Graphic designers could do with some of the revolutionary spirit of ISO Recommendation R216 It is all too easy to feel discouraged today. The contemporary graphic designer is being encouraged to turn their back on the past, to accept that we are responsible for past mistakes (real or invented) made by those who came before. That we must atone by being better, more ethical designers, activists in the service of social justice. Graphic design is being recast as a moral imperati

[From the archive] When safe is not sound. The spirit of the age seems to be one of scaremongering, with ads feeding on all our fears. We need a more positive outlook as we enter the new millennium As we approach 1999 and the 365-day countdown to the new millennium, we should expect a host of documentaries, exhibitions and books about the current and future prospects for humanity. A tall order, but an irresistible project nonetheless. Who could shy away from a debate about re

Stocking-fillers for Christmas, books from 2025 from contributors of the Future Cities Project My short review of Reforming Lessons: Why English Schools Have Improved Since 2010 and How This Was Achieved, by Nick Gibb and Robert Peal, Routledge. Other reviews can be read here. Few people, even among committed educationalists, would describe many books on education as inspiring, but Reforming Lessons is just that. A first-hand account of the reforms that have been applied to E

re-pub #03 April 2025 Download re-pub #03 A curated collection of articles on creative matters from a ‘design essentialist’ perspective....

The Scottish Union for Education. 12 Views on Scottish education Delighted to have my article republished in the Scottish Union for...

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum's new permanent exhibition, Glasgow - City of Empire is a shameful piece of Social Justice propaganda...

Edward Hallett Carr, What is History? (1961). E. H. Carr’s What is History? is arguably more relevant now than when it was first...

Banning ‘trans conversion therapy’ will criminalise parents who want what’s best for their kids. In Scotland today, conversion therapy is...

Is there an environmental generational divide? The notion that there exists a generational divide on the issue of the environment is...

The indoctrination of children in Scottish schools has, to a large extent, been introduced by stealth. The upending of the core values of...

Milan Design Week (17 – 23 April), regarded as the world’s most important design fair, has come and gone, but the eco-wailing persists....

Closing school libraries is ‘educational vandalism’. There is only one thing more shocking and dispiriting than the fact that 25% of...

A new proposal for the Design & Technology GCSE is indoctrination A proposal to revise the Design and Technology (D&T) GCSE curriculum,...

A new Marilyn Monroe-inspired film has been woefully misunderstood. The new Netflix film, Blonde, has sparked an extraordinary and...

On the Death and Rebirth of Comedy. US comedian and writer, Lou Perez’s new book, That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore, was always going to end...

A gender bias poster campaign that was not all it was cracked-up to be. To coincide with International Women’s Day (IWD) and Women’s...

Why critics love to loathe After Life. Reviewers have lost touch with what audiences enjoy. The third and final series of Ricky Gervais’...

Academy of Ideas, International Salon, panel discussion on 23 November 2021. Absolutely delighted to be invited to speak at, 'From Covid...

The third London Design Biennale (LDB) runs from 1st – 27th June, hosted at the magnificently imposing Somerset House, on the banks of...

Forget independence – what about democracy? Neither side of the Scottish independence debate has any interest in bringing power to the...