September 2023

Between the hours of 7 a.m. to 12:20 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, you will find a group of students at Los Angeles Trade Tech College painstakingly painting small black lines onto large sheets of butcher paper. It’s a unique and peculiar sight, unlike any other you will come upon at another college— and that’s because this is the only class of its kind in the country.

Welcome to LATTC’s famed Sign Graphics program, which has been taught at the college since 1924. It’s said that LATTC itself was founded around this course, and then expanded its class offerings from there. 

Eric Lacombe, a graphic designer, digital artist, and painter, delves into the depths of human emotion through his work. His artistry is a journey into melancholy, a sentiment often perceived as negative but is an inevitable part of the human experience.

Compared to the energetic buzz of Tokyo, the city of Kyoto still operates at a satisfyingly measured hum, retaining much more than a veneer of the country’s deep seated traditions, crafts, and history. It is a city where heritage still survives in spite of the encroachment of contemporary conveniences and technologies, and where the history of many businesses can be measured in decades…or even more than a century.

AI. There isn’t a corner of the design world not talking about artificial intelligence–what it means for humans in the creative process, how it will change intellectual property protections/concerns, and whether it reflects–not corrects our oh-so-human biases. The conversations are happening in the philosophical realm, industry-wide, and at the production level at design studios such as Athens-based brand.new.