Disegno #30
The cover of Disegno #30, designed by Jasper Morrison.
This summer, Disegno turns 10-years-old. Foregoing cake, presents and songs declaring the journal to be a jolly good fellow, we have instead chosen to celebrate with a new issue featuring a cover designed by Jasper Morrison.
Morrison’s cover features his Iso-lounge chair, a single-piece plywood cantilever he developed for Isokon Plus, reminiscent of the imagined chair that László Moholy-Nagy designed for the brand’s logo, back in the mid-1930s. What was once just a drawing is now reality – the whole story is documented in the new issue in a piece by Magnus Englund.
Morrison has also designed the back cover of the issue, which features sketches of 10 everyday objects that the designer considers meaningful to him. Black lacquer bowls, an Indian puppet head, a palm frond fly swat, and many more: 10 objects for 10 years of Disegno.
Disegno #30 comes out in print on 6 September 2021, and is available to order now. A digital copy is also available for those who are so inclined.
Inside, the issue features in-depth essays and discussions from across the world of contemporary design and environs.
Felix Chabluk Smith explores the Bourse de Commerce, a new art museum for Paris, designed by Tadao Ando, featuring public spaces and interiors designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.
Helen Brown dives into the world of the contraceptive coil and why its troubled design history has rarely accounted for the realities of women’s bodies.
Peter Kapos explores what it means to call design “German”, and why institutions might be keen to do so, as he delves into German Design 1949–1989 Two Countries, One History.
Shawn Adams looks at the world’s e-waste problem and why sites around Accra have come to bear the brunt, accompanied by images from Muntaka Chasant.
A roundtable of leading international architects and curators – Ingrid Campo Ruiz, Yung Ho Chang, Tony Fretton, Kieran Long and Lyndon Neri – come together to assess the legacy of the 20th-century master Sigurd Lewerentz, and why a new exhibition at ArkDes provides the fullest portrait of his life and work to date.
Oli Stratford looks into the impact of lean web design in reducing the environmental footprint of online, exploring a new initiative from Formafantasma, with photography of data centres shot by Delfino Sisto Legnani.
Alison Sinkewicz paints a portrait of Vancouver – a city in which public art is in thrall to large-scale development and butts up against a growing opioid crisis.
Architects and archaeologists Ariel Caine, Dima Srouji and Silvia Truini come together to assess Silwan and Sebastia, Palestinian villages which have come to be dominated by Israeli archaeological sites.
Evi Hall looks at the cultural and material history of mirrors, prompted by a new research exhibition developed by Front for Galerie Kreo.
And the architect and Arctic researcher Lola Sheppard meets Dorte Mandrup to discuss the latter’s Ilulissat Icefjord Centre, a new centre for the study of Greenland’s Sermeq Kujalleq glacier, deep within the Arctic landscape.
To mark 10 years, the issue features a special design created by the journal’s creative directors, Studio AKFB: the issue is printed in duotone, with images and texts rendered in shades of Pantone green and blue.
And, to celebrate the journal’s anniversary, we also invited Disegno’s founder and first editor Johanna Agerman Ross to explore our back catalogue, creating a photoessay exploring 10 years of design criticism and journalism.
Disegno #30 comes out in print on 6 September 2021, and is available to order now.
Disegno #30 includes:
At the Kitchen Table: 10 Years of Disegno
A journey back through the Quarterly Journal of Design
Johanna Agerman Ross
Discrete Contact
A trip to Tadao Ando and the Bouroullecs’ Bourse de Commerce
Felix Chabluk Smith
Embedded Design
The troubled history of the contraceptive coil
Helen Brown
Counterpoints
A unified German history through design?
Peter Kapos
e-Waste Agbogbloshie
Ghana’s efforts to curb electronic waste
Shawn Adams and Muntaka Chasant
Fewer Pictures of the Cigar-Smoking
Architects appraise the legacy of Sigurd Lewerentz
Ingrid Campo Ruiz, Yung Ho Chang, Tony Fretton Kieran Long, Lyndon Neri and Oli Stratford
Bend it Like Morrison
Jasper Morrison’s single-piece plywood cantilever
Magnus Englund and Nicola Tree
The Biggest Machine on Earth
Can web design help the internet become sustainable?
Oli Stratford and Delfino Sisto Legnani
The Seduction of the Bureaucrat
Art, drugs and development in Vancouver
Alison Sinkewicz
The Ground of Palestine
Archaeology as a tool for erasure in Palestine
Ariel Caine, Dima Srouji and Silvia Truini
Seven Excerpts About Seven Mirrors
Front’s exploration of an ever-changing form
Evi Hall and Alexandra de Cossette
A Profound Immersion
Dorte Mandrup’s Greenlandic centre for climate collapse
Lola Sheppard
Order your copy of Disegno #30 from our online shop. Or why not subscribe?