“It is extremely difficult for large, multinational corporations to credibly exemplify craft because their very structure and reason for being are generally in opposition to it. Just because a product or process is deemed ‘bespoke’ or ‘artisanal’ in a strategy document doesn’t mean that it is. Caveat emptor.”
From “Craft in action: the case for graphic designers to start with analog methods,” an interview with Allyson Marrs via The Drum in which I discuss the role of craft in design.
Earlier this year we were asked by Mirko Ilić to contribute to his “Tolerance” traveling poster exhibition, an international response by designers to the idea of social tolerance. Angie worked with noted calligrapher John Stevens to typographically interpret a quote of Martin Luther King Jr.’s included in his 1963 book of sermons, Strength to Love.
Mark’s poster superimposes one of his illustrations over a halftone image of Donald Trump and the White House.
We like Mirko’s thoughts on the political role of the designer, which he expressed in an interview with Print in 2017: “Designers are firstly humans/citizens and then designers. Hopefully, one day when they stop being designers, they’re still going to be humans…. Designers and artists understand the power of an image; because of that they have an additional duty to use it, but use it wisely.”
See other posters under Design is Play Studio Posters.
We are delighted to be working with our CCA colleague, Neal Schwartz and La Cocina to develop an identity for El Pípila—a women-owned, family-run restaurant specializing in the cuisine of Guanajuato, Mexico.
The wordmark is based on forms that were originally created with brass rules for use in letterpress printing.
We are thrilled to have four of our posters—Trump (Moloch), OBOMBA, Trump 24K Gold-Plated, and Kinder, Gentler, Carpet Bombing—included in the exhibit “Protest! Resistance Posters” which opens tonight at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.
From the museum’s publicity: “Globalization, women’s rights, Trump: the poster has established itself as an effective medium for political struggle. 50 years after 1968, the onset of a worldwide rebellion, this exhibition presents around 300 international protest posters.
“The designs dismantle rulers, denounce injustice, or lend utopia a face. They are instances of visual memory, appeal to the necessity of resistance today, and prove the topicality and universality of the depicted themes. The exhibition showcases the work of socially engaged designers and illuminates various strategies of protest.”
A new identity we recently designed for the not-quite-public Helix RE.
The X-like form of the trademark references both a double-helix and the idea of a specific location on a map. (Or a specific node—or data set—within a database or network.)