Dear Friends

Eye 101 is out in the world. If you are a subscriber, your freshly printed copy of Eye 101 will either be with you already (in the UK), or well on its way. And the new issue will be going into magazine stores and bookshops over the next few weeks. 

The new issue is full of engaging articles, including Jan Middendorp’s profile of Anette Lenz, Paul Kahn’s overview of Covid-19 data visualisation and Simon Esterson’s ‘Ten projects by Jim Sutherland’. There’s a big reviews section, a Photo Critique by Rick Poynor and ‘Word play’, another look at the letterpress poster exhibition curated by New North Press.

There’s also a Reputations interview with Mario Eskenazi (by the late Sarah Snaith) and Elizabeth Resnick’s article about Jacqueline Casey, who was instrumental in developing what became known as the MIT Style. As always, we are very grateful for the support of our contributors, our advertisers and all our subscribers. See the full list of Eye 101 contents here. 

For our next Type Tuesday, an online launch event for Eye 101 on 8 June, we are thrilled to have Anette, Mario, Jim and Elizabeth as our guests. It starts at 6.30pm BST and the tickets cost £5 or £3, with profits going to the St Bride Foundation – please book here via Eventbrite.

Do keep an eye on the Eye Events page for details of interesting online type and graphic design events on the near horizon, including ‘MagCulture Live: We love New York’, on 9 June (the day after Type Tuesday), and the ambitious Typographics 2021 festival taking place online throughout next month.

As a taste of the new issue, we’ve published just a few articles online in full, including ‘Crowd control’, my overview of the book crowdfunding phenomenon. To get some understanding of this brave new world, I spoke to a number of people who are deeply involved in crowdfunded publishing, including Unit Editions publishing director Patricia Finegan, David Jenkins of Circa Press (publisher of Andy Altmann’s Tat*), Margot Atwell, Kickstarter’s director of outreach & international, Lucie Parker, associate publisher at San Francisco’s Letterform Archive, Wallace Henning (British Rail Manual), the anonymous Gentle Author and Sam Winston (A Dictionary Story).

Poster for Ken Garland’s ‘Personal Views’ talk in Porto, 28 February 2003. Design: Studio Andrew Howard.

The latest article on the Eye blog is ‘The clarity of the innocent eye’, a previously unpublished essay by Ken Garland, which we posted as a tribute to the much-loved and respected designer, who died last week. Andrew Howard, who wrote about Ken’s First Things First manifesto in Eye 13, explains the context. Ken has been a great friend and contributor to Eye over the years, and we shall miss him deeply. 

If you’ve been following What Design Can Do’s ‘No Waste Challenge’ (outlined by Richard van der Laken in ‘Have we all been bad designers?’) you may like to see the shortlist here.

If you aren’t already an Eye subscriber, it’s easy to subscribe online. Postage and sturdy packaging is included free of charge, and you will never miss another issue. However if you would prefer to order another way, please email our subscriptions team, or call them on +44 1371 851885. We have a (fast-diminishing) stock of back issues that you can order from here while stocks last. 

Best wishes – and don’t forget to book for Type Tuesday on 8 June

John Walters, editor, Eye