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Eye Magazine, London (2025)

18/06/2025

On the Eye blog: read John Warwicker’s review of ‘Out of line’, a poetic exhibition in Melbourne by designer Catherine Griffiths.

1 and 5. Out of Line, University of Melbourne. Installation photos by Tobias Titz with Griffith’s work 7/7, 14 views on the back wall.
2. Catalogue.
3 and 4. Light Weight O, Auckland. Photos by David Straight.
5. Wellington Writers’ Walk. Photo by Bruce Connew.
7. A whakapapa, two lines of women. Photo: Ingrid Rhule.

17/06/2025

Lost in the wash

Patrick Baglee reviews Nick Asbury’s book The Road to Hell on the Eye blog.

This thorough and entertainingly written book questions whether ‘purpose’ still works as a branding strategy, writes Patrick Baglee. The author of The Road to Hell, writer and branding strategist Nick Asbury, defines the term as follows: ‘Broadly, it’s the idea that businesses should define themselves around a wider societal purpose that goes beyond simply doing what they do in order to make a profit, pay their people and pay their taxes. It’s the claim that businesses should set their sights on something broader and more socially positive than that.’ The book comes at a turning point in the role that ‘purpose’ has played in branding, marketing, advertising and corporate ‘washing’.

Book cover design by David Pearson.

22/05/2025

Serendipity and self-discovery

A new book covers Briar Levit’s multi-faceted practice and the lessons she learned along the way.
Reviewed by Amy Henry

Briar Levit: On design, feminism, and friendship
By Briar Levit and Nina Paim. Book design: Tereza Bettinardi. Co-published by Bikini Books and Clube do Livro do Design.

This striking pocket-sized book opens with American graphic designer and educator Briar Levit’s experience during her attendance at the 2017 Women’s March in Washington D.C. The march drew more than 500,000 people, part of a worldwide protest prompted by the misogynistic policy positions and rhetoric of newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump.

The introduction is a timely reminder of the current déjà vu situation in 2025, and a focus on a feminist and activist practice is a common thread throughout the book, with Brazilian designer, curator and editor, Nina Paim (see ‘Designers are only human’), who facilitates an intimate conversation with Levit about the roots of her feminist practice and her thoughts on the relationship between design and feminism …

Read the full text of Amy Henry’s review on the Eye blog.

19/05/2025

Supergraphics in Newhaven

Seventeen specially commissioned supergraphics breathe new life into the port town of Newhaven for the Look Again festival. By Amy Henry

Lying at the mouth of the River Ouse, the Sussex port town of Newhaven recently received a bright splash of paint and colour with the addition of seventeen specially commissioned murals in different areas of the town.

Creative contributions were made by notable graphic artists, illustrators and street artists, including Anthony Burrill (see ‘Act local, think stencil’), Annie Frost Nicholson, Amber Elise, Supermundane (see ‘Untitled tiles’), Eelus and See Creatures. More than 70 per cent of the artists hail from Sussex.

These so-called supergraphics were inspired by Newhaven’s landscape, history and community. The concept of supergraphics was originally explored by American designer and architect Barbara Stauffacher Solomon (1928-2024) in the 1960s when she mixed large-scale abstractions with hard edge Swiss graphics. You can see more examples of supergraphics (for the Tyne and Wear Metro) in the Reputations interview with Margaret Calvert.

Incorporated into the communities ‘Look Again’ festival, the two-month long events were all about spreading joy and inspiration. Another aim of the festival was to make art accessible for everyone within Newhaven, with more than 3000 local people involved.

Amy Henry, designer, writer, educator, London

1. Dave Bain.
2. Paul Farrell mural installed by Many Hands Studio. Photo by Joshua Redfern.
3. Rob Lowe.
4. Lee Eelus.
5. Bec Dennison aka Bullet on a String. Photo by Johnnie Bassett.
6. Anthony Burrill, installed by Many Hands Studio.
7. Cosmic Vision mural by Amber Elise with a poster by Annie Frost Nicholson: Dance! Here.
8. Survival Techniques.

17/05/2025

Two more recent Eye blog posts.

‘Shifts and glyphs in Istanbul’ by Gülizar Çepoğlu
At ‘Critical Shifts’, a group exhibition in Istanbul, Türkiye, Gülizar Çepoğlu unfolds the materiality of writing. Three-dimensional letterforms blur the boundaries between text, image, architecture and sculpture …

‘Relationships on show’
Jane Connory, F***y Suhendra and Claire Fisher collaborate to flip the script on graphic design exhibitions and visually narrate the history of relationship agencies in Australia.
An installation in the National Gallery of Australia used design ephemera to explore 75 years of Relationships Australia …

13/05/2025

Sparking fear

Christopher Brawn reviews Joy and Fear: An Illustrated Report on Modernity by Theo Deutinger (Lars Müller Publishers)

Just over 80 years ago, on the eve of the Second World War, Modern Man In The Making (1939) by Otto Neurath was published by Alfred Knopf. It was a pioneering, utopian book using a graphic language known as Isotype (International System of Typographic Picture Education) that covered subjects such as globalisation, emigration and the relationship between war and economy. Isotype’s objective was to transform often complex information into easily understood charts through the use of basic pictograms. The pictograms represented things like people, cars, telephones, bombs or energy, which could then be quantified and compared. Neurath intended to spread information with visual clarity and enable dialogue to initiate social change. Modernist in tone and structure, Modern Man In The Making is factual and above all international.
Embraced and expanded today by individuals such as David McCandless and Edward R. Tufte, Isotype’s graphic language is recognisable to designers, but is the Modernist utopian concept of Modern Man In The Making? We remember the medium but forget the message. What would an up-to-date version look like? The answer is Theo Deutinger’s Joy and Fear, complete with a reflective cover that holds a mirror to the reader …

Read the full review on the Eye blog

Above: cover and spreads from Joy and Fear.
Design: Theo Deutinger in collaboration with Integral Lars Müller and Esther Butterworth.

09/05/2025

Pure design play

Two of Ken Garland’s games for Galt Toys are back in circulation. By Andrew Howard

Think of Ken Garland (1929-2021) and it is likely that the 1964 ‘First Things Manifesto’ comes to mind, writes Andrew Howard. Although the Manifesto was certainly the expression of a lifelong commitment, it was nevertheless just one moment in his long career as a professional graphic designer (see ‘Last things last’ in Eye 83). Within his varied practice, Garland’s work for British toy manufacturer Galt Toys stands out.

Garland started working for Galt in 1961, and in addition to designing all the company’s promotional materials, he later conceived and designed toys and games for them. Two of his late 1960s games, Connect and Anymals, were especially successful but have been unavailable for years.

Read the full story on the Eye blog …

design

09/05/2025

Some recent (ish) Eye blog posts.
1 & 2. ‘Dress to express’ by Janet South.
3-6. Books received #60.
7-11. Books received #59.

11/04/2025

, the latest issue of Eye magazine features: Reputations with Margaret Calvert; ‘Learning from Coney Island: Michael Doret and American lettering’ by Norman Hathaway; ‘Ultra process’ by John L. Walters, who asks designers and image-makers how (and why) they use visual AI; ‘Baked in’, J. P. Hartnett’s essay about the ethical and environmental problems we face as ‘AI’ invades graphic designers’ workspaces; ‘Where the wild type is’, a profile of R&B / hip-hop designer Amaya Segura by Eye’s own Holly Catford.
Plus six type reviews; fifteen reviews; a piece on Leap Before You Look, the book about Michael Wolff; some beautiful type advertisements; and Rick Poynor’s Critique, about Encyclopedia of the Uncertain by Anna Püschel, designed by Carel Fransen and published by The Eriskay Connection, 2024.

Printed at Pureprint in Uckfield under the supervision of art director / co-owner Simon Esterson.

2. Cover. Detail of an avatar of Field’s Jann Choy, 2024, made with a mix of Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, see ‘Ultra process’, pp.52-69. ‘Children crossing’ sign, 1965, see Reputations: Margaret Calvert, pp.16-37.

3. Back cover. Nathan’s (ca. 1960), the Brooklyn food mecca that captivated Michael Doret, see ‘Learning from Coney Island’ pp.38-51.

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