The album artwork of Frank Ocean's debut studio album Channel Orange was designed by Thomas Mastorakos, Aaron Martinez, and Phil Toselli, with photography (not shown here) by Dave Eggar. The front cover features an orange background superimposed by the title — “channel” rendered in lower-case Cooper Black and “orange” rendered in upper-case Orator, with the former overlaid by an image of colored spots from a camera flash. The cover also includes a parental advisory label (set in Impact and Compacta). The physical copy has an additional sticker on the front cover which highlights two of the five singles, a bonus song and two guest appearances – also in Cooper Black and Orator.

In November 2013, the album ranked at number nine on Complex magazine's list of “The 50 Best Pop Album Covers of the Past Five Years”, with contributing journalist Dale Eisinger writing in an accompanying essay:

Ocean took a simple route with the cover … Employing the classic Cooper Black font — a staple of his Odd Future crew and hip-hop history, alike — next to a more modern, Sans-Serif font shows just how smart this dude is, looking back to the past, while clearly aware of his surroundings."

Studio Jigé is an independent multi-disciplinary studio in Lyon, France, focusing on design and art direction. Their own website is set in IBM Plex Sans (Bold Monday), all-caps Sporting Grotesque (Velvetyne), and Apoc Sans (Blaze Type).

“Alive and Kicking” is a song by the Scottish rock band Simple Minds. Released in 1985 as the first single from the band's most successful album, Once Upon a Time, it reached number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100, number 4 in Canada, and peaked within the top 5 of several European countries including Italy, where the song reached number one.

Designer Mick Haggerty created the cover art for this 12-inch single using overlapping and obscured glyphs from Hermann Zapf's most famous face. The 7-inch single used an inverted version of the same design.

Back cover, photograph by Anton Corbijn

Sterile Dogma is a printed translation of my Bachelor graduation thesis in the Graphic Design department at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague (KABK). Full title: Sterile Dogma: Nocturnus and its effect on the Human Development Through The Visual Culture in the Age of Radical Elation.

From the Thesis web page:

Today we are living in the world where fear and doubt are being condemned to the ever-lasting flight down the void. Regarded as concepts of weakness and futility and opposed by the constantly enhancing and inflated concept of positive-thinking and “gratefulness”, fear and doubt became even more shameful to experience than they used to be throughout the history. This becomes a reason for us to start denouncing such crucial parts of our lives as non-important ones or as those that are reinforcing fears and insecurities in favour of artificial cover made of all that successful compensating and striving. I see such escapism as an eminently important issue that can have poor fallout for our civilisation’s present and thus - future.

OCD Agency’s type-forward identity system for Supermajority hinges on a customized version of in-progress Ballast (a typeface originally designed for New York Magazine). Ballast’s authoritative voice was softened with a few added quirks, including a distinctive S and a schoolbook-style y.

Supporting text is set in Tablet Gothic Condensed, FS Blake, and Lora.

From Supermajority’s website:

Supermajority is a new home for women's activism, training and mobilizing a multiracial, intergenerational community that will fight for gender equity together.

Supermajority Education Fund’s bus, on its cross-country tour

Supermajority leaders Ai-Jen Poo, Cecile Richards, and Katherine Grainger with a handmade jacket

Elizabeth Warren with Cecile Richards at an October 2019 event

Dr Markus Rogan has a new identity and website designed by Austrian design studio Zwupp. The experimental psychotherapist enlists the help of two somewhat experimental typefaces: RT Gaia, a neo-modernist wedge serif from Hamburg-based Riesling Type, is paired with the deconstructed Karelia Outtakes from Monokrom Skriftforlag in Oslo. Set next to each other, in the same size and color, the jarring stylistic differences creates a dramatic off-kilter effect. Zwupp writes about the project:

Although a classically trained psychotherapist, Dr Rogan seeks to leverage his experience as a world record swimmer and Olympic medalist by applying clinical methods in unconventional and unique settings.

More images (and animations) in Zwupp’s case study.

Implication. Negotiating boundaries on damaged Earth is a publication conceived by Gauthier Roussilhe, a designer and researcher working on the effects of the Anthropocene, i.e. the recognition of the impact of human activities as one of the main drivers of Earth transformation and deterioration.

Editorial design by Clément Le Tulle-Neyret, using two of his own work-in-progress typefaces, EB Ackerhof and Immortel Infra. 82 p., 152,4×228,6 mm, print-on-demand, perfect bound, English, November 2018.

Science Notes, published by the University Tübingen in Germany, is a magazine exploring “knowledge and society”. Dealing with a single subject, each issue gathers various members of the institution's diverse pool of researchers, designers, and artists, in order to highlight relevant studies and their potential impact on our society.

This third issue is examining the subject of “reality” and exploring the subjects of virtuality, simulation, and the “real world”. By asking questions such as ‘Can a man love an object?’, ‘How can a vegan burger bleed?’, and ‘Can our brains distinguish actuality from thought?’, its aim is ultimately to inspire a sense of questioning ‘what is real’ in the reader.

As a publication dealing with both retro and futuristic worlds, that’s trying to make the underlying science understandable and tangible, it was designed to feel pointed, dynamic, and surprising.

The magazine uses Primo Serif (Playtype, 2000) as their constant house typeface. In each issue, it is paired with a second one. For issue 1 “Optimal”, art director Sandra Teschow chose Code (Fontfabric, 2011). Issue 2 “Gefahr” (danger) introduced the Neue Plak series (Monotype, 2018). For the third issue shown in this post, Teschow combined Primo Serif with Neue Plak again and added VP Pixel (VP Type, 2017) to the mix. The pixel typeface is used for the magazine logo and for headlines. You can read more about the design process including aspects like paper stock, grids, and images in a report published by Wissenswerte Bremen.

Visual identity for Sport-Étude, a magazine about athletes. Every issue of Sport-Étude will present the portrait of one athlete. The magazine, with 4,000 copies printed, will be distributed for free. Co-founded by Julien Soulier & David Bellion. Commissioned by Première Heure Production & Supervision Office. Size: 24.5 × 32.5 cm, 20 pages.

Blister ointment for the Swiss brand Leucen, plainly labeled in German, French, and Italian. Basic and clinical, but modern and trustworthy. Before this redesign, the Leucen packaging (featuring Cooper Black) was rather pedestrian.

A web/video announcement for a lecture by renowned dancer-choreographer Yvonne Rainer at the Yale School of Art. Featuring ITC Ronda Bold and Prestige Elite over Rainer’s Hand Movie from 1966. (video source: UbuWeb)

Stoptober is the 28-day challenge to stop smoking for most of the month of October. It's based on the belief that after 28 days without a cigarette, smokers are five times more likely to give up smoking for good.

A giant red inflatable ‘Stop’ sign is pushed around the country to raise awareness of the campaign and to mark the countdown to the official start of the challenge, 1 October.

Supporting this, a mobile Stoptober roadshow tours the country, offering a range of care services. There is also a series of YouTube videos, with people sharing their experiences of quitting smoking. The circle motif is used throughout the graphics, in a range of bright, optimistic and summery colours.

A custom version of Sylvia is used throughout the Smokefree anti-smoking initiative. Sylvia Light is used for advertising campaigns, Bold weights are used for the Quit Kit.

Squishy stress-reliever from the Stoptober supplies pack

Squishy stress-reliever from the Stoptober supplies pack

Digital display on the BT tower in London’s Fitzrovia

Stand from the touring Stoptober roadshow

Stoptober Supplies — a kit containing information and advice

Stoptober quit cards