Imagine if your portfolio contained branding for an Olympics Games, maps and graphics for an entire metro system – in fact make that two metro systems – as well as signage, wayfinding and branding for a zoo. Hang on, make that two zoos! In the case of American designer Lance Wyman that’s just the tip of the iceberg in what has been a lifetime of awe-inspiring work. The fact that Lance Wyman isn’t as well […]
As designers we all have our favourite, writes Martin Maher, classic pieces of work whether created by more well known designers or by someone more obscure. One of my all-time favourites, that really has stood the test of time is the Deutsche Bank identity. Designed by German designer Anton Stankowski, it still looks as striking and timeless now as it did when it first appeared back in 1974. Anton Stankowski was born in 1906, in […]
Looking back through our ‘design heroes‘ series so far it would be a fair to ask, where are all the female designers? Well this weeks profile will help to address this by focussing on the eclectic, colourful and sometimes eccentric work of the wonderful Morag Myerscough. Most well known for projects that integrate graphics and type within architectural environments, her award-winning work on wayfinding systems, exhibitions, installations and even schools has been well documented in […]
Who’d have thought that a Neville Brody exhibition at the V&A could have changed the life of one designer so profoundly. But that’s exactly what happened to designer Tom Hingston writes Martin Maher. He initially studied at the London College of Printing before going onto Central St Martins. The Neville Brody connection didn’t end there either. Tom’s tutor Jon Wozencroft worked with Neville Brody and encouraged Tom to go along for an interview for a junior designer position […]
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 […]
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 […]