5/24/12 9:19 PMWhen nuclear terror reigned - Imprint - Salon.com

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ImprintThursday, May 24, 2012 08:00 PM EDT

When nuclear terror reigned

Old handbooks about atomic annihilation allow a fascinating glimpse into some of our greatest fearsBy Steven Heller, Imprint

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England has a long tradition of dystopian prophecy in literature and cinema. The likes of H.G. Wells, George Orwell, J.G. Ballard, and Ridley Scott allseem to revel in presenting doomsday scenarios. Films such as 1961!s “The Day the Earth Caught Fire,” and the 1965 BBC docudrama “The WarGame,” depicting a Soviet nuclear strike on England, as well as books like Raymond Briggs’ “When the Wind Blows,” a deceivingly innocent tale of

untold horror, are among the works that underscore the British fascination with and fixation on nuclear devastation.

Fascination? More like well-earned trepidation. After all, during World War II, London was blitzed nightly by German bombs and rockets, its citizenry enduring what mostcivilized beings could barely imagine. If Hitler had developed the atomic bomb, England would have suffered the same fate as Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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England was forced to develop a sophisticated civil-defense apparatus, which included publishing cautionary guides like this handbook “Advising The Householder onProtection Against Nuclear Attack.” With the same kind of low-key narrative that a “householder” might read on how to survive a bug or rodent infestation, this “trainingpublication for the civil defense, the police and fire services” addresses protective measures, needed equipment, what to do after an attack, and how to “manage” life “under fall-out conditions.” The text is reservedly quaint, underplaying the tragic impact of nuclear war, and the illustrations lack the slightest hint of horror. Indeed, by Jove, it is actuallykind of comforting.

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Similar handbooks in the United States were shrill by comparison. While they suggested that survival was possible, the magnitude of a nuclear attack was never minimized.

This handbook was republished by the V&A in 2008—for what purpose, other than nostalgia, is unclear. I reproduce it here as a curio from a time when our biggest enemy wasthe Soviet Union. With all the natural and man-made potential catastrophes at our doorstep, one almost longs for those days.

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5/24/12 9:19 PMWhen nuclear terror reigned - Imprint - Salon.com

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Copyright F+W Media Inc. 2012. Salon is proud to feature content from Imprint, the fastest-growing design community on the web. Brought to you by Print magazine,America's oldest and most trusted design voice, Imprint features some of the biggest names in the industry covering visual culture from every angle. Imprint advances andexpands the design conversation, providing fresh daily content to the community (and now to salon.com!), sparking conversation, competition, criticism, and passion among itsmembers.

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Wednesday, May 23, 2012 08:00 PM EDT

Illustrating the ’60s music revolution

How one book captured the spirit and art of the cultural transformation -- as it was happeningBy Michael Dooley, Imprint

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“When did music become so important?” That’s Don Draper from last week’s “Mad Men,” set in 1966. Later in the episode he turns off “TomorrowNever Knows,” from the Beatles album “Revolver,” and walks out of the room.

5/24/12 9:19 PMWhen nuclear terror reigned - Imprint - Salon.com

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Continue Reading Copyright F+W Media Inc. 2012. Salon is proud to feature content from Imprint, the fastest-growing design community on the web. Brought to you by Print magazine,America's oldest and most trusted design voice, Imprint features some of the biggest names in the industry covering visual culture from every angle. Imprint advances andexpands the design conversation, providing fresh daily content to the community (and now to salon.com!), sparking conversation, competition, criticism, and passion among itsmembers.

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Tuesday, May 22, 2012 08:00 PM EDT

How to resurrect a comic book

Should revived comics be made to look new or faded? Two releases explore both approachesBy Steven Brower, Imprint

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This article originally appeared on Imprint.

Memory is evanescent. I can’t recall where I made the purchase; perhaps it was during an elementary-school or Cub Scout trip. Nor do I remember myexact age; it was anywhere between 8 and 10. What I do remember vividly is the visceral experience: the feel and smell of the paper as I unfurled it. Thesense that I was both witnessing and experiencing history, which I then held tangibly in my hands. In the morning of that day, my mother had given me

some small change for the day’s trip, and I spent it on a reproduction of the Declaration of Independence. It was printed on a rough-hewn, yellow paper stock with stains on both

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sides, and it had a rigidity that made it hard to open (it was folded in quarters). The reproduction possessed a distinct smell, and the texture was coarse, as if it was once dampand left to dry. “Onion paper,” my mother explained when I got home. It sounded exotic. Sadly, I’ve forgotten the whereabouts of that formative piece of paper, but the power ofthe experience has remained.

Continue Reading Copyright F+W Media Inc. 2012. Salon is proud to feature content from Imprint, the fastest-growing design community on the web. Brought to you by Print magazine,America's oldest and most trusted design voice, Imprint features some of the biggest names in the industry covering visual culture from every angle. Imprint advances andexpands the design conversation, providing fresh daily content to the community (and now to salon.com!), sparking conversation, competition, criticism, and passion among itsmembers.

Steven Brower is a graphic designer, writer and educator and the former Creative Director/ Art Director of Print. He is the author/designer of books on Louis Armstrong, MortMeskin, Woody Guthrie and the history of mass-market paperbacks. He is Director of the “Get Your Masters with the Masters” low residency MFA program for educators andworking professionals at Marywood University in Scranton, Pa. @stevenianbrower More Steven Brower.

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Monday, May 21, 2012 08:00 PM EDT

Donny Osmond: Design icon

In the1970s, teen magazines were my obsession -- and inspired my love of designBy Gail Anderson

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5/24/12 9:19 PMWhen nuclear terror reigned - Imprint - Salon.com

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This article originally appeared on Imprint.

Before there was a Justin Bieber — before there was even a Justin Timberlake — there was Donny Osmond. One summer night in the 1970s, my poor older brother, Mike, wasforced to take his preteen sisters to see Donny and those other Osmonds, as well as the Jackson 5, at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Imagine the stress of worrying about two adolescent girls and their obligatory mutual friend dancing their way down from the cheap seats to the slightlybetter view one section below. Mike was in college, and my sister and I weren’t even in high school yet. I guess that’s why our brother sat ducked downin his seat, hiding behind a newspaper.

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Thursday, May 17, 2012 05:42 PM EDT

Rising design star: Naz Sahin

This Turkish creator's work has been showcased everywhere from "Saturday Night Live" to Good MagazineBy William Bostwick, Imprint

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5/24/12 9:19 PMWhen nuclear terror reigned - Imprint - Salon.com

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This article originally appeared on Imprint. It's part of Print magazine's annual New Visual Artist series that profiles 20 of the most promising rising talents around the world inthe fields of graphic design, advertising, illustration, digital media, photography and animation.

Infographic and layout design for Newsweek (designed with Emily Oberman and BonnieSiegler at Number 17), 2009

Naz Sahin uses the word obsessed often, but with purpose. Obsessively, you might say. But not when she talks about design. Her work is humble, orderly, packed with detail butexpertly crafted: not a mosaic—a perfect brick wall. “I think she’s more creative than me,” says her husband and sometime collaborator, Serifcan Ozcan. “But she wouldn’t saythat.” In the kitchen, it’s a different story, Ozcan says: “She takes over.”

Continue Reading Copyright F+W Media Inc. 2012. Salon is proud to feature content from Imprint, the fastest-growing design community on the web. Brought to you by Print magazine,America's oldest and most trusted design voice, Imprint features some of the biggest names in the industry covering visual culture from every angle. Imprint advances andexpands the design conversation, providing fresh daily content to the community (and now to salon.com!), sparking conversation, competition, criticism, and passion among itsmembers.

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Wednesday, May 16, 2012 08:00 PM EDT

Selling Zionism in the 1920s

The Palestine Poster Project reveals attempts to entice settlers into what is now IsraelBy Steven Heller, Imprint

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Dan Walsh’s incredibly rich Palestine Poster Project Archives includes much in the way of protest, but it also contains a trove of rare Zionist/Israeliposters from the 1920s through the ’50s, largely before partition. The ones excerpted here are from the Mahmoud Darwish Memorial Gallery, whichincludes a collection of Zionist Worker agency posters calling for increased development of Palestine.

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