Feature

Money. Magic. Light.

Will Novosedlik

Factors of scale ensured a glittering take-off for two corporate identities. But what do they actually communicate?

Global City

Rob Schroder

Screens from a documentary about graphic design in four cities: New York, San Franscisco, London and Amsterdam

The Museum of the Ordinary

Michael Rock, Susan Sellers

The exhibits are the entire contents of a swathe of blocks on downtown New York. A proposal and manifesto. By Michael Rock and Susan Sellers

Serious doodling

Max Bruinsma

Working in the crash-prone pre-history of multimedia, Post Tool has a brand of graphic design that is closer to televsion

Fotonovels

Russell Holmes

Before the home video revolution, Fotonovels provided a graphic way to re-live the experience of Hollywood movies

Mandarin to Mao

Chris Vermaas

The modern Maoist versions of traditional Chinese characters introduced ambiguity and confusion by deleting information

Branding

David Peters

The Wieden & Kennedy agency provides big-name clients with the personal styles of cutting-edge graphic designers

The diaphanous machine

Max Bruinsma

Designers can bring clarity and consistency to Web interfaces and find new ways to organise navigation

Pouchee’s lost alphabets

Mike Daines

Ornament is no longer a crime and there is a growing enthusiasm for decorative display. Few contempory display alphabets equal those of Louis John Pouchée for vivacity and invention

Meta’s tectonic man

William Owen

In Erik Spiekermann’s hands, typographic design is a tool for rendering the world more accessible