I’ve been assembling slide lectures for the History of Graphic Design course I’ll be teaching in the Netherlands, and I’m really inspired by the great design I’ve been researching, especially pre-WWII modernism. The the 78 album cover art by Alex Steinweiss (top) and the page layouts of Alvin Lustig (bottom) have grabbed my attention of late. Their playful layouts and inventive collages seem so effortless.
I cut my design teeth in the eighties, when most of the designers that I saw were still struggling to get out of the flush-left Helvetica rut that design has been stuck in for years—decades even. It’s interesting to now think about the generation of designers who first put Modernism on the map.
So what inspires you? What gets your creative juices flowing? Leave a comment or a link below.
