During early lockdown, which is now pretty much exactly an entire year ago, many of us turned to a few things to get through the boring times: snacking, ultimately fleeting forays into things like “sourdough starters”. We turned to Zoom (if we had the bandwidth that day) for a facsimile…
Aiming to shine a light on issues around belonging, identity and inequality in the publishing industry, the The Tilt is a new illustrated Riso-printed publication “designed to question traditional forms.” Comprising a collection of new writing that centres around these issues, the all-female publishing, editorial and design team for The…
Leading people in gently isn’t graphic artist Michael DeForge’s style: his new book, Heaven No Hell, opens with a person massaging, and ticking a corpse. Observed by a crowd delineated only as silhouetted figures, the narrative is just as shadowy as their forms: it seems the protagonist is roleplaying as…
If you’re in need of inspiration, or just pottering about from tab to tab in need of some procrastination that’s way more enriching than, say Googling “when exactly do the pubs reopen” or Photoshopping your friend’s faces onto those of Princess Di (just as an example), you could do far…
It feels as though Swedish illustrator Alva Skog has been a name ever since graduating in 2018. Their work is both distinctive—strangely proportioned limbs, often huge hands, simple but expressive black line facial features—and beautifully mutable. As such, Skog’s work is a dream for projects like editorial illustration (their client…
Type design company Swiss Typefaces, which is based in—you guessed it, Switzerland (Vevey to be exact)—has really amped up what we think of as a type specimen with its new book Euclid-Typeface Mystery No. 1. The book comes in the wake of the past few years’ gradual additions to the…
I’ve been a fan of Grant Gasser’s work for a while; not least because whenever we chat, the majority of the phone call is made up of rambling tangents rather than just talking shop. Those tangents are often related to music: like many graphic designers, Gasser’s practice isn’t just about…
As with pretty much everything else we used to experience IRL, the current work in progress show from the Royal College of Art in London was forced to move online as a digital platform for the first time. But rather than see that as a problematic measure, the students and…
Across his poster design visual identity work, publication design, exhibition graphics and a raft of custom type faces; Thomas Huot-Marchand’s work is characterised by a sense of timeless class. His work always looks contemporary, but the craft and nuance—his marriage of rigour and impact—make the world feel both fresh, and…
Like so many illustrators and designers, it was music that shunted art as a hobby into art as a career for Tom Kariv. However, unlike so many, he’s since worked with the likes of Major Lazer, Chronixx, Walshy Fire, Lil Dicky, Stones Throw Records, Raw Tapes Records and Guns n…
Paris-based artist Cyril Galmiche is in the midst of a pretty niche, yet beautifully expansive project: it aims to “push the circular shape to its ultimate limits.” Galmiche works across photography, film and other media, but the side of his practice devoted to drawing is dubbed I-I-I-I-I-I. The title is…
Originally hailing from the London suburbs, Joey Yu has long lived and illustrated by the mantra “it’s cool to work hard.” She’s said before that it’s a value that was instilled in her by her parents, and it’s paid off: Yu counts Nike, Hermes and Rimowa as clients, has had…
Photographer Thom Atkinson’s work is an original take on documentarian tradition: there’s a distinctive calmness to his observations, which focus on people, places and objects. He describes his images as having “a natural and honest quality, and a care for the craft of picture making.” Alongside working with clients including…
Like Mystic Meg with a Photoshop and an array of tote bags, we bring you five predictions for the design world and visual culture in 2021. Buying fonts ain’t like it used to be And that’s a good thing! We’re seeing a number of foundries and type studios cheating new…
I can’t pinpoint exactly what the first piece of work I saw by DR.ME was; but I can pinpoint how it made me feel: “whoever these dudes are, they GET IT.” That’s a rare, and pretty brilliant feeling. DR.ME started in 2010, and as I’ve followed what they’ve done over…
For all the current hellishness, 2021 has started off pretty nicely for Natasha Durley’s illustration career: her distinctive vibrant, often luminescent-seeming depictions of animals and nature are getting their dues with the publication of new Ladybird books bearing her work. Durley began work on the series in 2019, and went…
With the uncertainty, fear and occasionally terminal-seeming boredom of ongoing lockdowns seemingly not packing in any time soon, we could all do with a few things to look forward to. In lieu of things like physical contact with friends, family and pubs, we’ve put together a list of national days…
The bright colours, no-nonsense black outlines and playful but thoroughly flat style of Andrea Chronopoulos’ work make it both distinctive and part of a modern tradition in illustration that we see a fair bit, but which is deceptively tricky to get right. In the correct hands, however, that flattened look—all…
Egyptian-born designer Nour Shourbagy has been on our radar for a little while now, having come to our attention with a project that launched in December 2019. Shourbagy had worked with Nada Kassem to create a mini guidebook for the hijab shopping area Ain Shams in Cairo, aimed at making…
Emmi Salonen is a beacon of positivity in London’s design scene, and a formidable woman indeed: she’s single handedly helmed renowned eponymous agency Studio Emmi for the past 15 years, and in doing so has worked with clients including the BBC, Somerset House, the British Council, University College Hospital, Tate…