Maybe it’s the irony of such exquisite symmetry symbolizing abject destruction; or the gleaming sharpness of white in the aftermath of blood-red splatter; maybe it’s the haunting uniformity clarifying the staggering numbers; or breathtaking simplicity as stand-in for incomparable complexity; but military cemeteries, like the Normandy American Cemetery–with its endless, aching rows of erect crosses–are singularly enduring testaments to the visual power of combat’s monumental price–and the breadth of its collective loss.
When black-and-white is this dramatic, who needs color? Absolutely gorgeous corporate identity work from the Australian design studio South South West.
If all newspapers looked like this, they’d never need to worry about digital competition. As part of a rebranding effort for the Swiss city of Tramelan, the Berlin-based design cooperative, Onlab, designed and distributed a free newspaper, meant to communicate the city’s visual identity to its citizens. Tramelan must be one gorgeous city.
There’s great graphic design, and then there’s the jaw-dropping variety. Swiss designer Thiebaud Tissot’s CD package design for the singer David Callahan Robert, belongs in the latter category. This is the look of design at its most sublime.
With packing tape this cool, no one will care what’s actually in the box. Nine designers dispense useful advise that’s sure to..er..stick. Order a roll from Blanka.
The British letterpress printer Desmond Jeffrey, who hand-set his work in metal type, didn’t like to be called a designer. But this beautifully realized catalog cover from 1959 would be the envy of any designer. Eye Magazinehas a nice piece on the non-designer whose print work is currently on view in the St. Bride Library in London.
The incomparably great architectural photographer, Julius Shulman, is the subject of the documentary, Visual Acoustics. You may not know him, but you know his photos. I, for one, can trace my knowledge of Modernism less to the Modernist architects who defined the movement, than to the photos of their buildings taken by Schulman–and to the power of those images to redefine the way I came to look at the built world.
