The historical context that influenced the United Kingdom’s beautifully eccentric road signs — It is near impossible to drive in the United Kingdom and not encounter Margaret Calvert’s work. The signage is neat and spartan but extremely beautiful. The signs blend into the background of the city and the country, and one almost fails to notice that they are there until you need…

An inspiring chapter that shows human ingenuity can triumph over addiction and adverse circumstances — [Spoilers Alert!] The “Pickle Rick” episode (Season 3, Episode 3) represents a high-water mark for the animated series, Rick and Morty. The early period of the show gave us wonderful characters like the Mr. Meeseeks. This delightful inventiveness, unfortunately, has been replaced by a “Mr. Poopy-Butthole” aesthetic (the name itself…

The flame of India’s typographic vernacular preserved in a mosiac of product design — An object of graphic design that I have begun to venerate above all is the humble Indian matchbox. These tiny patches of paper that vary and recombine colour, text, and image in mind-bogglingly random iterations are wound into the visual landscape of the Indian street and home. As Matt Lee…

The Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons graphic novel is tricky to comprehend but a treat to read — “Old Ghosts” makes the eighth chapter out of the twelve-part Watchmen series. It was released on April, 1987. Watchmen these days, however, is read as a collected edition. Some may think that it is a movie (if you Google “Watchmen Halloween” you get pages after pages of costumes from the…

Overcoming the limitations of a Latin-centric template of communication for the whole of humanity — The description on Wikipedia of a “dumpling” begins: “Dumpling is a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of cooked dough (made from a variety of starchy sources), often wrapped around a filling.” Dumpling - Wikipedia Dumpling is a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of cooked dough (made from a variety of starchy sources)…en.wikipedia.org

Beautiful art design, stellar supporting acts, and a strong concept mitigates the gerontocracy factor — My name is Doz and I am a short course addict. When the MasterClass platform first launched, I dived in and bought courses by author James Patterson, the DJ “Deadmau5”, and astronaut Chris Hadfield. I also bought a course by Steve Martin. I should mention that I’ve never read a…

Staying steadfast in the face of change — “What’s in a name?” Juliet asks in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Tell that to the artist who was formerly known as Prince. I do not refer to the monarch of the United Kingdom, King Charles III…

On the texture of Satyajit Ray’s graphic design — Pinaki De, a graphic designer and expert on Satyajit Ray, writes of the artist’s career as a commercial illustrator (which includes thousands of sketches, logos, posters, magazine art, film credits, costume sketches and such works): “Ray’s contribution to graphic design has always eluded proper critical attention outside Bengal, probably eclipsed…

Or: an appreciation of Genndy Tartakovsky’s sumptuous modern art masterclass, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003). — The impetus to research and write this story started with stumbling upon Genndy Tartakovksy’s Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) hidden deep inside Disney+ and wondering what made the show so gobsmackingly brilliant. Television cartoons are generally not considered Art with a capital ‘A’. However, it is my contention that Genndy…