Design Observer

Last updated
Design Observer
Available inEnglish
OwnerObserver Omnimedia
Created by Rick Poynor, Michael Bierut, Jessica Helfand and William Drenttel
Editor William Drenttel
URL designobserver.com
CommercialYes
LaunchedOctober 2003;20 years ago (2003-10)

Design Observer is a website devoted to a range of design topics including graphic design, social innovation, urbanism, popular culture, and criticism. [1] The content of the site includes essays, articles, reviews, blog posts, and peer reviewed scholarship. It is the host of the architecture and urban design publication Places (formerly a print academic journal) and the podcast Design Matters with Debbie Millman. [2]

Four prominent design writers founded the site in October 2003: [3] Rick Poynor was the founder and first editor of London-based Eye magazine, in addition to being author of many books; Michael Bierut [4] is a partner in the New York office of Pentagram and is a design critic at Yale School of Art; Jessica Helfand is also a critic at Yale and is author of numerous books; the late William Drenttel (1953 - 2013) was a designer, critic and partner with Jessica Helfand of Winterhouse Studios in Connecticut. [5]

Frequent contributors over the years have included; Steven Heller, John Foster, Adrian Shaughnessy, Dmitri Siegel, Alice Twemlow, Tom Vanderbilt, Lorraine Wild, Rob Walker, Alexandra Lange, Mark Lamster, John Thackara, Véronique Vienne, Julie Lasky and more. [6]

In 2016, Design Observer and AIGA joined forces to work in collaboration as a larger online platform for design. [6]

Related Research Articles

Zuzana Licko is a Slovak-born American type designer and visual artist known for co-founding Emigre Fonts, a digital type foundry in Berkeley, CA. She has designed and produced numerous digital typefaces including the popular Mrs Eaves, Modula, Filosofia, and Matrix. As a corresponding interest she also creates ceramic sculptures, textile prints and jacquard weavings.

Rudy VanderLans is a Dutch graphic designer, photographer, and the co-founder of Emigre Fonts with his wife Zuzana Licko. Emigre Fonts is an independent type foundry in Berkeley, CA. He was also the art director and editor of Emigre magazine, the legendary journal devoted to visual communications from 1984 to 2005. Since arriving in California in 1981, he has been photographing his adoptive Golden State as an ongoing side project. He has authored a total of 11 photo books on the topic, and staged two solo exhibits at Gallery 16 in San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Institute of Graphic Arts</span> Professional organization for design

The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a professional organization for design. Its members practice all forms of communication design, including graphic design, typography, interaction design, user experience, branding and identity. The organization's aim is to be the standard bearer for professional ethics and practices for the design profession. There are currently over 25,000 members and 72 chapters, and more than 200 student groups around the United States. In 2005, AIGA changed its name to “AIGA, the professional association for design,” dropping the "American Institute of Graphic Arts" to welcome all design disciplines. AIGA aims to further design disciplines as professions, as well as cultural assets. As a whole, AIGA offers opportunities in exchange for creative new ideas, scholarly research, critical analysis, and education advancement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Bierut</span> American graphic designer

Michael Bierut is a graphic designer, design critic and educator, who has been a partner at design firm Pentagram since 1990. He designed the logo for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Heller (design writer)</span> American art historian

Steven Heller is an American art director, journalist, critic, author, and editor who specializes in topics related to graphic design.

Rick Poynor is an English writer on design, graphic design, typography, and visual culture.

J. Abbott Miller or Abbott Miller is an American graphic designer and writer, and a partner at Pentagram, which he joined in 1999.

Jessica Helfand is a designer, author, and educator. She is a former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, and founding editor of the website Design Observer. She is Senior Critic at Yale School of Art since 1994, a lecturer in Yale College, and Artist-in-Residence at Yale’s Institute for Network Science. Named the first Henry Wolf Resident in design at the American Academy in Rome in 2010, she is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

William Drenttel was a designer, author, publisher, social entrepreneur and foundation executive. In 2012, he was the president of Winterhouse Institute, vice president of communications and design for Teach For All, co-director of the Transform Symposium at the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation, and the recipient of Rockefeller Foundation support to develop models for design and social change. He was president emeritus of AIGA, a fellow of NYU Institute of the Humanities, a senior faculty fellow and social enterprise fellow at Yale School of Management, and the publisher and editorial director of Design Observer, a website covering design, social innovation, urbanism and visual culture. In 2010, Drenttel was elected to the Art Directors Hall of Fame and the Alliance Graphique Internationale, and was the first Henry Wolf Resident in Graphic Design at the American Academy in Rome. He lectured widely in the U.S. and abroad.

Lorraine Wild is a Canadian-born American graphic designer, writer, art historian, and teacher. She is an AIGA Medalist and principal of Green Dragon Office, a design firm that focuses on collaborative work with artists, architects, curators, editors and publishers. Wild is based in Los Angeles, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Twemlow</span> Graphic designer

Alice Twemlow is a writer, critic and educator from the United Kingdom whose work focuses on graphic design. She has been a guest critic at the Yale University School of Art, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). In 2006, the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York named Twemlow the chair and co-founder of its Master of Fine Arts in Design Criticism (D-Crit). According to her SVA biography: "Alice Twemlow writes for Eye, Design Issues, I.D., Print, New York magazine and The Architect’s Newspaper." Twemlow is also a contributor to the online publication Voice: AIGA Journal of Design. In 2012 Core77 selected her as a jury captain for the “Design Writing and Commentary” category of the Core77 Design Awards. Twemlow was head of the MA in Design Curating & Writing at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2017-2018, and is now Lector Design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KABK) in The Hague, and Associate Professor at Leiden University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debbie Millman</span> American writer, educator, artist and designer

Debbie Millman is an American writer, educator, artist, curator, and designer who is best known as the host of the podcast Design Matters. She has authored six books and is the President Emeritus of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and chair, one of only five women to hold the position over 100 years. She co-founded the Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City with Steven Heller. She was previously the editorial and creative director of Print magazine. Her illustrations have appeared in many major publications, including New York Magazine, Design Observer, and Fast Company and her artwork has been included in many museums and institutes including the Design Museum of Chicago and the Boston Biennale.

Alvin Lustig was an American book designer, graphic designer and typeface designer. Lustig has been honored by the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame for his significant contributions to American design.

John Gall, is an American graphic designer known primarily for the design of book covers.

Carbone Smolan Agency is an independent branding agency founded in 1976 in New York City.

Michael Gericke is an American graphic designer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John T. Hill</span>

John T. Hill is an American artist. His work focuses mainly on design and photography.

<i>Design Matters</i> Interview podcast

Design Matters is a podcast founded and hosted by American writer, educator, artist, and designer Debbie Millman. Founded in 2005, Design Matters is considered "the first and longest running podcast about design". It is now hosted on Design Observer, which is published in partnership with AIGA. Debbie Millman has interviewed over 250 guests including Amanda Palmer, Chris Ware, Malcolm Gladwell, Massimo Vignelli, Steven Heller, Marian Bantjes, Tina Roth Eisenberg, Alain de Botton, Alison Bechdel, and Stefan Sagmeister.

Brett Yasko is an American graphic designer. He has designed books, gallery guides, catalogues and exhibitions for numerous artists and institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvia Harris</span> African-American graphic designer (1953–2011)

Sylvia Harris was an African-American graphic designer and design strategist. She has been considered a pioneer in the field of social impact design.

References

  1. Muston, Samuel (5 July 2012). "The 10 Best architecture blogs". The Independent. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  2. "Design Matters Wins the 2011 People's Design Award". Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. 21 October 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  3. Shaughnessy, Adrian (1 September 2005). "PRIVATE VIEW: Time we blogged-on.(web logs on web design)". Design Week. Archived from the original on 11 June 2014. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  4. Evans, Lisa (20 October 2011). "TYPO London conference livestream". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  5. "Blogs: Graphic Design". Creative Review. 6 March 2006. Archived from the original on 11 June 2014. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  6. 1 2 "AIGA and Design Observer to join forces, setting a milestone in online design publishing". AIGA. 2016-10-07. Retrieved 2017-07-05.