Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 40 and my design this week was again inspired by David King. David King was a British writer, designer and historian of graphic design. He devoted his career to uncovering and chronicling the art of the Soviet and the Constructivist periods, developing posters and graphics for many political groups.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 39 and my design this week was inspired by Milton Glaser. Milton Glaser was born in 1929 in The Bronx, New York City and throughout his career, he personally designed and illustrated more than 400 posters including a famous psychedelic poster of Bob Dylan.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 38 and my design this week was again inspired by Saul Bass. In a career which spanned over 40 years, Saul Bass not only designed some of America’s most iconic logos, but also designed title sequences and film posters for some of Hollywood’s best filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese. For Hitchcock, Bass created innovative title sequences for films including North by Northwest, Psycho, and Vertigo. The opening sequence of Mad Men—one of my favourite TV shows—pays homage to Bass who died in 1996 aged 75.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 37 and my design this week was again inspired by Paula Scher. Paula Scher is an American graphic designer, painter and educator and the first female principal at design firm Pentagram. She is well-known for her distinctive typographic style.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 36 and my design this week was inspired by David King. David King was a British writer, designer and historian of graphic design. He devoted his career to uncovering and chronicling the art of the Soviet and the Constructivist periods, developing posters and graphics for many political groups.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 35 and my design this week was inspired by Paula Scher. Paula Scher is an American graphic designer, painter and educator and the first female principal at design firm Pentagram. She is well-known for her distinctive typographic style.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 34 and my design this week was again inspired by Max Bill. Born in 1908, Max Bill was a Swiss artist, typeface and graphic designer, and industrial designer. He studied at the Bauhaus under Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 33 and my design this week was inspired by Tibor Kalman. Tibor Kalman was a Hungarian American graphic designer best-known for his work as editor-in-chief of Colors magazine. In 1979, Kalman opened his own studio with the goal of challenging mundane design thinking and creating unpredictable work.

Since going on holiday during July, I’ve fallen behind with my commitment to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. Now II’m back in the studio and II’ve settled back into work, II’m making up for lost time. Here are six new designs, inspired by Otl Aicher, Saul Bass, Ken Garland, and Armin Hofmann.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 26 and my design this week was inspired by Lester Beall. Lester Beall was an American modernist graphic designer. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Beall moved to Chicago to study and from there to New York. From his farm in Connecticut, he worked on covers and posters which often featured his distinctive use of photomontage.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 25 and my design this week was inspired by Erik Nitsche. Erik Nitsche was born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1908 and was a pioneer in the design of books, reports, and other printed materials. In 1955, Nitsche began working as art director at engineering company General Dynamics where he designed a 420-page book on the company’s history entitled Dynamic America.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 24 and my design this week was inspired by Dan Friedman. Friedman was an American graphic and furniture designer. He studied under Armin Hofmann at the Ulm School of Design and became a major contributor to the new wave typography movement. While working at Pentagram until 1984, Friedman designed letterheads, logos, and posters. Sadly, Friedman died of AIDS in 1995 in New York.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 23 and my design this week was inspired by Herbert Matter. Matter was a Swiss-born American photographer and graphic designer known for his pioneering use of photo-montage in commercial art. His experimental work helped shape the vocabulary of 20th-century graphic design.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 22 and my design this week was inspired by Emmett McBain. McBain was an African American Graphic Designer who’s work highlighted themes of the African American community and helped bring a positive image of African Americans to the mainstream. He designed impactful advertising, during the Civil Rights era and a series of iconic album covers throughout the sixties and seventies. #blacklivesmatter

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 21 and my design this week was inspired by art director Alexey Brodovitch.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week twenty and my design this week was inspired by rebellious British designer Neville Brody.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week nineteen and my design this week was again inspired by Italian graphic designer Giovanni Pintori.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week eighteen and my design this week was again inspired by Italian graphic designer Giovanni Pintori.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week seventeen and my design this week was again inspired by Bradbury Thompson.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week sixteen and my design this week was inspired by Italian graphic designer Giovanni Pintori.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week fifteen and my design this week was again inspired by Herb Lubalin.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week fourteen and my design this week was again inspired by Max Huber.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week thirteen and my design this week was inspired by art director and graphic designer David Carson.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week twelve and my design this week was inspired by Swiss born graphic designer Armin Hoffman who is now 99 years old.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. My design this week was again inspired by Max Huber. Huber taught graphic design in the Swiss town of Lugano, which coincidentally is where I stay when I go to work in Switzerland. He died in Mendrisio—where my Swiss office is—in 1992.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week ten and my design this week was inspired by Czechoslovakian born graphic designer and typographer Ladislav Sutnar.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. My design this week was again inspired by graphic designer and typographer Herb Lubalin.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. My design this week was inspired by American modernist graphic designer, Lester Beall.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. My design this week was inspired by Max Huber. Huber taught graphic design in the Swiss town of Lugano, which coincidentally is where I stay when I go to work in Switzerland. He died in Mendrisio—where my Swiss office is—in 1992.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. My design this week was inspired by Alvin Lustig. Lustig’s work as a book, graphic, and typeface designer has been influential long after his death in 1955.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. My design this week was inspired by Bradbury Thompson. Although less well-known than many of his contemporaries, Bradbury Thompson has been called “one of the giants of 20th-century graphic design.”

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. My design this week was inspired by Alexey Brodovitch. You can read more about him and his work in my article for Smashing Magazine.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. My design this week was inspired by “the pioneering female art director you’ve never heard of,” Bea Feitler.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. My design this week was inspired by graphic designer and typographer Herb Lubalin.

For the past six months, I’ve been designing, writing, and presenting a series of Inspired Design Decisions articles and webinars for Smashing Magazine. These have been brilliantly well received and I wanted a regular project to experiment with new designs.