The Games Of A Lifetime
Features behind-the-scenes titbits, facts, surprises and some pretty funny anecdotes. But ultimately, this is all about games.
Pre-orders open now:
Four good books for competitive programming. The first one's PDf is a great resource if you are interested.
Looking for your next great read Maybe it's on the American Library Association's most recent list of the top ten "challenged" AKA banned books in the US:
Once again, a whole bunch of them feature and/or stories.
Communicate with your local boat owners.What Reveals About The
Audibles new features let you explore book worlds and use AI to talk to characters
Audible is rolling out new features that help listeners keep track of characters, explore places and imagery mentioned in books, and even interact with characters using generative AI.
Here's a new Patreon post that's free for everyone to read announcing the publication of my new book, Train Europe. In it, I talk about how I wrote the book and what's inside it.
The post also includes the video of the complete Q&A session which was held at the book launch at Readings last week, in which editor Bradley Smith asked me questions about Train Europe.
Enjoy!
086 with
She shares her thoughts about split , , pancake , , and .
She also replied to 's question
And, we got two recommendations.
Mysteries of a Communist Cave and the critic as detective
by
Gumshoe, the series of architecture books from Park Books, is a form of meta-criticism.
+ Studio Arrivals
Technologie afgedaan in zeven mythes
Ilyaz Nasrullah scoort makkelijk publiciteit met boeiend maar eenzijdig AI-boek
Dit is AI - De valse belofte van kunstmatige intelligentie van IT-expert en publicist Ilyaz Nasrullah maakt, heel eenzijdig, korte metten met positieve opvattingen over AI. Het leest lekker. Media rollen de rode loper uit voor de marketing.
Classic for fans of #1984 and . An interesting read to compare to Orwell's as 1984 was inspired by "We" written by Russian disident Yevgeny Zamyatin,.
Hi! Heres an awesome new sweet holiday romance called PUPPY TOYS & SLEIGH BELLS by Jennifer Faye is available now and it is the 1st book in the Kringle Falls Christmas Parade series!
Hello, heres a new romantic fantasy called HEART OF THE TROVE by Robin Clearbrook that is available now and it is the 1st book in the Dragons of Eolia series!
(23 Sept.) this Swedish childrens book Ture Sventon, Private Eye from 1948. Ive read it before, as a child, and I actually feel that it has aged pretty well. It was very humorous, I laughed out loud a few times when reading about this private investigator who changed his name from Sture Svensson to Ture Sventon because he cant pronounce the letter s.Alissa Laces cyberpunk romance novel, Neon Pulse, was released today.
Race, Racism, and Science: Social Impact and Interaction
"This well-organized, readable textbook takes the reader through a chronological account of how and why racial categories were created and how the study of race evolved in multiple academic disciplines, including genetics, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. "
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Disorder: Swiss Grit Vol. II Puts Fingerprints Back Into Graphic Design. Full Review on WE AND THE COLOR:
Disorder: Swiss Grit Vol. II Puts Fingerprints Back Into Graphic Design
Disorder: Swiss Grit Vol. II is a loud book with a quiet thesis. Chris Ashworth argues for handmade design through Cromalin marks and flatplan pencil, not through a manifesto. Well, I think he wins.
You know the dilemma generative tools now fill design feeds with smooth, plausible layouts. Against that flood, a 488-page monograph that counts its own AI use at zero feels almost rude. One library catalog even lists a variant title ending in 47,360 words, 548 images, 0 Ai.
I got the book as a birthday present last year. Now I have spent several more days with it before writing this review. The verdict held. So did my respect for the sheer labor.
Disorder: Swiss Grit Vol. II from Thames & HudsonIs Disorder: Swiss Grit Vol. II Worth the 5.34 Pounds on Your Desk
Yes, if you design with your hands or wish you did. Skip it if you want software tutorials, because the book teaches no tool. Instead, it shows one working mind. Among the best graphic design books of 2025, it argues most openly against the screen.
Disorder: Swiss Grit Vol. II is a 488-page monograph on the designer Chris Ashworth. Thames & Hudson released it in March 2025, after a first UK edition from its Unit Editions imprint in 2024. The book covers work from 1997 to 2024. It documents his Swiss Grit method, which fuses Swiss discipline with street typography.
Amazon lists the hardcover at 9.2 by 11.2 inches, 1.9 inches thick, and 5.34 pounds. Eye magazines reviewer rounds the weight to 2.5 kilograms. The UK list price is 60. You will not read it on a train.
Quick Facts at a Glance
DetailFactTitleDisorder: Swiss Grit Vol. IIAuthorChris AshworthContributorsConversation with Marvin Scott Jarrett afterword by Adrian ShaughnessyPublisherThames & Hudson (first published in 2024 by its Unit Editions imprint)Publication dateMarch 18, 2025Pages488FormatHardcover, 9.2 x 1.9 x 11.2 inches, 5.34 poundsWork covered1997 to 2024, including Ray Gun issues 44 to 58ISBN-13 / ISBN-10978-0500029060 / 0500029067UK list price60Core ideaHandmade, process-first graphic design with no AIWhat Does Swiss Grit Mean, and Why Does the Title Say Disorder
Ashworth names two influences. The first is the Swiss international style of the 1950s and 1960s. He studied it at York College of Arts & Technology from 1988 to 1990. Josef Mller-Brockmann, Armin Hofmann, and Emil Ruder shone brightest for him. His thesis covered Ruder, and he still keeps a copy in his archive.
Street culture supplies the second influence. Think of signage, peeling posters, and any type that people and weather have damaged outdoors. Ashworth finds beauty in that imperfection. He also treats it as a personal comment on life.
So here is a working definition. Swiss Grit is a design method that keeps the Swiss grid and lets street texture and chance act on it. The publishers copy says the blend brings some soul. I would add that it also brings risk.
Next comes the title. Ashworth says, Disorder captures the duality inside Swiss Grit, a mix of rigor and serendipity. It also nods to Joy Division, because music shapes how he works.
Adrian Shaughnessy wrote the afterword, titled Grit and Grunge vs. Digital Hygiene. His image for the method is the best one on offer. Swiss Modernism is a boat moored at a harbor wall. Ashworth has untied it and let it drift out to sea. He adds his own condition. Nobody can untie a boat that nobody built well.
What Is Inside Disorder: Swiss Grit Vol. II
The book mixes Ray Gun spreads with other commissions. Personal projects add a third strand. Each one shows a different side of the same hand.
Ray Gun, 1997 to 1998
Ashworth made his name by replacing David Carson at Ray Gun, as Steven Heller notes in Print. The book prints published and unpublished work from issues 44 to 58. It also adds marked-up Cromalins, diary entries, and discarded early layouts.
Four spreads reward a slow look. Pages 36 and 37 hold the Bowie feature. Goldie follows on pages 184 and 185. Radiohead sits on pages 192 and 193, and Pearl Jam fills pages 232 and 233.
Ray Gun publisher Marvin Scott Jarrett gave Ashworth carte blanche. As a result, you can feel the freedom in the layouts.
Commissioned Work Beyond the Magazine
Ashworth counts about 350 pages of paid work, Ray Gun included. Besides the magazine, that figure covers a Getty Images book from Laurence King. It also covers a Michael Stipe book from Little, Brown. Music commissions came from Gavin Rossdale at Capitol Records and from New Order at Mute Records. Campaigns for Nike and Adobe round it out.
One anecdote sticks. Rossdale answered Ashworths first Bush roughs with a couple of lines by email. Then a single turn of phrase in those lines guided the rest of the project. Clients who trust a designer rarely need to say more.
Personal Work on Pages 350 to 435
Eighty-five pages hold Ashworths own projects. They include sound-in-print art and typewriter poems, plus photographs of found type. Pages 364 and 365 show type in the wild, while pages 428 and 429 show typewriter art.
Here is my least safe opinion. This section matters more than Ray Gun. The magazine work sells the book, but the personal work shows why Ashworth keeps making things when no client asks.
Why the Process Archive Is the Real Subject
Most monographs hide the mess. This one prints it.
Heller observes that the majority of images show chaotic work in progress instead of pristine finishes. Jeremy Leslie, reviewing the book in Eye, adds that it prints sketches, flat plan diagrams, and Cromalin proofs beside finished layouts. That archive exists because Ashworth hoards. He mentions shifting 36 boxes of material across the Atlantic several times in 30 years.
In practice, a flatplan shows the pacing of an issue before any type touches a page, and a marked-up Cromalin shows exactly what the designer wanted changed after the first proof, so a reader who has only worked on screens gets a clear view into decisions that software now hides behind an undo button. Because Disorder: Swiss Grit Vol. II prints both, it works as a studio manual disguised as a fan book. When did you last see a proof with a designers pen marks on it
Ashworth also tackles the question every designer asks about finishing. His rule is simple. A piece ends when it feels resolved and whole. Sometimes a clients feedback shaped the result, and he admits it. That honesty carries weight, because he spent over two decades running in-house studios at Microsoft, Nokia, and Getty Images.
The captions do the teaching.
Ashworth wrote them himself, in a chatty first-person voice. Leslie finds them engaging and sometimes repetitive. Shaughnessy calls that candor unusual for a designer. I agree with both. The text runs to 47,360 words, roughly a short novel. Those captions turn a picture book into a working diary.
Scoring the Book With the Hand-Trace Index
Star ratings judge pictures. This book deserves a score for labor, so I built the Hand-Trace Index (HTI). The HTI is a 10-point measure of how much visible human work a design book exposes. It averages three sub-scores.
HTI ComponentWhat It MeasuresScoreWhyProcess ExposureShare of pages that show work in progress9 / 10Heller reads most images as in-process, not polishedMaterial VarietyRange of physical methods on display9 / 10Cromalins, flatplans, diary entries, typewriter poems, found-type photographyCaption CandorHow openly the designer explains decisions8 / 10First-person and engaging, but Leslie notes repetitionHand-Trace IndexAverage of the three8.7 / 10High on labor, slightly loose on editingThe Mooring Test
Chaos alone proves nothing. A messy spread can hide the absence of any skeleton. So I use the Mooring Test. Look at a chaotic spread and ask whether you could redraw a grid beneath the damage.
If you can, the spread still has a boat to untie, and if you cannot, the designer only made noise, so try the test on the Radiohead spread on pages 192 and 193 with tracing paper and a ruler, and decide for yourself whether the grid survives the damage. My read is that the best spreads pass.
Where Disorder: Swiss Grit Vol. II Falls Short
No book this heavy escapes complaints. Leslie flags the captions as sometimes repetitive, and that is fair. A 488-page diary will circle back to its favorite stories.
Analog nostalgia is a trap here too. Leslie points out that older designers have long fetishized scalpels and Letraset. Ashworth escapes it because his passion for self-expression reads as real. Even so, designers under 30 who never touched Letraset may want a glossary.
Size creates an irony. Shaughnessy admits unease about the ecological footprint of giant books. Yet Disorder is a giant book that argues against screen dependency. A 5.34-pound hardcover has a footprint of its own.
Scope surprises some buyers. Vol. II starts in 1997. The rave flyers belong to Vol. I. So do the Interference collaboration with photographer John Holden and the early Blah Blah Blah work. Ashworth described that book as in progress in March 2025.
Finally, the AI-free label deserves less attention than it gets. It makes a good headline. The pages make a better argument.
How Do the Three Swiss Grit Volumes Fit Together
Ashworth maps the trilogy onto Depeche Mode records. Vol. II is the expansive Music for the Masses period. Vol. I is the claustrophobic Black Celebration. For Vol. III he wonders whether he has a Violator left in him or a Memento Mori.
VolumePeriodPlanned ContentStatusVol. I1990 to 1997Rave and club flyers from northern England, Interference with John Holden, MTV work with Tomato and Anton Corbijn, Blah Blah Blah, Ray Gun: Out of ControlIn the worksVol. II1997 to 2024Ray Gun, commissions, personal work, found typePublishedVol. IIINot specifiedLeft open by AshworthNo details givenWho Should Buy This Analog Graphic Design Book
Editorial designers get the most from it, because the flat plans and Cromalin proofs show how an issue gets built. Students come second, since the book prices a finished layout in discarded drafts. Type people will treat it as a handmade typography book. Collectors will want Disorder: Swiss Grit Vol. II as a Ray Gun magazine design book with real archive value.
Readers who want a style template should pass. Ashworth sells no preset, and no filter copies the Swiss Grit method. Does your own work still carry a trace of your hand
How Should You Use This Book
Treat it as a studio exercise book. These four steps get the most out of it:
Predictions: Where Swiss Grit and Handmade Design Go Next
These are my forecasts, not facts. Judge them in 2027.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Disorder: Swiss Grit Vol. II about
Disorder: Swiss Grit Vol. II is a Thames & Hudson monograph on the designer Chris Ashworth. It follows his Swiss Grit method from Ray Gun in 1997 to 2024. Sketches, proofs and personal projects fill the pages.
Who is Chris Ashworth
Chris Ashworth is a British graphic designer who gained notice at Ray Gun magazine in the late 1990s. He later spent more than two decades as a creative director running in-house studios at Microsoft, Nokia and Getty Images.
What does Swiss Grit mean
Swiss Grit is Ashworths name for a design method that blends Swiss modernist principles with a typographic street aesthetic. The grid supplies the discipline. Street texture and chance supply the soul.
Is Disorder really AI-free
Thames & Hudson describes the book as an AI-free zone. Ashworth is blunter in his Print interview: AI can kiss my art. He argues that creative development away from the computer has unique merits.
Do I need Vol. I before reading Vol. II
No. Vol. II came out first and stands alone. Vol. I, covering 1990 to 1997, was still in progress when Print interviewed Ashworth in March 2025.
How big is the book, and what does it cost
The hardcover has 488 pages, measures 9.2 by 11.2 inches, and weighs 5.34 pounds. Eye lists the UK price at 60.
Which spreads should I look at first
Start with the Bowie spread on pages 36 and 37, then the typewriter art on pages 428 and 429. The Nike commission on pages 472 and 473 comes last.
Browse WE AND THE COLORs Graphic Design and Books categories for more.
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newsletterform type=minimalWhen I replace the batter for me , the world will become a much better place for me.
The device is not just for reading books. But also papers(#academia), and posts.
PS: This is assuming that nothing else is broken in there...
of books is old fashion for dictators. The modern way is . As well as hunting bloggers, activists and so on.
How has your library helped you in a way that impacted your life
It is more important than ever to highlight all that libraries and librarians do for their communities.
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Hello to the anonymous person who bought an unexpectedly-signed-by-the-author copy of the Wide-Angle Photography book at Pittsford Plaza in Rochester, NY back in 2018. Hope you liked the surprise. Also surprisingly easy to convince the bookshop that I was the actual author and let me sign it That opens so much room for shenanigans
It can be disappointing to learn that your local library doesnt carry the specific item youre looking for.
That's where interlibrary loans come in!
You've read the tales, now get the books!
Are there any recommendations for I see a lot, but I love personal recommendations.
#TRADESHOW The s 2026 will be held from November 13 to 15, 2026, at Shanghai & , . Fair has developed into a major childrens and content event in the -Pacific region, bringing together , copyright agents, , , , , content companies, licensors, and cultural organizations.
Musashi by Sean Michael Wilson and Michiru Morikawa (2014). A swashbuckling biography bordering on the hagiographic, in which Miyamoto Musashi's adoptive son narrates his the life of his polymath father. The B&W artwork is attractive, but I found the constant changes in perspective disorienting. The sole female character speaks one single line. 4pp of notes.
Apparently #7 in a series of graphic history reviews.
A book on AI cites my work
WITTY URBAN FANTASY sets a powerful interdimensional being down in 1982 Chicago, embodied in the form of a cat. Can Mr. Whiskers help stave off the apocalypse while navigating endless metaphysical bureaucracy Fun and absorbing. B PLUS
Featuring JAMES T FARRELL, Greatness and Grandeur by Wayne F Burke
James T. Farrell authored 52 volumes during his lifetime (1904-1979).
He may have had hypergraphia, an overwhelming drive to write, frequently associated with temporal lobe epilepsy. He definitely had logorrhea, an excessive wordiness, sometimes associated with manic phases of bipolarity. He was never diagnosed with either compulsion, though late in his life, when he began swallowing dexedrine pills (speed), he had what could be called manic episodes.
These psychological variables do not, however, take away from his achievement of being one of the most prolific major authors in American literary history.
Nor does the widely-variable quality his overall productionmediocre to more stellar work, such as the now classic STUDS LONIGAN trilogy (1935-39), and his series of novels known as the ONeill-OFlaherty penthology. My study of the life and work of this literary giant includes mention of all his works, with synopses and explication of all the major as well as many minor works of the canon. STUDS set the bar for hard-boiled realistic writing.
The ONeill-OFlaherty books cemented Farrells reputation as a literary artist. Few writers made as auspicious a beginning. Few writers suffered, as did Farrell, so pronounced an eclipse to his reputation or so prolonged a decline. Years before his death, Farrell was spoken of in posthumous terms.
My book charts the rise and fall of this would-be colossus of literary endeavor. A fascinating story to me one particularly American, reinforcing the axiom that there is in American culture, no second act.
Extract
Like Twains HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1884), which exposes dark truths underpinning the founding of the American Republicchauvinism, racism, and anti-intellectualismSTUDS is also an expose of the nightmare beneath the surface of America the Beautiful, the Bountiful, and (in these days, 2025) the Great. The horror of the books nightmare vision being rather than delinquents Studs and company are the boys next door, future leaders, ward bosses, cops, and political functionariesnot gangsters and inmates (excepting skunks like Weary Reilly) and, as such, the bulwarks of the nation.
The frightful irony implicit in these books is that the enemies of democratic ideals, chauvinists, racist, homophobes, xenophobes, etc., become guardians of those ideals. The foxes, in other words, end up in charge of the hen house. A truth that makes Farrells trilogy as relevant a social document todaydoes it ever! As in 1935.
Farrell had a love affair with the American National pastime baseball. A game once thought to have been invented by Abner Doubleday but later discovered to have been stolen from the American Indianslike so much else. In post-Civil War years, the game entered upon a boom period. Civil War soldiers were said to have often turned battlefields into ballfields in their embrace of baseball, and on return home continued playing the game.
Some of the love due to what Farrell called the poetry of the game. The poetry contained in the spectacle, the movement, the sounds, the crack of the bat, swift change from routine dullness to sudden and dramatic excitement. Also, the informed sense of grandeur, of hope (to a boy).
As a five-year-old lad, James attended his first Chicago White Sox game at Comiskey Park on the south side of Chicago. Brought there by his father. Coincidentally, the year the park opened for business. Between 1911 and 1913, Farrell estimated his attendance at 40-50 ball games. One of his fondest childhood baseball memories was watching Big Ed Walsh of the White Sox pitch a no-hit game against the Boston Red Sox.
The boy was considered by some adults a baseball prodigy. Young James had the familiar American boyhood dream of becoming a Major League baseball player (so too did Ialas!). A dream of many a boy, but one rarely achieved, the odds against such a success being phenomenally high statistically. The percentage of high school ball players who make it to the Major Leagues, 0.0072 %. American high school players who go on to play college ball, 7.3%. Of these players, 0.5% are selected in the Major League draft (Google, 2024, NCAA statistics).
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As much as I like reading, I shudder when I read about people's home collections of thousands of books. It's not hoarding I guess, but it sounds related.
"Danny Yee faced a dilemma 15 years ago when he and his partner moved from Sydney to Britain: what to do with all the books hed amassed over the years If youve ever moved house, youve probably been in the same predicament. Theyre heavy, they take up space, theyre a pain to shift. If youve actually read the books, then why keep them will you ever read them again Then there are those books youve accumulated but never opened and probably never will, possibly stacked neatly on that Ikea bookcase or languishing in a holding pattern on your bedside table."
"Eating sweet biscuits could thus be seen as a form of preventive medicine, as a means of keeping the body in a state of harmony with the cosmos."
-- Lizzie Collingham
The Biscuit
Funnier without context.