Inhouse - 05/05
I have always had a sensitivity to the challenges confronting inhouse design, in part because of my own past as an inhouse lawyer at NBC. There, I had experienced the highs of working closely with...
View ArticleCelebrating Inhouse - 06/05
This month’s edition has evolved into an exploration and a celebration of inhouse designers. It is a long overdue focus on a vital and complex segment of our community that deserves more recognition...
View ArticleFalling In Love, Again - 07/05
In the course of preparing a story about the Design Guys that you will find inside, creative director Steve Sikora inadvertently set just the right tone for our 42nd annual special report on print...
View ArticleGetting Off the Ropes - 09/05
I have been wracking my brain to find a suitable boxing-movie analogy for the beaten-up printing industry and print media in general. The Quiet Man? Rocky V? The Harder They Fall? Cinderella Man? None...
View ArticleWithout a History, One Has No Future - 10/05
I’ve had the pleasure of previewing a new book by Robin Landa, entitled Designing Brand Experiences (Thomson Delmar Learning), which also features a forward by Steve Liska. I was particularly drawn to...
View ArticleValue - 11/05
I read with great interest, and not a little frustration, a fascinating new study by the TrendWatch Graphic Arts (www.trendwatchgraphicarts.com) survey group, which indicates that firms specializing in...
View ArticleThe Design of History - 01/06
When Hugh Hefner launched Playboy Magazine, the inaugural issue had no date on the cover and no volume or issue number. Like a true publisher, he was not sure if or when there would be a second issue....
View ArticleAs Good as Your Tools - 02/06
Have you ever re-read something you once wrote and cringed? Happens to me all the time. My spirited defense in this column of turning French Fries to Freedom Fries jumps immediately to mind. At the...
View ArticleMany Stars - 03/06
Reaction to our 500th issue reader poll (January 2006 “500 and Counting”) continues to roll in, and I am pleased as punch by the tone of the response. Our purpose in running the story was simple — to...
View ArticleColor and Causality - 05/06
I used to feel uneasy about color forecasts. Some people are discomfited by crowded elevators or long airplane trips or mayonnaise on white bread or mimes on street corners or illegal immigrants or...
View ArticleAs Time Goes By - 04/06
A recent Zogby poll asked the general public to rank modern U.S. presidents. John F. Kennedy topped the list, for the first time besting Franklin D. Roosevelt. This outcome seems inexplicable, even...
View ArticleObsessive Measurement Disorder - 06/06
This is not going to be one of those articles where a middle-aged publisher rants about the good old days, and excoriates the rise of email and the internet. The changes wrought by the digital...
View ArticleThe Creative Within - 07/06
Welcome to the 2006 American Inhouse Design Awards Annual. Chosen from more than 4,000 entries, the winning pieces showcase graphic design for commerce and culture at its best by professionals who ably...
View ArticleA Few Random Thoughts - 09/06
Less Is MoreThe effort to bring you GDUSA never ends, and while grinding away late on Sunday afternoons in a lonely office building on lower Madison Avenue, I seek company and diversion in the Dave...
View ArticleDesignism - 10/06
For anyone looking for greater purpose in their work and lives (and who isn’t in these tumultuous times?), a recent evening event at the Art Directors Club here in New York was worth attending. The ADC...
View ArticleBigger Than Us - 1/07
This special January issue has two themes of special interest to graphic design professionals. One is people. That is manifest in our “People To Watch” feature, our four-decade tradition of...
View ArticleOverextended - 02/07
I am a brand identity firm groupie. I admit it. Ever since I met the folks at Landor Associates, Anspach Grossman Portugal and Lippincott & Margulies while cutting my teeth as a Graphic Design USA...
View ArticleIncreasingly A Blur - 02/07
Each February we spotlight the few companies and vendors that are truly graphic designer-friendly. Here is why... “Man is a tool-using animal,” wrote the essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle. “Nowhere...
View ArticleGraphic Design Brand Revitalizations - 03/07
“God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion.” Thomas Jefferson uttered this famous phrase about Shay’s Rebellion, an uprising against the U.S. government led by disillusioned...
View ArticleGraphic Design Interns From Heaven (and Hell) - 03/07
To every thing there is a season, and now is the time to start thinking about summer interns. If you are like us, you have hosted the intern from hell at one time or another: the lazy, the loud, the...
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