Eye 78 Vol20 Winter 2010

‘I did absolutely anything that came my way, which I’ve done throughout my life. But what I know about design, as opposed to wood engravings or illustrating, I learned from stamps – my interest in refining an idea down to an absolute minimum.’

How Dave Eggers’ design ethos contributed to the success of his publishing ‘empire’, McSweeney’s

Mark Porter on an interactive site that reveals the urban energy of New York

Simon Esterson applauds the vivid drama of a pharmaceutical brochure

Paul Stiff explains why the British road sign system simply works

Jack Schulze praises the ‘US space programme’ of mapping

Untangling the internet with IA’s metro ‘snapshot’

Christopher Wilson is struck by flaws in the graphic analysis of JFK’s death

Rob Waller decodes the multimodal layout lessons of Rupert Bear

Angharad Lewis appreciates the human touches of Wainwright’s guide

Ken Garland hails the ultimate buying guide for the anti-capitalist revolution

Saki Mafundikwa examines a map that confronts western prejudices

John L. Walters on the break-ups and tearful reunions of Rock Family Trees

Eric Heiman salutes the ‘Edward Hopper of design and comic art’

Fraser Muggeridge reads a trusty manual that shows how to fix almost anything

Andrew Losowsky on the ‘nonsensical authority’ of the Approval Matrix

Tony Pritchard swears by the elemental beauty of the Periodic Table

A new V&A display and a book trace the method of visualising data pioneered by Otto Neurath in the 1920s

Joost Grootens, whose background is in multimedia and architectural design, is reinventing the atlas for the 21st century

The dictionary framework allows readers to find random nuggets of information, forging connections that reflect the arbitrary nature of life.