The Mountain Journal. It closed up shop in 1996, and hasn’t been published since. So going with Summit Journal felt like a way to nod to both former iterations of the mag, yet once again signal that this is a new magazine for a new era.

Do you have to be a climber to be a reader?
Definitely not. I myself am a passionate climber, but at the end of the day my mission is to fill Summit Journal’s pages with quality journalism, photography and art.

The best piece in the first issue is by a brilliant young writer named Astra Lincoln, and it is about the advent of photographic surveying in the Canadian Rockies at the turn of the 20th century, and how this a) led to a boom in mountaineering, and b) is also inextricably related to episodes of ethnic cleansing in the area. It’s masterful.

Some of what we publish is surely a bit lingo heavy, but most of it, I’d say, should be totally accessible to the non-climber.

What is your longterm goal for Summit?
To make a magazine that people want to keep on their shelf to read and flip through again and again over the years.

The post The Daily Heller: A Magazine That Reaches New Heights appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

The Two Type System, like the studio’s other parametric typefaces, pushes the shapes and relationships of letters to the precise point where they obstruct or deny the reading process while still conforming to the conventional arrangements of language, illustrating the idea that form and content interconnect like muscle and bone.

Muir and McNeil see ideas as the results of discovery rather than invention and consider themselves graphic designers who create type, rather than traditional type designers. Using the options available through the mathematical algorithms of digital design, they continue historical typographic experimentation as has always existed, enabled by the technology of the moment. For instance, designers printing with metal type used multiple passes through the press to play with composition, layering, and legibility. When phototypesetting was introduced, everybody pulled and distorted the type negative as it was exposed to light to create weird, funky, one-of-a-kind effects. The 1990 typeface Beowulf, by Erik van Blokland and Just van Rossum, swapped the PostScript programming commands “lineto” and “curveto” with a new command “freakto,” to generate letterforms with spontaneously random outlines.

We prefer finding new forms and outputs by building extensive root-and-branch systems rather than working within the limits of short-term individual expressions. For us, the notion of individual creativity tends to emphasize the maker rather than the form.

Hamish Muir

What if … ? is one of the most powerful questions in design because it’s directed towards unknown possibilities. By systematically adjusting individual conditions within a defined design space—progressively resetting components, positions, colors, angles, and so forth—the designers exerted a sort of calibrated prescience to the process while embracing errors that led in unexpectedly fruitful directions. While many forms are highly abstract, others are completely legible; the Type Two System is not just a laboratory experiment. MuirMcNeil used it for the flexible but instantly recognizable identity for TypeCon2016, expressed in black and a stunning neon green, lending a future-forward look to the event.

The Two Type System’s systemic yet unexpected results require a willingness to cede control that can be scary for designers, especially if they feel their creative agency diminished. It’s difficult for many to let go of the decision-making so crucial to design and open themselves to chance. Still, trusting in the process can yield delightful and pleasing results. Muir says, “We prefer finding new forms and outputs by building extensive root-and-branch systems rather than working within the limits of short-term individual expressions. For us, the notion of individual creativity tends to emphasize the maker rather than the form.”

The saying “Printing is always a surprise” is a solid truth, in that unplanned (often unwanted) outcomes can and frequently do happen on press. System Process Form is a beautifully printed and thoughtfully planned volume using spot colors overlaid atop one another rather than the more typical four-color printing process. Print designers know that spot colors are impossible to preview accurately on monitors during the design process or even as prepress proofs, yet a vital component of the Two Type System’s DNA is the element of chance. This leads a viewer to wonder how the authors handled that aspect of the completed book in advance—were there any hitches in the print production? Was this, perhaps, the one place where surprises were not embraced but instead methodically eliminated? Surprisingly, no.

McNeil says, “We knew that overprinting three neon inks would be risky and early digital proof simulations proved to be uninformative. Test prints made on production offset-litho machines revealed a vivid new palette – in particular, a ‘neon eggplant’ color made by overprinting neon pink, yellow and blue. It was a totally unexpected result of the process and a very pleasing one.” An admirably bold move! Surprise for the win.

All photography © MuirMcNeil.

The post In “System Process Form,” Muir & McNeil Outline a Design Process More Like Farming than Hunting appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

Nichols’ latest book, Flowers for Things I Don’t Know How to Say, is a poignant exploration of human connection and empathy in times of struggle. Drawing from personal experiences and a desire to offer solace to those facing hardship, Nichols embarked on a heartfelt journey culminating in a collection of flower paintings paired with words for the often small, sometimes overlooked moments that accompany hardship and grief. Things like the nurses who so graciously tell us what’s happening as a loved one lay on a hospital bed (one of our favorites).

Tucker shared that “putting work out into the world is never straightforward. To go from making something for myself to sharing it with the public (via the postal service, on Instagram, or in a book) can be tricky, but it’s also deeply satisfying in its own way. At the end of the day, I make things for myself and then try to find how they might land for someone else. The images with captions work when they resonate with someone else’s reality. I fundamentally believe that our sense of separateness is a myth, that we all have fears and hopes and frustrations and joys that overlap more than they don’t.”

In this book, an underlying idea is that even when life reveals what feels like an isolating experience almost beyond words, we might find some comfort in knowing that others have been here before.

Tucker Nichols

I make things for myself and then try to find how they might land for someone else. The images with captions work when they resonate with someone else’s reality.

Tucker Nichols

The inspiration for the project stemmed from Nichols’ own battle with illness and the realization that sometimes, despite our best intentions, words fail to convey the depth of our emotions. Reflecting on his journey to remission, Nichols found solace in the support of a close-knit group of loved ones, underscoring the importance of genuine connection during times of adversity.

Initially starting as a small gesture of kindness, Nichols began sending flower paintings to sick individuals on behalf of their loved ones. The project gained momentum when it was featured on national television, prompting requests from people around the world grappling with various challenges, from illness to grief to everyday struggles.

“I make flower paintings throughout the day—over breakfast, at my studio, at the dentist’s office. Drawing and painting regularly—some might say constantly—is how I stay sane, and I can get grumpy if I don’t make some art every day. I usually make the flower paintings without an idea of what text might accompany them unless there’s a news event that I want to speak to, like someone dying or another mass shooting. They find their way into piles in my studio, and when it’s time to make captions, I spread out a few and see what comes to mind.”

—Tucker Nichols

In Flowers for Things I Don’t Know How to Say, Nichols invites readers to contemplate the shared experiences that bind us together as human beings. Through his art, he reminds us that despite the complexities of life, we are never truly alone in our struggles. Each painting and accompanying caption serve as a reminder of humanity’s interconnectedness and the power of empathy to bridge the gaps between us.

The post Tucker Nichols Explores the Language of Empathy in “Flowers for Things I Don’t Know How to Say” appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

Coffeehaus at COLLINS hosts a monthly communal gathering for people from all walks of life who share the goal of simply showing up to experience creative community. March’s event featured a conversation, book signing, cocktails, and treats with the illustrious Craig Frazier, who discussed his newly released book Drawn, a compendium of his illustrations for prominent publications and businesses around the globe.

An internationally renowned illustrator with a career spanning since 1978, Frazier’s illustrations are celebrated for their wit, optimism, and simplicity.

His creative contributions have appeared in the New York Times, Time Magazine, Fortune, Bloomberg Business Week, Harvard Business Review, and The Wall Street Journal. Frazier has an impressive roster of blue-chip clients, including Adobe, American Express, Boeing, Chevrolet, Deloitte, MasterCard, Mohawk Paper, Navigant, The Royal Mail, U.S. Postal Service, and United Airlines.

He has also designed eight postage stamps, including the beloved 2006 Love stamp and the commemorative Scouting stamps in 2010/11.

Frazier’s artistry goes beyond fulfilling client requests; he illustrates what he feels will make people stop, look, and think. Coffeehaus at COLLINS was a packed event, buzzing with creative energy from like-minded folks. I was fortunate to connect with Frazier at the event and followed up with some questions about his process and the importance of work that invites people in.

(Interview edited for clarity and length).

During your talk, you emphasized the importance of creating an approachable book with meaningful stories rather than just a visually striking but weighty coffee table book. What is the significance of incorporating narrative elements, and how does this approach enhance the reader’s experience? Additionally, how did you strike a balance between narrative and visuals?

It’s not unlike my work. You must invite people in and make them feel welcome. Physically, I wanted the book to have weight yet a manageable footprint. I wanted it to be functional on a desk, in your lap, or on a plane (thus the slightly smaller dimension than many monographs). I wanted it to feel useable, not monumental. There is something intimidating about an oeuvre of someone’s lifetime of work—so I wanted to soften the barrier. The scale of the book, the use of Garamond, and the size and pacing of each illustration contribute to its approachability. My amberliths, sketches, and sketchbooks demystify the process and invite the reader backstage. The idea of narratives woven throughout the book breaks the rhythm and reminds the reader that the illustrations are the products of a greater effort—both conceptually and professionally.

My life experience and my choices inform my work—the two are inextricably connected. I have found the result immeasurably rewarding and hope the work reflects that. This is the part of work life that I wanted to reveal. Things happen. We can’t control everything, but we can lend a guiding hand.  

This book is for the curious. Whether you are a designer or not, revealing the ‘whys’ of my work will alter your understanding of it. My intention is to allow people to see parallels to their own lives and careers, regardless of their profession. We all make choices that shape how we feel about our jobs. I’m curious how creative people make their work and connect their life stories to it. Asking those questions leads to a deeper appreciation and a chance to learn something. I want that experience available to the readers of Drawn.

It is predominantly a visual book, no question. One can enjoy it on that level alone. The written content is micro-dosed to not compete with the visuals but complement and contribute depth.

I draw elements that support the story, not decorate it.

Your work is celebrated for its visual riddles and graphic wit, often embodying both simplicity and depth. How do you balance clarity and complexity in your work, especially when dealing with abstract concepts or visual puzzles?

Simplicity is a guiding principle in all of my work—design or illustration. I subscribe to both the aesthetic and conceptual orientation, so it’s easy to abide by. It works—simplicity serves comprehension in its elegance and functionality. Simplicity is necessary now more than ever when we are all operating at the edge of our visual threshold—it becomes an attractor because it asks less of us. When we overload our messaging (or visuals), it’s at the risk of getting passed by. I stick with singular messaging, which makes for singular illustrations. I draw elements that support the story, not decorate it. Simplicity equals clarity. The more abstract, the simpler the equation must be. If done right, there is beauty in simplicity. Embedding riddles and wit in the illustration brings a smile to the mind. The illustration’s depth is in the reader’s mind—it’s the place the illustration takes them.

When discussing your creative process, you mentioned taking something to the brink and then stepping it back. How do you recognize when you’ve reached that edge, and what factors influence your decision to pull back or further refine your idea?

This question is challenging because I don’t have a specific formula for it—it’s intuitive. The best way to describe it is to say that when I think I have found an angle to tell the story—I then attempt to regulate how the reader discovers the answer within. It’s a matter of leaving breadcrumbs rather than the whole loaf. It’s always a matter of leaving room for a reader to invest time (often only seconds) and mental energy to understand the message. Breadcrumbs also leave room for interpretation, crucial in talking to a larger audience. I’ve learned that people are smarter than we often give them credit for. Clients always want to make sure their readers get it, but in doing so, they often eliminate the fun by over-explaining it. It’s a delicate balance, and I stand my ground with clients. I’ve got a good instinct for it by now.

There is a lot of attention to creativity, how we do it, and the secrets to turning it on. I’ve never paid much attention to that and tried to develop good habits and a problem-solving discipline. If you sign up to be a designer, your job can’t wait until the muse shows up.

Drawn delves into curiosity, self-doubt, and confidence, all of which are common experiences for creatives. How have these themes influenced your journey as a creative? Can you share any personal anecdotes or pivotal moments where you’ve grappled with self-doubt and how you overcame it to push your creative boundaries?

Curiosity is key. We must be curious about what others make and how to inform and inspire our own creativity. We also must be curious about the oddities around us. These are the fuel for ideas. Self-doubt and confidence are opposites, yet both motivate us. Both are necessary to keep the other in check. Self-doubt—however uncomfortable it is—is critical to doing good work and growing. The better our judgment, the easier it is to become complacent and make safe work. I find my own self-doubt to be often an indicator that I’m breaking new ground. We all experience self-doubt because creativity isn’t science—it’s experimental by design. The good news is that with experience, self-doubt wanes and gives way to confidence, and if we are lucky, humility lies right in between both—the most essential element of personal growth.

I frequently have doubts about my work particularly when I’m sketching on assignment. When I give it a little time to breathe and look at the work with fresh eyes, the doubt often subsides. I remind myself that new is often uncomfortable and these are the chances we must take.

There is a lot of attention to creativity, how we do it, and the secrets to turning it on. I’ve never paid much attention to that and tried to develop good habits and a problem-solving discipline. If you sign up to be a designer, your job can’t wait until the muse shows up. Though she does make appearances, we must operate in an ‘always go’ position.

As it relates to ideas, my solution is to keep sketching. It is the cheapest and fastest prototyping method out there. It is a discipline that I have practiced my entire career, and it never fails. Every sketch I make is an experience of seeing something and understanding it better. I have far more unsuccessful sketches than successful ones, but they are not mutually exclusive. You must turn over rocks until you find what you are looking for. I have a confidence in process—the more you produce, the better the chances are of arriving at something new—it’s that simple.

Your work has inspired many aspiring illustrators and designers. You offered the valuable insight that “style comes just as much from your deficiencies as well as your expertise.” Could you elaborate on this concept and explain how embracing one’s shortcomings can contribute to the development of a unique artistic style?

Understanding what we each ‘have to offer’ is an endeavor you can’t suddenly take on one day. It’s an understanding that comes over time and practice. We never fully understand it, but we must move toward it and often get out of its way. That said, we work to develop personally and professionally, and the goal is to find where we can each put a spin on things. Our fingerprints on our work are the characteristics reflective of both our strengths and weaknesses. Our ability to accept both of those—our deficiencies being the toughest—is where our individuality and point of view reside. The world is full of people—and companies—trying to create a mass consumable perception. But—as practitioners—we shouldn’t take that approach. The baseline is to be a good problem-solver. However, the expression and articulation of those solutions can be personal and unique to each of us. Herein lies the risk and the satisfaction. One reason this works is that it is honest and defendable. It’s easier to stand up for our own ideas than it is for others. The second reason is that unique work stands the best chance of being novel in the eyes of the public. As designers, we don’t have to have thousands of clients. We must have enough to support the economy of our practice. I have found that making what I can make and searching for audiences that appreciate my sensibilities is much easier—and more satisfying—than working in the inverse. Differentiation serves the competitive nature of our job.

As designers, we don’t have to have thousands of clients. We must have enough to support the economy of our practice … making what I can make and searching for audiences that appreciate my sensibilities is much easier—and more satisfying—than working in the inverse.

If you want to get your hands on Drawn, which I highly recommend — it’s fantastic; you can order his book here.

The post Stop, Look & Think: Get “Drawn” into Craig Frazier’s Illustrations appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

The first festival was funded by Laura Ashley Foundation, and as part of the activities, “We visited six different communities around Cardiff and gave free print workshops. [Now, we’ve] upped the workshops to 15 and are funded by the Arts Council Wales.”

I’ve spoken to Saunders before about his traveling shows, and here he is again for another year of ink and paper and print.

How has the public’s response been to your Printed Festival?
Fantastic! The whole weekend was swarming with visitors from all over! We designed the festival to be a festival of participation rather than just an arts market. Because of this there was a palpable creative buzz in the air, with seasoned printmakers to complete novices trying their hands at linocuts, screenprint, rubber stamping and risograph printing. 

Is your audience mostly artists and designers, or civilians with a love for handcrafts?
A perfect mix; we don’t want to just preach to the converted and show print fanatics lovely artwork. Our main aim is to reach out to “civilians” and show how printmaking is accessible as a means to access their creativity. 

How and where do you organize these fetes?
I teamed up with the Printhaus, an amazing print studio in the heart of Cardiff, and we started talking about the need of a print festival in Wales that can service the community. We get together and ask ourselves what in an ideal world we would like to see in a print festival, and we try our best to make it happen. Free activities, artist talks and lots of hand-printed swag. It’s a printed dream factory. 

What kind of attendance do you get?
We were so swept up, and it being an open space we didn’t have a chance to count, but everyone who held a have-a-go print activity was swept off their feet with no respite for five hours straight. The venue inside serving food ran out of forks. 

What happens to the work?
People take it home and hopefully cherish it! More importantly, hopefully people can take the prints home, realize their creative potential and hopefully get bitten by the printing bug.

The post The Daily Heller: Printmaking is Alive (and Well Done) in Wales appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

Since its founding, National Geographic, or NatGeo for short, has evolved into a multifaceted platform spanning print, digital, television, and more, exploring science, geography, history, and culture. NatGeo seeks to inspire curiosity, foster understanding, and champion conservation efforts worldwide through its articles, documentaries, educational initiatives, and photography.

The globally recognized magazine, which has over 84 million monthly readers, unveiled a significant design refresh this month. This transformation, revealed in the March issue, marks the debut under Editor-in-Chief Nathan Lump and Creative Director Paul Martinez, who assumed their roles in 2022. With Lump’s rich editorial background, including publications like TIME and The New York Times, alongside Martinez’s creative expertise at Travel + Leisure, the duo brings a bedrock of experience to the publication.

The key design and content highlights include:

• New sections, including “In Focus,” a selection of full-page images from National Geographic’s photographers in the field, amplify the focus on photography and visual storytelling.
• Short-form content is now interspersed with in-depth features to create a more varied and dynamic reading experience.
• A larger typeface for an easier read – an intentional update taking reader feedback into account.
• And a subscriber-only cover that features more artful, intimate visuals.

I reached out to Lump and Martinez, eager to discuss the driving forces behind this redesign and their plans for holding 130+ years of tradition, while addressing the evolving needs of print and digital audiences. Our conversation (condensed for length and clarity), is below.

The redesign marks a significant shift in National Geographic‘s visual identity and content structure. What was the inspiration behind deciding to introduce new sections like “In Focus” and the added emphasis on visual storytelling?

NL: We’ve had an emphasis on visual storytelling in our pages for many decades, so while I don’t see our recent adjustments as a particular shift in that direction, we are continually looking for ways to heighten for the reader what is special about what we do. The core of our mission is helping readers to discover and better understand the wonder of our world, and for me, a lot of what I wanted to accomplish with this refresh was to showcase the true diversity of the subjects we cover and what we’re learning about them – from animal behavior to science to history and more. Our new recurring story types are designed to do just that. “In Focus,” a handful of pages at the start of the book, is in many ways a microcosm of that wider approach: we are fortunate to have relationships with great photographers around the globe who are always at work, and this column brings readers a selection of their recent images from out in the field, across the full spectrum of topics of interest to our readers. 

PM: A segment such as “In Focus” truly emphasizes one of our strengths: photography. Placing this at the forefront is not just about captivating the reader with compelling images but also about swiftly propelling them into the heart of the magazine. This seamless transition leads directly into our initial main feature, where we aim for readers to immerse themselves in a deeper narrative.

How do you balance honoring the magazine’s rich heritage of storytelling, particularly through its iconic photography, while also pushing boundaries in today’s media landscape? In what ways does the redesign reflect the evolution of storytelling mediums and audience preferences?

NL: I am extremely conscious of our legacy and of the incredibly loyal, devoted readership we are fortunate to have, and of course that makes you be very deliberate and thoughtful when you make changes. But legacy can also lead you to be too conservative and hold you back from making genuine improvements in the service of your audience. My feeling is that as long as you retain your commitment to telling meaningful stories that align with your brand and meet your reader’s expectations of quality, you have permission to adjust as long as you are putting yourself in the reader’s shoes and thinking about what will serve them best. I thought a lot about what it means to innovate in print as we approached this work and tried to ask myself whether traditional conventions still held true. Years of working on digital content and products have grounded me in UX thinking and research, and I drew on that in this process. Our decision to radically simplify the book structure—essentially, almost the entire magazine is one unnamed “section” that consists of shorter and longer stories mixed together—stems from an understanding that digital and social environments have conditioned us to consume content in more free-flowing and serendipitous way. The story selection and flow are still highly curated, as any great magazine should be, but it allows for more variation and surprise that we think makes the overall experience more pleasurable and engaging.

Design plays a significant role in ensuring that readers do not encounter difficulty with the content.

Paul Martinez, Creative Director

The decision to incorporate more short-form content alongside in-depth features is interesting. How do you navigate maintaining depth and substance while catering to shorter attention spans in today’s digital age?

PM: Many of our decisions revolved around the concept of pacing. Our strategy involved interspersing shorter stories among the longer ones to create a dynamic flow of peaks and valleys for the reader. We discovered that grouping all the longer features together risked reader fatigue, so placing shorter pieces between them offers readers a chance to engage swiftly with the content.

From a design standpoint, we aimed to signal to the reader when they were transitioning from a longer feature to a shorter story. To achieve this, we developed a consistent template for the shorter stories, facilitating a smooth exit from and entrance into the longer features. Additionally, we sought to engage the typographer more in introducing the features to signify the beginning of a substantial story.

Typography plays a crucial role in readability and accessibility, and your decision to introduce a larger typeface reflects a commitment to improving the reader experience. How did you approach this aspect of the redesign, particularly in response to reader feedback?

PM: Ensuring readability is a constant and top priority. Design plays a significant role in ensuring that readers do not encounter difficulty with the content. Moreover, from an aesthetic perspective, we aimed to provide sufficient space for the increased type size in the body copy and captions to breathe. By augmenting the white space in the layouts, we were able to strike that delicate balance and hopefully improve the reader experience.

The subscriber-only cover featuring more artful and intimate visuals is a bold move, especially in an era where digital content often takes precedence. What motivated this decision, and how do you see it contributing to the magazine’s relationship with its most loyal readers?

NL: I am conscious that our relationship with subscribers is a personal one—they’ve invited us into their homes—and that the experience of receiving a printed magazine in the mail and diving into it on your sofa is quite particular relative to other ways that you encounter content in other environments and platforms. On a traditional newsstand, you need to shout, as it were, to gain a potential reader’s attention. In digital, it’s much the same—you have milliseconds in someone’s scrolling to grab their attention. When they’ve subscribed, they’ve already indicated an interest in your content and a willingness to engage. That’s not to say that the cover doesn’t need to provoke engagement, but when you hold a magazine in your hands at home, you are quite literally up close and personal with it. That allows us, I think, to showcase artistry and to be quieter in our choice of image when it’s appropriate, and we deliberately went minimal with type, in a nod to the old National Geographics with type-only covers that essentially served as a table of contents. Our goal is still to intrigue or to move the reader in some way, but we can take a different approach that we hope delivers something tailored to the subscriber’s mindset now that they’re ready to sit down and read.

How do you navigate the preferences and consumption habits of print readers versus digital consumers, and what lessons can other content creators learn from your experience? Any advice for media companies looking to strengthen connections with their audiences in an increasingly digital landscape?

NL: Like many publishers, we know that our print and digital audiences are quite distinct, and while they share some common affinities, they are not mirror images of each other. For many years, at other titles, I tried to achieve nearly total platform convergence—with all content designed to flow seamlessly between platforms—but I no longer think that’s the best approach. Increasingly, we take a fluid approach to our content creation, with some stories designed specifically to satisfy the needs of either print or digital (or social) audiences, and then selectively, those stories migrate to other platforms, often with modifications and sometimes in a different medium. It’s more bespoke and requires more care, but if you build the intention into your production process from the outset, you can ensure you’re generating the right type of material and minimize the effort required after the fact. This is an essential part of being responsive to audience preferences. What will work for a certain type of reader or user in one place will not necessarily work for another reader or user somewhere else. My goal with all our storytelling is to maximize the reach and impact of our work, and the way that works is by recognizing how preferences and behaviors vary based on where someone is and their mindset. The through line, of course, is quality – personally, I find this thinking and the process it informs so much more creatively energizing than when I started my career, although it is undoubtedly more complicated. You can’t do everything all the time, so it’s also important to be mindful of who you are most focused on reaching and strategically what you are trying to get out of building that relationship. I think that today, in digital environments, in particular, success is a lot about super-serving more specific audiences and interests. In some ways, we’ve always done this with our printed magazines, so we’re well positioned to thrive wherever we may be because we think consumer-first, fundamentally, and build that into everything we do.

The post National Geographic’s Redesign Bridges Print Heritage & Digital Experience appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

What inspired you to reveal your Emotions in this printed zine?
When I was invited to be an artist-in-residence at SVA’s RISO lab, I had to come up with an idea for a zine. My first idea was called The Atlas of Imaginary Places. Why? Because living in this time, when so many people are so disenchanted with The-Way-Things-Are, I thought it would be interesting to create whacked-out Dr. Seuss meets Dr. Escher cityscapes and landscapes based on the kind of places we’d actually like to live in. But when I started sketching out some of these ideas—The City of Dreams, The Garden of Fallen Egos, Heavy Metal Mountain and Tequila Fields—I just wasn’t, you know, feeling them.  Then I thought, OK, Josh, maybe if you could infuse these landscapes with emotion—you know, create places like the Lagoon of Lust, the Valley of Tears and the Laughing Forest—then maybe you’ll be more excited to draw them. But then I weirdly felt like I was serving two masters: the Landscapes and the emotions. And I wasn’t doing justice to either one of them. It dawned on me then that what I really cared about was the emotions. I mean, come on, everyone lives in a world of emotions, both their own emotions and the emotions of the people around them, so it’s a subject absolutely everyone can relate to. I said goodbye to the concept of the Landscape and hitched my star to the Emotions.

You did retain the idea of the atlas. Why an atlas?
The purpose of an atlas is to map out the world and make it known. So why not do that for emotions? Emotions are, of course, not an outer landscape, but an inner landscape of feelings that can tower over us like mountains, swell up like rivers, blow like balmy breezes or erupt like volcanoes. How cool would it be to try and depict emotions—the big ones, such as love, pleasure and pain, as well as the more obscure ones such as wanderlust, curiosity and inspiration—in a way that could, even for a split second, encourage a reader to see, feel and understand that emotion, and maybe even marinate in the sense of that emotion for a spell. Now I had an idea that excited me. 

You often have a gritty approach to your work. How is this different?
I’ve done many portraits of people. And with every portrait I always ask myself the same question: In their dreams, how would this subject like to be represented? I asked this same question of these emotions. Hey, Love (or Disgust or Loneliness), if I made art about you, how would you like to be represented? 

It seemed some emotions wanted to be depicted simply, subtly and cleanly, others chaotically or colorfully or in your face, and some, like love, just wanted to be represented with type, hold the images please. 

Asking this question had the surprising effect upon me of releasing me and restraining me from my typically over-the-top, leave-no-white-space-untouched depictions of things. After all, who am I to question what Pleasure or Pain wants?

Tell me what it feels like working on the RISO printer? 
At SVA’s RISO lab, I fell in love! My crush was 3′ 6″ tall, 57 inches wide and weighed 250 pounds. She (or he, if you prefer) was called RISO. She’s a Japanese printer. Although she is a somewhat homely, box-like contraption, she became for me a most passionate and capricious lover.

The stuff that RISO could do! The rich textures she could create were both majestic and gritty; the color combos she could make evoked everything from glorious sunsets to mystifying fog banks to garish products on supermarket shelves.  

But on the other hand, the trials RISO could put you through! It turns out RISO is one temperamental #$@&%*! You spend your printing time shoving ink drums shaped liked small torpedoes in and out of the machine and talking to her through the buttons of her control panel. But there are days when she decides to jam your papers, smear your images, disobey your requests, or just refuses to even play with you and shuts down like that and stops talking to you. 

Fortunately the SVA RISO lab is run by an incredible crew of cool-headed, RISO-wise artist/technicians who know how to sweet talk the machine to get you back in her good favor. Without the help of Sarula Bao, Aidan Fitzgerald, Sabii Borno and the director of the Lab, Panayiotis Terzis, there would be no Atlas of Emotions. 

The lab itself is an artistic beehive. In the two small rooms you’ll find SVA students, continuing ed students and artists churning out zines, prints and whatnots on the four RISO machines that clatter rhythmically like Industrial Age mechanical devices. Other artists are spread around folding, stapling and using a giant cutter to trim their work. And it’s all offline, existing in that old-fashioned analog world, which was, once upon a time, as you know, where everything used to happen. 

Is there a follow up to this in the works? If so, what?
The challenge of depicting emotions was artistically and creatively invigorating and the response has been so overwhelming that I hope to keep going, depicting more and more emotions. After all, even though I called this zine The Atlas of Emotions, I only depicted 12 emotions. There are hundreds (maybe thousands?) of emotions inside of us—some that don’t even have words in the English language to describe them—so it’s a project that could engage me and stay fresh for years. I’d love to create more zines (which is why I called this “Volume One”), as well as turn the concept into a coffee-table type book. (Hello? Are there any publishers out there?)

The post The Daily Heller: You Are Entering a Non-Digital World Called RISO appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

Traditionally filled with money and given as tokens of good wishes, red packets are integral to Chinese New Year celebrations. The Year of the Dragon holds special significance, symbolizing success, honor, and dignity — believed to bring growth, progress, and abundance.

The Secret Little Agency created the Long Bao to celebrate this auspicious year. A play on words, the name is derived from the pronunciation of the Chinese character for dragon, which is ‘lóng’ or ‘loong.’

This dragon year, we decided to extend the red packet and make it long-er.

The Secret Little Agency

Nodding to a rich tradition, The Long Bao also serves up some humor and a contemporary aesthetic, making the symbol of good fortune a unique gift.

This limited edition creation captures the Chinese New Year’s essence and exemplifies The Secret Little Agency’s commitment to creativity and innovation. Founded in 2009, The Secret Little Agency remains the only creative agency in Singapore to be named both Independent and Creative Agency of the Year multiple times in the last decade.

With only 1000 pieces available in this exclusive run, the agency plans to distribute them to friends and partners in Singapore and worldwide. Intrigued? Request your own Long Bao with an email to The Secret Little Agency.

The post ‘Long-er Bao’: Singapore’s The Secret Little Agency Celebrates the Year of the Dragon appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

To maximize the impact of the new identity, Repslabel orchestrated a comprehensive campaign that works across various elements, including digital publications and promotions. The conceptual campaign pays homage to Baroque composers, utilizing graffiti to shroud their identities in secrecy, infusing Les Boréades with an enigmatic quality that focuses squarely on the music itself. This strategic approach enhances the ensemble’s artistic presence and showcases the adaptability and creativity embedded in their revitalized visual branding.

The newly crafted identity is flexible and designed to adapt seamlessly across various media over time. The typographic approach carries a distinct personality, communicating information with clarity and impact. The grid structure provides versatility, accommodating different visual and typographic elements based on the integrated content. A simple yet powerful color palette adds sophistication and allows for harmonization with diverse graphic styles.

Repslabel’s ‘Go for Baroque’ approach, combining contemporary graffiti in contrast with the highly ornate and elaborate style of Baroque, is music to my ears.

The post Repslabel Orchestrates Visual Symphony for Les Boréades appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

BREAD, a free, limited-edition zine, uses design to tell stories and educate readers in a relatable and accessible way. As a brand extension for Cash App, the zine bridges financial literacy and culture, using design and storytelling to make complex financial concepts more accessible and engaging. The inaugural issue focuses on Bitcoin, offering readers a fresh, inclusive perspective on the digital currency.

Cash App’s vision for BREAD extends beyond just information sharing; it aims to transform how people perceive financial education. In a world where discussions about money can be daunting or exclusive, BREAD seeks to make learning about finances more accessible and enjoyable for everyone.

What sets BREAD apart is the collaborative effort of influential artists, designers, and writers, including Allison P. Davis, Richard Turley, and DAISUKE. Their diverse contributions explore various topics, from Bitcoin mining to rebranding the cryptocurrency and unveiling the enigma surrounding its creator.

The BREAD Bitcoin Issue is available in select stores across major US cities. Readers can also access the zine online to order a free print copy.

BREAD Contributor Highlights:

Writers: Allison P Davis, Collier Meyerson, Emilia Petrarca, Margaret Rhodes, Elise Craig

Designers & Illustrations: DAISUKE, Richard Turley, Porto Rocha, FRKO, Cevallos Bros, Stephanie Specht, Steven Montinar

Raul Lopez (LUAR Founder) 

The post Cash App Encourages Everyone to Get Their “BREAD” appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

Jeremy Leslie, the London-based founder of magCulture, is on a mission to cover and discover the world of print-on-paper magazines that continue to publish despite the major obstacles in producing them. On Nov. 16, Vitsœ will host magCulture Live London, a 10th-anniversary event showcasing the best creative editorial projects, with guests from across the industry spectrum. Speakers include Debra Bishop, design director of The New York Times for Kids; Neville Brody, formerly of The Face, Arena and City Limits; Maya Moumne, co-founder of Journal Safar and Al Hayya magazines; Charles Baker, editor of The Fence; Oyinkansola Dada, founder of Dada magazine; James Gallacher, editor-on-chief of Ton; Linda Nubling, publisher of Gurlz with Curlz; and more. If you read the MagCulture Journal, you’ll have a sense of the scope and focus of the fete.

With the event only a few weeks away, I asked Leslie about his dedication to print journals and the new entries in the field.

Why are magazines so important to you, especially in this fungible publishing environment?
Several reasons; first, I can’t avoid the fact that we grew up during a period where magazines simply were culturally important, a central element of our media diet. In particular, my teenage obsession with music was fed by weekly print such as New Musical Express.

But it’s more than nostalgia. Magazines and the way they are created and produced are time capsules for the period they are/were made. In terms of content obviously—that story, that person, that idea—but also in terms of photographic style, illustration style, language, typography, the way design and content interact, etc. They absorb subconscious influence from every person involved in the production to reflect so many aspects of a given time. And the result is baked into a tangible thing. A print magazine cannot be corrected or altered. It is stuck in itself and can be examined and critiqued from a future context, and learned from. Whether naive or hugely professional, a magazine reveals much that wasn’t intended.

By contrast, digital channels are mutable. From a cultural standpoint, the text may remain intact but its presentation may at best change, or worse become unreadable or lost. What we gain in immediacy and easy access online we lose in the reduced value of bespoke design and art direction. By their nature, websites are about function and UX and not about a designed response to the meaning of the text. Everything online is flatly efficient and smooth rather than special.

And in a broader sense, humans want actual things. We see this every day at our London shop—a growing minority of people who want to interact with a physical magazine.

Is there a real chance that magazines will be an extinguished species, or is the digital era a thinning of the herd?
I believe we’ll come to look back at the post-second world war consumer boom and the advertising-based rise of the mainstream magazine as the outlier. I can remember major magazine publishers launching new titles just to mop up the advertising they were being offered! That species of magazine is long dead. And although those magazines were a reflection of their time like any mag, do we really miss them? Sure, some were great, but the majority were average. Those middle market titles are dead.

Before they became such huge money-makers, magazines were a useful form of communication shared between communities of like-minded people. They were a club for people sharing the same interest/hobby/obsession. We’re heading back that way, with publishers building tight relationships with small devoted readerships rather than encouraging the late 20th-century promiscuous get-as-many-readers-as-you-can model.

You produce live events. This is refreshing, especially since online venues are at best disembodied. Why do you do real-time, real-life activities?
As a design student, the best teachers were the working designers who visited once a week to run projects. They brought real life and all its ups and downs with them. Since then, I’ve always been interested to hear people talk IRL about what they know.

When I came to launch my 2013 book The Modern Magazine, I wanted to bring together the interviewees from the book to bring their words to life. That was our first big, live event. And it hit a nerve. Most magazine publishing events are based around the business of publishing—ours was unique in highlighting the creativity of the form. Simply, it’s inspiring hearing people’s stories laid out live in front of you in real life. During the pandemic we moved online but the novelty factor soon faded. It worked but the experience wasn’t as powerful.

Magazine-making can be a lonely activity: lots of time alone on your laptop. Come out and meet your fellow print lovers! Get together in a room and talk! Compare and contrast!

What will be your focus in the forthcoming London event?
As with our New York event in July this year, the focus is “Format.” Reminding people how print media can be any scale/size, produced to any schedule, and operate its own frame of reference. And to highlight the technological aspect of print: a well-produced print mag is a brilliant piece of engineering. Quite different to an iPhone or whatever, but still a piece of technology.

Have you seen your audiences grow, shrink or remain the same?
Our online audience is larger than ever, via online posts, Instagram and podcasts. The event audiences took a tumble over the COVID lockdowns but are building back now.

Are magazines ultimately sustainable? And does that matter?
This year’s magCulture Live London marks our 10th anniversary, and as part of the planning I’ve been looking back over those 10 years and further back. I noted that in my 2001 book Issues I discussed the prevailing idea of the end of print. And I spoke at our first conference in 2013 about the same thing. Today we are no longer pondering the end of print, but celebrating its continual reinvention. magCulture is inundated with brand-new magazines and new issues of existing magazines. Are their makers running hugely successful businesses? Generally not (though some are). But there’s a creative imperative behind every one. People feel compelled to make another issue.

Perhaps a useful analogy is the wider world of the arts. Do you produce a movie to make money? Do you paint to earn a living? Can you live on your ambition to write a novel? Not everyone can be, or wants to be, Spielberg, Hirst, Grisham.

Judging by the design, journalism and other students I meet, the desire to make magazines doesn’t look like fading any time soon. And since the pandemic we’ve seen a significant uptick in new indie launches and people buying them—both supply and demand has increased.

The post The Daily Heller: A Fête for Magazine Makers and Lovers appeared first on PRINT Magazine.

Field Notes’ 59th edition in their quarterly series was just unveiled for the summer, featuring silver hot-foil stamped on indigo blue covers. Say hello to the Foiled Again Field Notes, with illustrations designed by Field Notes cofounder Aaron Draplin and perfectly executed foil-stamping by Studio on Fire of St. Paul, MN. 

Draplin’s intricate artwork illustrates the manufacturing process behind the jacket design of these Field Notes, which is hot-stamped onto shimmering Neenah Pearl “Indigo” 110# cover stock. The notebooks come in packs of three, with each containing 48 pages of 60# Finch Opaque text stock, ruled with silver ink, and bound with three staples. The trio of 3.5″ × 5.5″ notebooks are packaged in a tuck box featuring the cover art in reversed colors: blue foil on Neenah Pearl “Sterling” stock. The packs are being sold for $14.95 a piece. 

Limited Edition Quarterly Subscribers will receive these silver and blue beauties in addition to notebooks in an additional colorway: gold foil on “Poppy” stock, packed in a red-foil-on-“Bright Gold” box. This iteration of Foiled Again is available exclusively for quarter edition subscribers, so be sure to subscribe now! USA shipping is free for subscription shipments, and active subscribers save 10% whenever they shop on the Field Notes site. 

Who cares if your notebook stack just got a little bit taller? Beautiful tools beget beautiful ideas, and that’s just the facts.

The post If You’ve Been Trying to Shake Off Your Notebook-Buying Habit, Consider Yourself “Foiled Again” appeared first on PRINT Magazine.