Design Week at 30: How the magazine began (part 2)

As Design Week celebrates its 30th birthday, we caught up with the magazine’s founding editor Jeremy Myerson, who ran the print title from 1986-1989. In conversation with current editor Tom Banks, we learn about how today’s design world differs to that of the 1980s.

The second part of this two-part film looks at the design news agenda back in 1986, a time when each design discipline was distinct and there was little collaboration with other industries such as advertising.

It was also a time which offered a new look in terms of graphic communication. “Geometric logos of the 60s and 70s were replaced by a Matisse-style illustrative approach, like with the pied piper of BT,” says Myerson.

In part one of this two-part film we discussed the design of the magazine, which Myerson says “made a virtue” of its black-and-white look, with thick vertical lines echoing the Bauhaus movement.

Jeremy Myerson is Helen Hamlyn professor of design at the Royal College of Art and director of the Worktech Academy.