More in ‘design’

Milton Glaser, the legendary American graphic designer who brought us such icons as the ‘I ♥ NY’ logo and the famous ‘rainbow Jewfro’ Bob Dylan psychedelic poster, became the first graphic designer to receive the National Medal of Arts after President Obama bestowed it on him last week. Over his epic career, Glaser, 80, indelibly ...

The textile thing brought me to an opportunity fo study in Guatemala, which I was skeptical about, even after my art school experience. >>

Israeli society, alas, is a mosaic made of small conflicts. There’s the unease between eastern Jews and western Jews, for example, or the tension between ancient tradition and modern culture. All of these conflicts, however, manifest themselves in one mundane thing—a simple cup of coffee.

We earlier in the week declared a moratorium on all things Brüno, partially because there’s really nothing Jewish about it and mostly because it’s sort of terrible. But we must temporarily lift that moratorium to appreciate the excellent work of the Forward’s art department, as demonstrated by the placement of teaser art on the new ...

Publishers of prayer books—siddurim—have long struggled to engage American Jews, to heighten their alertness at synagogue, to encourage them to see prayers not as mere echoes of the past but as vital supplications whose meaning is renewed daily. One way of doing this is to flood the page with commentaries, explications, instructions, and supplementary readings; this approach, exemplified by the ArtScroll siddur, has been the dominant mode for the past 25 years. Yet too much additional reading risks turning a prayer book into a tutorial rather than a conduit to sustained reflection.

Every self-respecting collector of blue-chip 20th-century design these days owns at least a piece or two by Jean-Michel Frank. The Parisian elite’s favorite interior designer in the 1920s and ’30s, Frank specialized in what connoisseurs call luxe pauvre—“impoverished luxury.” He’d wrap spindly, minimalist tables or chairs in rarefied materials—goatskin, vellum, glittery mica—to look modern, but ...

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American design historian Mel Byars once called the work of Israeli designers the “best-kept secret” of the design world, but the past few years have finally brought them some attention. SAFE: Design Takes On Risk, a 2005 exhibition at MoMA, featured a number of Israeli projects, and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum recently ...