Wild Images (Other Douros)
A nostalgia of my own I use generative artificial intelligence to create fictional images of the Douro as an interdimensional region, intersected by extremely advanced technologies, spacecraft, and robots – yet poor, peripheral, and…
Generative AI and the fear of images
This communication is about fear and response — i.e. iconophobia and iconoclasm. The starting point is online artificial intelligence tools such as Midjourney AI, Dall-e, or Stable Diffusion. These platforms generate images from natural…
‘Trendy’ – a critical anatomy of the role of trends in graphic design
With some variations, it always goes like this: A designer notices a trend. Many of their colleagues use the same font, or align text a certain way, or employ similar illustrations or images. They…
Design as a morality of form
What had Jan Tschichold and his adversary Max Bill in common? Both equated form with morality. During design’s high modernist phase, it was usual to talk about form in terms of morality, personal but,…
Forget Design?
This book has a simple, clever, disquieting cover. The book’s author, Andrew Dewdney, believes that the paradigm of photography can no longer explain what he calls «the networked image» — images generated by computers,…
Is it possible to go beyond text-based approaches to graphic design?
I am a fan of the magazine Typographica, edited by Herbert Spencer between 1949 and 1967 in two series. The second series was the inspiration for Eye magazine. I ordered the first issue of…
“Design by Accident” review
I published a review of Design by Accident by Alexandra Midal in Inmaterial. Diseño, Arte y Sociedad. Enjoyed re-reading and analyzing it deeply. Thanks to the team, especially Patrícia Cativo.
Image’s Natural Origins: Tree leaves and banknotes
Banknotes created by Benjamin Franklin from lead matrices printed from a mold of tree leaves. The process was developed to prevent counterfeiting. Horst Bredekamp speaks about Franklin’s banknotes in his book Teoria do Acto…
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Unseen by Design 