When it comes to the history of album cover design there is one company that always seems to come up in conversation, Hipgnosis, writes Martin Maher in this week’s Masters Monday. One of it’s co-founders was Storm Thorgerson, a designer who still designs album sleeves to this day. But it’s his work from the 70’s and 80’s that probably holds the most interest to anyone with even a passing interest in music industry design and […]
There aren’t that many characters in the history of graphic design that could be compared to rock ‘n’ roll stars, says Martin Maher in this weeks installment of Masters Monday. Sure there have been the likes of David Carson, Peter Saville and Stefan Sagmeister but these chaps pale in comparison to one Mr Robert Brownjohn, a man so cool even the Rolling Stones wanted to hang with him. He lived fast and he died young […]
It’s Monday, it only means one thing; and what an icon Martin Maher prolifes on this week’s Masters Monday… Armin Hofmann. Hofmann has been described as one of the most outstanding personalities in Swiss graphic design history. Along with the more well known Josef Müller Brockmann, Emil Ruder and Max Bill, Hofmann helped shape modernist-inspired graphic design beyond recognition. Without ‘The International Typographic Style’, also known as the Swiss Style of design, contemporary graphic design […]
Hailing from Wellington, Mike’s gone on walkabout. I know, I know, tenuous, it’s an aborigine thing, but bear with us. Perhaps it’s better we think of it as more of a design pilgrimage – a pilgrimage from the ol’ Long White Cloud to Europe; Hamburg to be exact (as we type), via a scattering of Scandanavian hotspots, Mike has asked not what the design world can do for him, but what he can do for […]
This week’s Masters Monday, Zebra’s Martin Maher talks Ben Bos… There is one book in my collection that I always go back to for reference. It’s not a huge, casebound tome filled with hundreds of pages of clever, poetic verse and tons of pretty pictures. It’s a smallish, humble, paperback book about a Dutch designer who’s work still looks as fresh, vibrant and downright stunning today as it did when it was first created back […]
This week, Martin Maher talks F.H.K. Henrion (1914-1990) – a true giant of British graphic design. During a long and eventful career Henrion was not only president of the most prestigious of design organisations (AGI), he also designed some of the most powerful social posters of World War II as well as single-handedly pioneering the concept of corporate identity programs. With accolades like these, as well as many more, one would think Henrion would be […]
Pixel Picnics has landed to liven up your end of week lunchtimes and squeeze your creative juices. So what is it? A handsome question to which the answer is thus; a social gaming platform built especially for creatives. Y’see? Just out of beta, you can expect daily challenges and mini games plus a lively weekly LIVE game (with a real life presenter) specifically targeted toward creative folk like me and thee. Played through your Twitter […]
Continuing our mini-series of design heroes, former Creative Director of The Brand Union and founder of Perth & Singapore-based studio Zebra, Martin Maher talks to us about the legendary Michael Wolff… Most designers have heard of the company Wolff Olins. Ok so that’s obvious statement of the year out of the way. We know them from their innovative and intelligent identity systems, even non-designers would acknowledge the controversy surrounding their identity for the Olympic Games. […]