Design Reviewed

With over 10,000 printed artefacts the Design Reviewed website gives designers, researchers and creatives access to design history via magazines, posters and printed objects of all kinds. Created and maintained by designer Matt Lamont, the archive exists to document, preserve and celebrate graphic design by ensuring that designers are credited and their work is accessible to future generations.

In addition to the online archive, every item has a physical presence in Matt’s studio in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The collection is actively used to inspire students and professionals and spark conversations around the importance of preserving design heritage. Matt has hosted visitors from local and international educational institutions and undertaken frequent presentations in design schools and studios, while gaining a reputation as someone dedicated to collecting and preserving the often rare and sometimes forgotten artefacts of graphic design.

Now, Matt wants to bring the best of his collection into print. “After years of collecting, scanning, cataloguing, researching and stacking boxes in every available corner of the studio, the dream of a book is finally becoming a reality,” he says. “What started as an obsession with printed matter has grown into an archive of magazines, posters, ephemera, experiments, movements, forgotten names, iconic names, a century of graphic design history in physical form.”

Most graphic design archives are attached to and funded by universities and other institutions. Apart from a group of supporters who have signed up to the archive’s membership scheme, Matt is on his own. It’s a heroic solo effort and now there’s a chance to help him grow this important collection and ensure it can continue to inspire people long in the future. “I hope the book can be a celebration of visual reference, a study tool and a way of bringing the archive out of the boxes and shelves and into your hands,” he says. “Something you can return to again and again for inspiration and context.”