The History of Graphic Design: 1890-1959

Rom Amazon.

History is a complex business. Fortunes boom and bust, empires wax and wane, and change whether social, political, or technological has its winners, its losers, its advocates, and its enemies. 

Through all the turbulent passage of time, graphic design with its vivid, neat synthesis of image and idea has distilled the spirit of each age.

Winners of the 8th World Humor Awards

From World Humor Awards.

Here are all the prizes of the 8th edition of the World Humor Awards. The theme this year was "biodiversity".

The story behind Twitter's logo rebrand

From Mother Jones.

The new logo on the left and Monotype font on the right.

Yesterday, Twitter launched its logo rebrand, turning its famous bird logo into an “X.”

Since 2022, Elon Musk has said he hopes to make Twitter into a “super app” called X. 

In theory, this would mean the social network would become a catch-all for connecting us in a state of “unlimited interactivity—centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking,” as CEO Linda Yaccarino buzzworded. 

But when the new logo went live, users on Twitter (or X, whatever) noted an interesting facet of the new logo: It looks like shit.

Trump Grotesk

Steven Heller in Print.

Trump infects the body politic’s mind to such a degree that now we even have a typeface in his image.

Snyder/Studio designer Mattias Mackler created Trump Grotesk to remind us of some of the truly grotesque things he’s said, done and will do. 

Cincy Comicon poster pays homage to old comic book ads

From Boing Boing.

Cartoonist Tony Moore (co-creator of The Walking Dead comic book series) designed this very fun poster for the Cincy Comicon (September 12-13), which pays homages to the old comic book ads for novelties and practical jokes. He did such a good job that I asked him to write a bit about it.

The History of Typography - Animated Short

A short film by Ben Barrett-Forrest.

The Cutting Humor of Art Director Michael Gross

Michael Dooley in the Imprint blog.

Designer kids these days. They'll never experience the toxic aroma of rubber-cement fumes. Or feel the intense drama of an X-Acto knife slicing into their thumb or plunging head-first into their knee. But Michael Gross remembers. In fact, Gross and his National Lampoon co-conspirators immortalized such experiences in a parody of the graphic design industry that was published in Print magazine.