Monocle on Design
Your essential guide to design, covering furniture, craft, and architecture. Discover fresh stories, rising talents, and the latest from top studios.
Latest Episodes
Back to work
Linda Morey-Burrows, principal director of architecture and design firm MoreySmith, on how lockdown has changed the world of work. Plus: Canadian designer Jamie Wolfond on staying lively in a lockdown and Brisbane-based commentator Lindy Johnson on getting architects back to work.
Branding crisis: Part II
Josh Fehnert is joined by Monocle’s creative director, Richard Spencer Powell, to discuss a UN brief for designers to respond to coronavirus and review the current crop of public-health posters.
Branding crisis: Part I
Clive Russell and Charlie Waterhouse are graphic designers at This Ain’t Rock’n’Roll, whose clients include Médicins San Frontières and Extinction Rebellion. They tell Josh Fehnert why ‘branding’ doesn’t help when describing a crisis. Plus: Mathieu de Muizon on how illustration can add humanity to tough messages.
Health and architecture
We examine the link between buildings and wellbeing, find out how tuberculosis shaped modern architecture and speak to designer Ilse Crawford about the importance of materials. Plus: Josh Fehnert is joined by Nic Monisse to talk about how the notion of home and our relationship with the outdoors is changing.
Hong Kong special
How are designers in the city responding to Covid-19? We learn what interior designer Joyce Wang has been up to under lockdown. We meet graphic designer and advertising veteran Stanley Wong to learn about the campaigns that have piqued his interest. Plus, we find out if online lessons are going to…
Fashion to the rescue
Monocle’s Jamie Waters on how fashion turned its hand to creating medical products. Plus, Josh Fehnert talks to Katie Treggiden about the design headlines and a return to craft and we visit a Spanish design firm that has retooled as a mask-maker.
The home front
With many of us adjusting to life under lockdown we ask ‘Disegno’ magazine editor Oli Stratford about how the design industry has been affected. Plus, Nolan Giles on Monocle’s home manifesto and Josh Fehnert on why bumps and bruises tell better stories than flush finishes when it comes to turning…
Just my type
We look back at a few of our favourite typography tales and hear about a Hague-based foundry making Arabic fonts, a calligrapher’s adventures in ink, an east London sign painter and a typeface analyst. Write on.
Graphic design digest
Coming up today we’re talking graphic design and digging into the archives to find some of our favourite recent interviews. We discuss the art of data visualisation with Steven Heller and Josh Fehnert asks Julius Wiedemann about the golden age of mid-century logos.
Architecture and the media, design in Asia and Josef Frank
This week we offer some design-minded diversions from the heavy headlines. We talk design in Asia with Hong Kong-based editor Suzy Annetta and Josh Fehnert discusses how Austrian designer Josef Frank found favour in Sweden.
