Desktop #293
Cover: Racket

This issue investigates of some of the different relationships between design and spaces - an investigation that travels from bush to the beach, and from city to country. It's a big, broad theme, but one that is not often explored in the context of graphic design.

"Our cities are — for the most part — heavily pre-moderated. They are designed primarily to prevent the wrong action and not to encourage the right ones or discover the unexpected ones." Marcus Westbury kicks things off with an essay about how cities should be more like YouTube and less like Hollywood. It's a great metaphor that perfectly highlights how the use and design of our cities could be improved.

Rachel Peachey & Paul Mosig are the husband and wife team behind Katoomba based studio Racket. They're the featured studio in this issue and are responsible for that jaw dropping cover image. In fact, that's their eldest son Sascha staring back at you. This is a cover that you simply have to see (and touch) in person, as printed in raised thermographic ink over the black background behind Sascha's head are contour lines from an old map. Inside the issue Racket share their wonderful story and beautiful, uniquely Australian work.

The big feature of this issue is called Situationism. A studio from each state capital was invited to create a psycho-geographic map of their city. It's a surprising, exciting, confusing and truly delightful feature that will change the way that you think about wandering the streets. The journey starts in Sydney and travels around the country to end up in Brisbane. Participants for this one are Public Associates (Sydney), Alter (Melbourne), Liminal Studio (Hobart), Voice (Adelaide), Tonnegramme (Perth), Boab (Darwin), and The Letter D (Brisbane).

Where's Canberra? Well, Canberra features in a few spots (and will appear again in upcoming issues) including a special spread on the unsuccessful entries into the original 1911 National Capital design competition. It's a fascinating insight look into the Canberra(s) that could have been.

Elsewhere, the issue looks at how the culture of regional Australia is changing, and attempts to understand a little of how, where and why that's happening. Not only are a selection of regional design studios interviewed about the places in which they live, but Frost* studio sat down with their client Broken Hill City Council to unpack a recent branding project, and get to the heart of where the personality of a place comes from.

And that's just skimming the surface. There's also Gregory Anderson from Trigger talking about exhibition spaces, Finn Butler and Soren Luckins from Büro North on wayfinding, Stephen Banham finds an interesting connection behind places and (type)faces, and Tim Horton shares some thoughts on how cities can be designed to accomodate change and growth.

Desktop #292
Cover: Jenny Grigg

Identity is a big, complex topic that is dealt with everyday, but dominant ideas about who we are are rarely challenged, and the compositions of our identities rarely investigated with any depth. This issue is about starting a dialogue around who we are as people, as designers, and as a nation, as well as investigating exactly what makes us that way.

Jenny Grigg is the featured designer this month. Jenny is
someone with deep connections to Australian culture and storytelling. She speaks about growing up with scientist parents and travelling around the country with them. She also provides insights into some of her work with major literary figures such as Peter Carey and discusses her love of traditional crafts. Her cover illustration is a image printed directly from wattle leaves with black ink, and it's been realised in incredible detail with a sculptured emboss and clear foil by Avon Graphics. It's an absolute textural delight.

Clinton Duncan launches the issue with a wonderful article that examines the very nature of identity. It's a powerful, stimulating, and often very funny piece that's bound to generate some discussion. Papercraft master Benja Harney and photographer Anna Pogossova provide the accompanying illustration.

It seemed appropriate to commission a series of self portraits from a variety of different designers and illustrators for this issue. Still Life With Self is a visual examination of identity, exploring the different ways that we see and express ourselves. Featured here are Michael Cina, Georgia Perry, Steve Byram, Kelly Thompson, Lopetz from Buro Destruct and more.

Ian Anderson created one of the most distinctive and influential studio identities of all time with The Designer's Republic, and not only does he speak about the Angryman logo and identity in general, 9 Australian designers have remixed the Angryman image and given it a regional context. There are some quite moving (and humorous) responses to this brief.

There are a range of great articles in this one too, including Paul Mylecharane taking on graphic design's identity crisis, a conversation with Christopher Doyle and Kevin Finn on nationalism and first impressions, a look at a magazine that sought to help re-invent South Africa's post-apartheid identity, Stephen Banham on suburban street name clusters, and an interview with former Fabrica resident Yianni Hill on the cultural myths that dominate the Australian image.

Desktop #291
Cover: Sean Hogan

The '90s had a profound impact on the graphic design industry of today, and this issue seeks to examine the technological and cultural changes that were happening in Australia and abroad. My aim with this one was to try and find aspects of the era that have been previously unexplored, and to use the period as a context for looking at some of the issues designers are faced with right now.

Featured this month is a profile on designer Sean Hogan (Trampoline) who was mentored by John Warwicker and launched his own studio fresh out of university in 1996.

Opening the issue is a great, personal essay by Chris Bowden. Chris shares some of the observations he made about the major changes happening across the industry as a young designer living in a regional area.

Revisionism is a special feature where six important Australian designers (including Stephen Banahm, Annette Harcus, and Alphabet Studio) were invited to re-do a piece of design they made in the '90's as if the brief was received today.

If that's not enough, some of the decades most influential designers share "behind the scenes" stories of projects they worked on during the '90s. Stephan Sagmeister talks about meeting The Rolling Stones. Kate Neilsen shares a story about working on Suede's Coming Up with Peter Saville, and Debbie Millman talks about a particularly turbulent year in her life.

There are also interviews with iconic Australian designers Lynda Warner and Andrew Hoyne, which examine how their practices have been changed over the decades, as well as interviews with emerging talents Jordan Dolheguy and Confetti Studio who are part of a generation that have grown up steeped in '90s culture.

Be sure to check out Warren Taylor's "OK Computer" feature, where he held a workshop with 5 Monash University students and got them to re-design a classic '90s album cover using only a '97 PowerMac and a small library of stock photo albums!

There are plenty more surprises to be found within too — sharp eyes will be rewarded.

Desktop #290
Cover: Inkahoots

This issue examines the role of graphic design in political and social issues.

Featured this month are interviews with Inkahoots, David Lancashire, Reg Mombassa, Noel Douglas from Occupy Design, and art historian Geoff Wallis who speaks about "Got The Message" a new exhibition of political posters, opening at the Art Gallery of Ballarat this month.

Metahaven also make an appearance in this issue. They're interviewed by Brisbane based collective Responsive Projects.

Seven designers (including Jenny Grigg, Jason Grant, Ben Frost and Mimmo Cozzolino) were invited to be part of a featured called A History of Dissent, which looks at the role of design in major political events throughout Australia's history. Each designer gives a personal and historical perspective on their selected works.

The issue also take a look at a day in the life of a designer at Greenpeace, Oxfam's Design for Change initiative, and Ken Garland's 1964 First Things First manifesto is published in full.

Amongst a few other little surprises, I commissioned We Buy Your Kids designed a brand new cover for a hypothetical 2013 relaunch of OZ magazine.

Desktop #289
Cover: Sonia Rentsch

Titled Futureproof, this issue takes a look at the people, projects and ideas that are are helping give form to tomorrow. It takes a broad but grounded look at the future of design in areas such as code, bio-design, publishing, data-graphics, and emerging aesthetics.

Featured are essays by Daniel Neville, Michael Bojkowski, and Antony Funnell, as well as interviews with Dan Hill (Fabrica), Stuart Candy (Arup), Barrie Barton (Right Angle Studio), Seb Chan (Cooper-Hewitt), Mitchel Whitelaw & Geoff Hinchcliffe (UC), Daisy Ginsberg, and Casey Reas.

There's also an special section where studios from Australia, New Zealand and Japan were asked to contribute a visual and written response to an issue related to the future. Contributors include Collider, Catherine Griffiths, Totem Visual, Dan Pike, and Groovisions. Some of the issues explored included aging, global warming, technology, design criticism, and family.

Future thinkers Bruce Sterling, Liane Rossler, Suzanne Boccalatte, Koert Van Menswoort, Lorraine Justice, and Gary Emery, are all asked to provide their thoughts on what the future of design holds.

It's worth noting that there's no photoshop trickery or 3D rendering on that cover either. That's a genuine plug-in brain, hand crafted by Sonia Rentsch.