Underground Newspapers: The Chicago Seed. Part 1 (1967-69)

The Chicago Seed was an underground newspaper that published from 1967-74. For most of its existence The Seed was published bi-weekly. Visually, The Seed was one of the most consistently powerful and sophisticated of the underground papers, due in large part to the work of longtime art director Lester Dore. The first couple years of the […]

Black History Newspaper: The Black Panther

The Black Panther was a weekly newspaper published by the Black Panther Party from 1967-80. Art directed by Revolutionary Artist and Minister of Culture Emory Douglas, The Black Panther covers were a combination of Douglas’s own powerful illustration, collage, high-contrast photographs, and poster-like graphics. Bold and provocative, each cover was an incendiary call to action […]

Eric Skillman’s 10 Favorite Criterion DVD Covers

Eric Skillman is the art director for the Criterion Collection, the beautifully-designed ongoing series of movie DVD reissues. He’s been at Criterion for 14 years, creating a remarkable body of work that includes smart, cool graphic design and numerous examples of top-notch art directed illustration. Skillman is a talented book and poster designer, and wrote […]

Art Chantry Speaks: Required Reading for Visual Creatives

“Some graphic designers aren’t even graphic designers. They are SALESMEN who hire designers to create what they sell.” That’s just one of the many right on comments by Art Chantry in his essential new book, Art Chantry Speaks: A Heretic’s History of 20th Century Graphic Design. It’s a brilliant collection of short essays originally published […]

Seven Designers to Worship

The Content Desk website highlights seven art directors in its recent Seven Designers to Worship feature, including Robert Newman. “Content is all about producing the things that people like or find useful. This is impossible without good design to set the work off.” In addition to Robert Newman, the list includes Matt Wiley of Conde […]