CONTENTS
Preface 9
From drawing board to desktop 13
Learning to draw with Jon Gnagy 16
This is my process 20
Donal McLaughlin's Little Button 24
New house 27
The figure/ground relationship 30
What's that crashing sound, or Eisenman in Cincinnati 33
Cheap music and commercial art 38
Style: An inventory 41
Thirteen ways of looking at typeface 46
Invasion of the neutered sprites 51
Fear of color 54
Flat, simple, and funny: The world of Charley Harper 57
The it factor 60
Helmut Krone, Period 64
Pitch perfect 68
Jerry Della Femina and the cult of advertising personality 74
The four lessons of Lou Dorfsman 80
That elusive silver bullet 85
Would it kill you to smile? 88
You're so intelligent 91
There is no why 94
The graphic glass ceiling 97
What Lella knew 100
Speech, speech 103
Vinyl fetish 107
Now you see it 110
I love the '80s 114
Battle hymn of the tiger mentor, or why modernist designers are superior 118
Will the real Ernst Bettler please stand up? 122
Our little secret 125
Alan Fletcher: Living by design 128
Fitting 131
The faux ball game 134
The smartest logo in the room 138
Everything I know about design I learned from the Sopranos 143
When in Helvetica 146
Designing through a recession 150
When design gets in the way 154
How to be ugly 157
Five ways to design for a cause 161
Designing Obama 164
Graphic design criticism as a spectator sport 167
Spoiler alert! or happy Father's Day 178
My handicap 181
Positively Michael Patrick Cronan 184
The poster that launched a movement (or not) 187
The typeface of truth 190
Seven things designers can learn from stand-up comics 193
As long as it's fun 197
Not diving but swimming 203
The School of Massimo 208
I'm with her 211
Interview with Peter Merholz 220