Divided in five sections — Theatre, Events, Social Issues, Self-promo, and Music, each set up with a hilarious intro (e.g., “Music: When we create music posters, we always familiarize ourselves with the bands we’re promoting. We listen to their music, look at their pictures, read bios and interviews, as well as check out their Web sites. Then, when it’s time to get busy, we crank up the Motörhead and design.”) — 20 Years showcases beautifully reproduced posters that (most) are accompanied by brief notes describing why things were done a certain way, or the hurdles that were experienced, or sharing stories related to the work… And while this could become painfully boring after, say, 27 posters, the tone of the writing is funny, honest, irreverent, deadpan, and engaging. Something that I found slightly annoying at the beginning but then came around to appreciate, was that each blurb is written from a different point of view: Sometimes it will be Robynne saying “Mike did this as…”, or Mike riffing on Robynne’s work, or it will then change to a collaborative “We did this…”, and sometimes it reads as a detached third-person critic. This gives the book a nice pacing and it’s also an interesting reflection of the dynamic that the duo shares in real-life, talking about each other, interrupting each other, and talking earnestly about their work.

Most, if not all, of the posters can be seen on Modern Dog’s web site so if you wanted to save $27.50 you could just browse their work there, but with 20 Years — aside from getting pictures bigger than an inch on screen — Modern Dog has taken advantage of having this monograph published to showcase sketches, photographs of the group as well as a few extended heartwarming (and heartbreaking) stories behind some of the posters. All this while retaining a wicked sense of humor across 160 pages: The cover states “Not canine-related,” the end papers show one-color illustrations of “Dogs we know” in the beginning and “Dogs we don’t know” in the end, there is a gratuitous picture of a deer in a meadow (p. 94), and the back cover is adorned by an endorsement from Dr. Figus Upshaw, an international book authority that proclaims the book to be of interest to anyone “[…] interested in posters or flyers. Or even anyone that uses paper. Including toilet paper.” Dr. Upshaw even has an “Interweb Home.” It’s very rewarding that this book is an extension of the personalities of Robynne and Mike, and does not rest solely on the work to carry the responsibility of making it an enjoyable monograph.

20 Years comes with a foreword by Steve Heller, and two interviews of Modern Dog by James Victore and Rick Valicenti. The introduction is exactly what you would expect from Steve (incisive, concise and informative); James’ interview is far from engaging and the questions, that feel hastily written, verge on beauty pageantry interrogation (e.g., “What do you want to be remembered for?”); while, on the other hand, Rick’s interview is the one that extracts most of the insights from the authors, through a critical, no bullshit, three-way conversation that serves as the most serious assessment of this body of work, which is typically just judged by how cool it looks — providing a satisfying read to the extensive visual content of the book.

The most impressive aspect of 20 Years, for me, is that it reaffirms what I have always admired most about Modern Dog: Their unabashed versatility and lack of concern for establishing a recognizable style that they could milk. Instead, they explore, push, try, fail, and do things their own dogged way. And, best of all, now I “get it.”

A / No. 63 / Joe Marianek / Fake Human Transformers and Real Human Transformers.

A / No. 61 / Joe Marianek / How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Pablo Ferro Font. [via Kottke]

A / No. 58 / Randy J. Hunt / Art > Advertising! If you agree, Eyebeam has a Firefox extention that'll replace ads with art.

A / No. 62 / Joe Marianek / Pixel graffitti IRL!

C / No. 31 / Diane Zerr / Who needs Photoshop when you can get the real thing? 1,000 water bottles on the Salt Flat

A / No. 57 / Randy J. Hunt / "Optima is one of the worst pre-computer typefaces ever designed," says Seymour Chwast. Steven Heller asks Chwast, Bierut, Lupton, Carter, Helfand and too many other typophiles to name about John McCain's Optima over at the Times.

C / No. 33 / Chad K / Just imagine the research that went into creating a name for this company. You have to give them credit for their straight-forwardness. Gotta figure out how to get one in my apartment for those hot summer days. (I think I saw them in the Ikea warehouse.

A / No. 59 / Randy J. Hunt / Hanzi Smatter documents the misuse of Chinese Characters. I'm especially fond of the tattoos. [thanks David Barringer]

A / No. 55 / Joe Marianek / Left Right Up Down Under Over Around In Between In Front Behind In Out And Back Again. Yale MFA Graphic Design 2008 Thesis Exhibition.

C / No. 35 / Colin / Part blatant self-promotion, part research: I'm Designer, You're Client.

C / No. 28 / Kenneth FitzGerald / "Corporate America's most-overlooked environmental crime, and how to stop it."

C / No. 30 / Niki / "This Ain't No Disco is a portfolio of some of the best agency interiors in the world."

C / No. 29 / Rob / Font Bots.

C / No. 32 / Kosal / Fan of type humor? Submit your own typographic jokes.

C / No. 38 / Bauldoff / Helvetica 2.0? Under contract by the Haas type foundry, Team'77 (consisting of André Gürtler, Erich Gschwind and Christian Mengelt) set out to "correct" common issues found in the grotesk typefaces at the time, including Helvetica. Their solution was Haas Unica. This is the 1980 promotional publication by Team'77, outlining the strategy and realization of Haas Unica.

A / No. 50 / Armin / Pretty great, constructive read: "Building Your Portfolio Website: Six Things to Never Do".

A / No. 43 / Armin / I can vouch that the new, 800-page Pentagram Black Book is as awesome as it sounds.

A / No. 46 / Armin / Typesites, "a weekly look at sites that have great typographic design".

A / No. 49 / Armin / What Threadless has done for t-shirts, Hat Head is poised to do for caps.

A / No. 51 / Armin / Commissioned by the city of Miami to paint a Martin Luther King Jr.-inspired mural, artist Serge Toussaint took the artistic liberty of adding Barack Obama next to him — denied, he had to paint over Obama with white primer. [Via Artkrush]

C / No. 19 / Chad K / Forget all those protective skins you can get for your apple stuff dress it up with some laser guided scratches.

C / No. 20 / Jhayne / If after mugs and eyeglasses, you still can't get enough: Pantone stairs.

A / No. 47 / Armin / A look at Matthew Carter's Yale typeface.

A / No. 45/ Armin / Zombie Jackson, Pac Washington, and Wolverine Washington are only a few of the characters you will find in this collection of defaced dollar bills. [Via BuzzFeed]

A / No. 28 / Armin / "The artist behind the iconic 'running immigrants' image". [Via Unbeige]

A / No. 42 / Armin / Send a portrait to Damien Weighill and he will draw a new version of it at Your Face. [Via It's Nice That]

C / No. 17 / Jhayne / The Rather Difficult Font Game. (via notcot)

A / No. 52 / Armin / The Dieline.com goes to Japan and brings back packaging!

C / No. 18 / Rob / This is sad, but the visual element is very stunning. Certainly is something to be said for making statistics into something more real. Time lapse animation of deaths in iraq.

A / No. 40 / Armin / The flip book animation to end all flip book animations, it even has slow motion. [Via Dark Roasted Blend]

Massin by Laetitia Wolff

Modern Dog: 20 Years of Poster Art by Modern Dog

Vignelli From A to Z by Massimo and Leila Vignelli

Left to Right: The Cultural Shift from Word to Image by David Crow

How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer by Debbie Millman

New Vintage Type: Classic Fonts for the Digital Age by Steven Heller and Gail Anderson

Hand Job: A Catalog of Type by Michael Perry

Graphic Design: A New History Stephen J. Eskilson

Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide by Johanna Drucker and Emily McVarish

AGI: Graphic Design Since 1950 by Ben and Elly Bos

Paul Rand: Conversations with Students by Michael Kroeger

Look at This: Contemporary Brochures, Catalogues & Documents by Adrian Shaughnessy

Logo by Michael Evamy

Type Addicted (The New Trend of a to Z Typo-Graphics) by Victionary

79 Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut

Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jill Butler

Soviet Posters: The Sergo Grigorian Collection by Maria Lafont

Ethan Bodnar, hello.

Armin Vit: "I asked myself whether I truly wanted to become a graphic designer, and the answer was yes." You posted this on your blog recently, it's very rare to find someone so young that is so determined to be a graphic designer, how did you first develop an interest in graphic design?

Ethan Bodnar: I found graphic design through the internet a couple years ago. I started reading blogs and looking at many online design portfolios. The inspiration that the graphic design world provided to me was amazing.

Then I actually started practicing design, creating posters and websites and more. It just felt good to make something and then be moving throughout my daily environment and see what I designed hanging on the wall.

To create is in my nature.

Desk and desktop.

AV: With such an early commitment and passion to graphic design, does it worry you that once in school or after graduation it may not be all you had hoped it would? Sorry, I don't mean to shatter your dreams!

EB: No not really. I have a pretty good idea of what the next four years in school are going to be like. Right now I am a self-taught designer and to be able to get in-depth and detailed education in graphic design for an extended period of time is very appealing.

As for after graduation, I look forward to being able to work in the industry and continue learning. My only concern is the constraints that working with clients have, but it would appear that by being talented you can still keep your creative freedom and choose what projects you want to work on. Right now I am confident that it will be all that I hope it will be.

Portfolio and academic application.

AV: Speaking of school, you were recently accepted to attend the School of Visual Arts in New York for undergraduate studies. What were some of your criteria when looking for a school to attend? What attracted you to SVA?

EB: Going to school for graphic design and art has a certain feeling about it. To know that I will be creating and learning at the same time is great. When looking for schools I kept in mind location, the amount of students, the faculty, the facilities, and the curriculum. The big question that I would always ask was whether it was a process (focuses on theory of design and how you go about design) or portfolio (focuses on having a book of work to get job placement) school. Process was the answer I was looking for, but still realizing that I need to have something to show for after my education to get a start in the working world.

I am still deciding where to attend next year. The School of Visual Arts was great because of its location in the city and because so many faculty are practicing designers. I was also accepted at Maine College of Art, Art Institute of Boston, Massachusetts College of Art, The Hartford Art School, Maryland Institute College of Art, Virginia Commonwealth University and several others.

AV: What do you think a design education must be for a student graduating in 2012?

EB: In a design education you must first have a solid grounding in process, understanding, and practice. But I think that we must take it further.

Students need to be educated in business so that they can work with clients and run their own design studios. We must be educated in the internet and shown what an amazing community of designers can do together. We must be educated in how to write about our own and others' design work.

I think project based learning is important. I think that we must first work on paper before the digital technology comes into play. I think that, in the end, the most important part is to love design.

Posters.

AV: Over the holidays you posted a photo of some design books you were ready to tackle... Including Debbie Millman's How to Think like a Great Graphic Designer, John Maeda's The Laws of Simplicity and, more recently, you acquired Paul Rand, Conversations with Students. That's not light reading. What do you look for in a design book? And how do you learn about new or existing titles?

EB: In a design book I look for content that motivates my mind to think about design. I look for inspiration and new information. There is something special about books. We get so used to working and consuming design on the screen that it's just good to feel the pages and flip through each spread. Someday I want to walk into the store and walk out with a huge stack of books and just go home and consume them. I also judge book by their covers, I have been told that it's a bad habit but what are us designers supposed to do.

Lastly, those books were really great and you should consider reading them if you haven't already. Debbie Millman has agreed to be in my book, John Maeda is now president at RISD, and I truly regret not ever meeting Paul Rand.

AV: One of the things that impressed me the most about your blog and your portfolio was how careful the typography was executed and treated, as if you had been doing this for quite a few years already. How did you learn to work with type?

EB: Thanks, well most of it comes from experimentation and figuring out what looked good. Then from there I started figuring out what was right and just not what looked good. I read Ellen Lupton's book, Thinking With Type which I refer back to when I am designing.

My design seems to be based very much on clean typography right now and I want to start working more illustrative elements into my work. I use Helvetica, Rockwell, and Georgia too much. Typefaces are very expensive these days. Though recently Adobe and AIGA teamed together to offer a great set of faces to students for a very reasonable price, this is a great move and one that I think was needed.

Typography is all around and by just observing you can learn a good amount. Just make sure you are observing well executed typography.

More posters.

AV: It must be too premature, but what kind of designer do you want to be? Is there a particular area in design you are gunning for? Like corporate identity, or packaging, or web design?

EB: Right now, I am not completely sure. Web design doesn't seem as exciting as it did a couple years ago. I never like how they call it corporate identity. Most people who need identities designed are not "corporate" businesses. They are organizations, small businesses, schools, local brands, and initiatives. I think that I would like to work with designing promotional materials and branding for events, designing type, environmental design, book design, and packaging.

AV: Are you looking to work on your own or be part of a collaborative design firm?

EB: Once I graduate I would like to work as part of a collaborative design firm and continue my education by learning from others that I would work with. I have heard that it is not the best idea to start off on your own right away because there is still much to be learned by working with an established design business.

However, eventually I would like to work on starting my own collaborative design firm.

I don't think I want to spend my whole life being your normal designer. I would like to take design thinking and apply it to other areas. I will use the power of creativity and design to have a positive impact on the world. Coming up with new ideas and new ways to solve issues and problems. It is my belief that creativity can solve anything.

One more poster.

AV: And, lastly, a more philosophical question. How do you perceive the influence of design around you, both as a young citizen and as a designer in the making?

EB: It is well known that design is all around us as we move through the everyday environments in which we work, play, and live.

However, I think that there is design behind the simplest interactions we have. Whether it be how the handle of you coffee mugs fits your hand, the paperclips on your desk, the piece of metal you hang your coat on, or the design of the chair you are sitting in as you read this. What message is portrayed through these everyday objects?

It is a sad realization when you figure out what you don't see. Slow down as you move busily through life, there is much you are missing. Take a moment and observe what your senses are taking in and process it a little bit longer. Observe the well designed. Take note of the poorly designed. Have a look at the beauty and aesthetics that may hide below the surface.

Be sure to stop and smell the design. Chances are you may just like what you smell, or in this case, what you see.

AV: Thanks for your time Ethan, and good luck.

A / No. 24 / Armin / Business card for a couples therapist. Clever.

A / No. 29 / Armin / Finally! A reason to link to The Sartorialist: Urban camouflage.

A / No. 31 / Armin / I love it when people spend too much time on silly matters: If Futurama were real. [Via Design You Trust]

A / No. 25 / Armin / Very impressive student work from London-based Rick Banks. [Via Evasee]

A / No. 26 / Armin / Great line of packaging for Lovejoy Vodka.

A / No. 32 / Armin / "This is what happens when u drink & drive" states a vertigo-inducing public service announcement from the Mumbai police department. No word on what happens when you look at the poster. [Via Nice Fucking Graphics]

A / No. 37 / Armin / What a great bottle design for Bulldog gin.

A / No. 21 / Armin / Not sure I would try it, but tossing your camera renders some nice pictures. [Via TolleBlog]

C / No. 13 / Mattus / There're cute alphabets and there're Neighborhood Alphabets.

A / No. 28 / Armin / "The artist behind the iconic 'running immigrants' image". [Via Unbeige]

C / No. 14 / Josh B / The very funny comedian Demetri Martin uses hand drawn infographics to tell his jokes. video here. And another video where uses illustrations to "enhance" his jokes here.

A / No. 30 / Randy J. Hunt / The thesis project of Syracuse senior Heidi Cies is a wonderful survey of social responsibility in design and marketing curricula: Creative for a Cause.

A / No. 38 / Armin / Classic Esquire cover gets the pop starlet treatment. Aside from some cleavage there is nothing worth celebrating here.

A / No. 18 / Armin / Hard to describe: Some sort of black hole/spiral made out of cell phones. [Via Dark Roasted Blend]

A / No. 33 / Armin / A gallery of adult posters from the 60s and 70s. While these may have been gloriously not safe for work back then, you should feel free to peruse them at work. Unless your employer checks your browsing history, in which case you'll be labeled as the office perv. [Via Coudal]

This biennial is the first from The Chicago International Poster Biennial Association (CIPBA), a new not-for-profit organization established to "promote visual literacy, multiculturalism, and international cooperation through the poster work of artists from around the world." The organization was initiated by Yann Legendre, a French designer working in Chicago and Lance Rutter, a graphic designer and former AIGA Chicago President. As far I am aware, I think this is the only international biennial in the U.S., at least in recent memory, making this a very important initiative that should help to broaden the scope of design that gets seen here, which can be painfully limited.

"We want posters to be seen as the quintessential public art form," says Rutter "because they engage citizens at street level, requiring an emotional
and intellectual response. They also stimulate dialogue and articulation of important issues — social, political, and economic. As a part of the larger design community, we also want to help the City of Chicago craft its international reputation as a proponent of international cooperation and as a strong civic advocate of design." CIPBA is trying to show the winners of the biennial at the Daley Bicentennial Plaza in the heart of the mesmerizing Millennium Park in Chicago — an effort that should enrich the visitors' experience and provide a sense of what graphic design can do. Hopefully this Chicago biennial will come to be seen as influential, relevant and important as others around the world.

Official poster for the biennial, designed by Yann Legendre.

Quips marked with * are April Fools, content may have changed.

A / No. 4 / Armin / Johnson Banks should really be ashamed of this blatant rip-off. And to think I gave them a glowing review on Brand New. *

A / No. 2 / Armin / Typophile redesigns to embrace great design.* [Via Veer]

A / No. 1 / Armin / Finally, a serif companion to Helvetica: Helvetica Serif. *

A / No. 7 / Armin / Not design related, but a great read about language, "Saying it wrong on purpose". Like the "internets" which I do use often.

A / No. 11 / Armin / In case you missed it: The fantastic new British coins designed by a 26-year-old designer.

A / No. 6 / Armin / Funniest alphabet so far, using mullets, balding spots, beards, mustaches and mutton chops. [Via Nice Fucking Graphics]

C / No. 6 / Mattus / You're right Armin, that is a funny alphabet. This one stinks.

A / No. 12 / Armin / Some nice work by Sydney-based Toko. [Via The Serif]

C / No. 7 / Chad K / Interesting point from insane people [via Design Observer]

A / No. 8 / Armin / Yum: Potential swashes for OCR-A in Hoefler & Frere-Jones' accidental Estupido Espezial. Read all the way through and you will be well regarded.

C / No. 2 / Dave / Win a Herbert Bayer Olivetti poster!

C / No. 4 / MLA / Fontstruct.

C / No. 5 / Angela / Can design save a city? Detroit finally has good news.

A / No. 10 / Joe Marianek / A great Zagat article on Louise Fili's design work for restaurants. [Via DesignObserver]

C / No. 1 / Doug Bartow / Helvetica-Black numerals swimming in water in perfect time, Dropclock.

Brainwashing, Peace, Social Security, Immigrant, Sudan, Privacy, Corporate Corruption, Dialogue, Censorship, Health Coverage, Income Gap, and Ecology are the twelve posters handsomely reproduced in Social Justice — and while we have all seen these before, it's quite amazing to see them take on new meanings by the simple act of relabeling them. The posters are accompanied by an introduction from writer Margaret Scarsdale, and in it she summarizes the effectiveness of Lukova's work which, in its sparcity makes it easy to forget how much can be read from a well conceived visual metaphor, "[The] visual metaphor is not only a symbol of hope, it is an inexorable and urgent call for action: In a world full of duplicitous metaphors, it is time to take a critical look at the true face of the policies and procedures that shape our lives."

Social Justice is a very satisfying collectible for any graphic designer. Individually or as a group, these posters are a reminder of how much can be achieved through such economic visual means. And, let's not be too un-superficial, they look great hanging on a wall. Perhaps the best part about the portfolio is the inside back and front covers and the wrapping paper that the posters come in, which are awash in Lukova's sketches, giving us an insight of where the final images came from. Even more now than ten years ago, I remain an admirer.

Cover of Design Dictionary.

Detail of the little birdie, a device for BIRD, the Board of International Research in Design.

Metallic arrows give the spare cover a lovely texture.

Design Dictionary , as its name implies and as its subtitle, Perspectives on Design Terminology, elaborates is a comprehensive tome of more than 250 definitions extracted from the world of design, each written by one of the 110 contributors from around the globe. A truly impressive and unenviable effort, with a result that is nothing short of astounding. Design Dictionary is relentless, covering extremely specific terms like Flyer — “Leaflets that advertise mainly local services and upcoming events. […]” — to inexorably broad subjects like Design Process — “[Designers] are trained to conceptualize the process of design as a series of activities that unfold over time, and to view the completion of each activity as a step toward some predefined goal. […]” which, in contrast to the way brand consultancies explain their design process, is a sobering antacid. I could endlessly keep giving you examples, as Design Dictionary is surprisingly thorough in its inclusion, despite its editors fears: “We gave serious thought to the linguistic categories and terminology that underpin design discourse today. That said, it became clear while working on the book that we had omitted a number of valuable terms. This fact will undoubtedly be the subject of critique by reviewers and readers alike, and we expect that the project will provoke as many questions as it will answers.”

To add a layer of complexity to an already risky book, the editors — Michael Erlhoff, a professor at the Köln International School of Design in Germany, and Tim Marshall, dean at Parsons The New School for Design in New York — published Design Dictionary in both English and German. Without the ability to simply translate most terms, they were cautious to make sure that the linguistic choices of the entries were culturally relevant to each audience and adapt to colloquialisms that would be global enough not to discourage anyone from finding this book useful.

Sample spread and details from the inside, set in Akkurat and Arnhem, establishing a very pleasant design given the book's unrepentant sameness.

I guess I must disclaim that I have not read this book cover to cover. I dare anyone to do so in a single swoop and remain a happy person. So I won’t be able to vouch for the entire book, much less for any specific wrongdoings — I will leave that to more heady critics. Nonetheless, even though I had plenty of work to do that afternoon, I could not put the book down, and in the days since receiving that mysterious box I have kept the Design Dictionary on my side table and pick it up anytime I have a lull between exporting InDesign files to PDFs or while talking to someone at customer service of whatever service has most recently stopped servicing, and I leaf randomly to see what term catches my attention. I’m not sure what use I find in this book, but I am continually intrigued by how each entry is defined — each a small battle to wage against an otherwise loosely defined profession that lacks any authoritative definitions on anything. For students and teachers this must be an invaluable book as it serves as one of the most concisely broad documents that explains the wording we communicate with every single day, and it is perhaps the best complement — if not vice versa — to the visual reference books graphic designers turn to continually.

So, whoever sent me this book: Thank you.