GLOBAL GRAPHICA

Early rock music journalism and writing was unsparing, fun, raw, crude, effusive, deep, indulgent, and complicit in the style and sub-cultural codes of genre. And it had a voice and a look in the form of Creem magazine. It’s covers vividly capturing the genre’s visual style and influencing the tenorContinue Reading

This is a super awesome video for fans of Wes Andersen and cineastes. It’s an exploration of Andersen’s storyboards for the film “Grand Budapest Hotel.” Chef’s kiss!

It’s now August 2020, which is when, had the global COVID-19 pandemic not upturned life as we knew it, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics would have been happening. it would be more than halfway through its run. Instead, the Tokyo games will be held in 2021. The even will still officiallyContinue Reading

Pioneering Japanese designer and visionary of sartorial style, Kansai Yamamoto has passed away. He may not have been a household name but he had a massive, fashion-forward influence on style, especially in setting a higher bar of how pop music and fashion could come together for theatrical rock stars. HisContinue Reading

“And if you do, never stop” These were the searing copy lines from an iconic advertising campaign in the 1980s by the highly-influential Gotcha! surf brand. The company was started by Michael Tomson, a former South African pro surfer whose celebrity in the surfing world was due almost as muchContinue Reading

Yes, it’s true, folks! An illegal wheat-paste street artwork on a utility box in Venice Beach, Los Angeles has been defaced by a big black blotch of spray paint, ruining an artist’s creation. As Yoda might say: Shocked, we are. Though, really, we shouldn’t be and really we’re more aContinue Reading

. . . Breaking news out of the U.K., where Banksy has unveiled a new coronavirus-inspired series of artworks and tags on the London Underground (or subway). The artist has used his recurring stencil images of rats in the series of small-scale works. More details as these emerge. . .Continue Reading

We made a stop at Sur Coffee over the past weekend. It’s a cafe with a roastery in San Clemente, the small, beautiful beach city built on the rolling slopes of a mountain that descends down to a scenic stretch of southern California beach. We were passing through town onContinue Reading

As life in the time of coronavirus continues, the importance of wearing masks as a protective measure is increasingly becoming understood and a normal part of our lives, But there’s no getting around the fact that wearing masks for long periods of time is annoying and uncomfortable. It’s easy toContinue Reading

. . . Well, this is brilliant, mesmerizing, exciting, destructive, beautiful and the highlight of our day. Yes, it’s a slow-motion video of dinnerware getting smashed to the accompaniment of Bach’s famous “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.” The video was produced by the gang over at Optical Arts inContinue Reading

It’s 4th of July and in the United States this date is America’s Independence Day holiday. It marks the nation’s birth after rebellion and separation from the British Empire. Although we’ve lived in several countries outside the U.S., including the U.K., Japan, Papua New Guinea, Australia, and Colombia, and haveContinue Reading

We stumbled upon this small, handwritten cardboard “Black Lives Matter!!” sign placed on the driver’s side dashboard of an old Volvo sedan parked on our block. What’s striking is how small the sign is and that its placement on the dash. It’s as if the intended audience would be peopleContinue Reading

Rest in peace, Milton Glaser. You did many things. Your creative achievements were many and influential. You created an enduring, brilliant, and beloved logo for New York that is a graphic design classic and timeless. “I Love NY.” You co-founded the great New York Magazine. You created that iconic posterContinue Reading

This scaly wall is the exterior facade of a building in London. For a while it may have been the most Instagrammed wall in the world, or at least in London. But the building no longer exists. It was called the Yardhouse and was created by a U.K. architectural groupContinue Reading

Amidst the recent protests and Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S. following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, luxury brands whose storefronts in New York City’s SoHo have been boarded up to prevent looting, have hired artists to paint protest art on the boards. An OpinionContinue Reading

This new U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) coronavirus poster uses a cute illustration style to graphically communicate its two main instructions for individuals to prevent spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. We saw these posters today in a private park at the head of a series of hikingContinue Reading

The Economist is a publication famously restrained with the design aesthetic of its magazine. When it alters or re-designs the mag (what they still refer to as “a newspaper”), the changes are subtle and might not even be noticed by readers at first-glance. Flashy, the Economist is not. The aestheticContinue Reading

We spotted this “Black Lives Matter” sign on the back of a van along Sunset Blvd. in Brentwood, a leafy neighborhood on the west side of Los Angeles. Like many protest signs, this is a D.I.Y. sign, but it is novel and ingenious in a couple ways. First, the lettersContinue Reading

The book cover for our sixth post as part of 7-Day Book Covers Challenge is “Yes Yes Y’all: An Oral History of Hip Hop’s First Decade” by Jim Fricke and Charlie Ahearn The cover design and photo of “Yes Yes Y’all” captures the DIY ingenuity and vibe of early turntablistContinue Reading