Journal

Stories, trends and background on Reetro's posters, canvases and prints — gathered in one place.

Latest articles

• Lucian Bernhard & the Sachplakat: Modern Advertising Graphics 1910–1930 — Lucian Bernhard gave birth to the Sachplakat with his radically reduced style, reinventing the visual language of advertising. How a young graphic designer turned Berlin and the world of commercial art upside down.
• Alexey Brodovitch’s Ballet from 1945 — A sourced look at Alexey Brodovitch’s photobook Ballet: published in 1945 by J. J. Augustin in New York, with 104 photographs, text by Edwin Denby, and a printed object whose grain and smudges are part of the form.
• Josef Albers’s Interaction of Color from 1963 — A sourced look at Josef Albers’s Interaction of Color: Yale University Press, 1963, originally issued as a limited silkscreen edition with 150 color plates and still an unusually precise printed object about how color behaves.
• USSR in Construction magazine (1930–1941) — A sourced look at the Soviet magazine USSR in Construction: oversized format, photomontage, foldouts, multiple language editions, and unusually exact print dramaturgy.
• Jan Tschichold’s Die neue Typographie from 1928 — A sourced look at Jan Tschichold’s 1928 book: Berlin, Bildungsverbandes der Deutschen Buchdrucker, 240 pages, and a printed object that programmatically condenses asymmetry and modern typography.
• Cassandre’s Nord Express from 1927 — A sourced look at Cassandre’s 1927 advertising poster: colour lithograph, 105.4 × 75 cm, multilingual rail inscriptions, and a printed image poised between Art Deco, perspective, and the promise of travel.
• László Moholy-Nagy’s Malerei, Photographie, Film from 1925 — A sourced look at Moholy-Nagy’s 1925 book: Albert Langen, 133 pages, a later 1927 variant, and a printed object poised between photogram, typophoto, and thinking through film.
• Fact magazine (1964–1967) — A sourced look at Ralph Ginzburg and Herb Lubalin’s Fact: 1964 to 1967, precise editorial design, and a magazine poised between cultural criticism, politics, and printed attitude.
• Walter Gropius’s Internationale Architektur from 1925 — A sourced look at Walter Gropius’s opening Bauhaus book: Munich 1925, a compact early-modern print object whose revised 1927 edition runs to 111 pages and relies heavily on illustrations.
• The Family of Man catalog from 1955 — A sourced look at the 1955 catalog for The Family of Man: 503 photographs from 68 countries, Edward Steichen, Leo Lionni, and a print object poised between exhibition and book.
• Josef Müller-Brockmann’s First June Festival Concert from 1960 — A sourced look at a 1960 Zurich concert poster: offset lithography, a Tonhalle programme with Georg Solti and Claudio Arrau, and an unusually precise Swiss print order.
• The Medium Is the Massage from 1967 — A sourced look at the book by McLuhan, Fiore, and Agel: a 1967 print object poised between paperback, collage, and media theory.
• Domus no. 1 from 1928 — A sourced look at the first Domus issue: Gio Ponti, modern living, and a magazine that brought architecture, interiors, and print culture into a new relation.
• The Apple II print advert from 1977 — A sourced look at the first Apple II magazine advert: Scientific American, a kitchen-table scene, and an early moment when print made home computing look domestic.
• Wim Crouwel’s Vormgevers for the Stedelijk Museum (1968) — A sourced look at a 1968 exhibition poster shaped by offset print, museum grid logic, and an unusually calm systems-driven print language.
• The Whole Earth Catalog from fall 1968 — A sourced look at the 1968 first issue: Stewart Brand’s printed system poised between catalog, magazine, supplier index, and counterculture.
• Emigre no. 1, A Magazine for Exiles, from 1984 — A sourced look at the 1984 debut issue: 32 pages from Berkeley, poised between an exile magazine, early desktop publishing, and a highly deliberate printed surface.
• Alvin Lustig’s New Directions book jackets (1941–1955) — A sourced look at abstract New Directions jackets, from the first Henry Miller cover in 1941 to the late example New Directions 15 from 1955.
• Barbara Kruger’s I shop therefore I am from 1987 — A sourced look at a text-image work poised between consumer critique, vinyl print, and everyday circulation on bags and other carriers.
• Ikko Tanaka’s Nihon Buyo from 1981 — A sourced look at a Japanese performance poster for UCLA: grid logic, geometry, and unusual calm compressed into a remarkably precise printed surface.
• Cassandre’s Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet from 1932 — A sourced look at an advertising triptych that turns lithography, typography, and colour saturation into an almost cinematic printed sequence.
• Lester Beall’s REA posters for rural America (1937–1941) — A sourced look at three poster series for the Rural Electrification Administration: silkscreen, photomontage, and clear modernism as public-facing image work.
• Massimo Vignelli’s 1972 NYCTA subway map — A sourced look at the 1972 foldout: diagrammatic lines, reduced topography, and a transit print that turns function into form.
• Ralph Ginzburg and Herb Lubalin’s Eros from 1962 — A sourced look at the hardbound 1962 quarterly: four issues, Ralph Ginzburg as publisher, and Herb Lubalin as art director.
• Herb Lubalin’s Avant Garde no. 1 from 1968 — A sourced look at the January 1968 debut issue: Richard Lindner’s cover image Ice, Ralph Ginzburg as publisher, and Herb Lubalin as designer.
• George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" at Penguin — A sourced look at Penguin’s covers from 1954 to 2013, moving through Germano Facetti, Modern Classics, and unusually material-minded redesigns.
• Penguin Modern Classics in the Marber Grid from 1963 — A sourced look at the 1961 series launch and the 1963 redesign that made Penguin Modern Classics an especially precise paperback system.
• Saul Bass’s "The Man with the Golden Arm" from 1955 — A sourced look at a film poster that turned symbol, title sequence, and publicity into one early visual language.
• Paul Rand's "Eye-Bee-M" for IBM — A sourced look at the IBM poster that condenses rebus logic, brand form, and printed lightness into one unusually durable image.
• Romek Marber's Penguin Crime cover system from 1961 — A sourced look at the paperback grid that turned one crime series into a broader publishing design language.
• Massimo and Lella Vignelli’s Unigrid brochures for the National Park Service (1977) — A sourced look at a public brochure system shaped by grid logic, fold design, and remarkably durable visual order.
• Otl Aicher's "München (Munich) 1972" — A sourced look at an Olympic poster shaped by sports photography, colour systems, and modern visual identity.
• Milton Glaser's "Dylan" from 1966 — A sourced look at an iconic album insert between counterculture, Art Nouveau, and design history.
• Josef Müller-Brockmann's "June Festival" from 1956 — A sourced look at a Zurich concert poster shaped by grid logic, typography, and Swiss Style.
• Cassandre's "Normandie" from 1935 — A factual look at an Art Deco travel poster built around a strict frontal view and a reduced palette.
• Mid-Century in the 2026 living room — How 1960s design language fits into contemporary spaces and which motifs feel current right now.
• Pixel art's comeback on the wall — Why the grid-based look works again in 2026 as a sharp wall statement.