Julia Thrift reviews the current exhibition at Sir John Soane’s Museum, which charts the abiding fascination British designers have for ancient Egypt’s extraordinary art and architecture

The project’s defining concept was that a child should be able to find their way home from school on...

Review of a talk by Sir John Tusa, who was born in a 'Bata' town in the Czech republic then, as a small child, moved to an identical town in remotest Essex...

Chris Whitty, the most high-profile chief medical officer England has ever had, is pushing the government to prioritise healthy homes and neighbourhoods, explains Julia Thrift

The Inequalities in Health Alliance is a coalition of more than 250 organisations, convened by the RCP, who campaign for a cross-government strategy to reduce health inequalities. This blogpost from the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) is…

In the second episode of Re-routing the City host India Block is joined by Tim Fendley and Julia Thrift to discuss the ways in which different road users occupy public space. The conversation ranges from the positive impacts that well-designed roads…

England's greenbelt could help solve multiple urgent problems

First, today’s health problems are radically different from those of the last century. Addressing them requires a different approach from councils, developers, communities, and health care providers – and close collaboration between them all. Put…

Protecting public parkland has much more than aesthetic value for the surrounding community. It brings big dividends in terms of quality of life, too.

Thrift will be in charge of the new unit, funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and wil...

Authors: Lucienne Roberts and Julia Thrift Published by Rotovision. ISBN: 9782880466787 An exploration of the fundamental role that grids have played in creative practice throughout the ages. Including essays on: architecture, music, furniture…

For fifteen years this UK practice has given typography a central place in graphic design The small, London-based design practice 8vo has an unusual position in the recent history of British graphics. Formed in 1985 by three then unknown designers,…

David Crow British designer David Crow uses his personal projects to question the authority of the graphic image. By Julia Thrift ‘The trouble is that what I do doesn’t fit into the traditional idea of what a graphic designer produces,’ says David…

Alan Kitching Letterpress’s eclipse by digital typesetting has been a liberation for typographer Alan Kitching High up in a converted warehouse in Clerkenwell, London, the sunny, pine-floored rooms of Alan Kitching’s studio seem a tranquil retreat.…

Perfume packaging must evoke the indescribable. It has its own designers, conventions and codes. Can you describe the smell of your favourite perfume? Apart from those who work in the perfume industry, the answer is probably no. Despite the fact that…

[First published in The Independent as 'The seamy side of sexless Scotland'. For more about Alasdair Gray see: alasdairgrayspace.net] While it would be perfectly accurate to describe Alasdair Gray as a writer and artist, to do so would be to miss the…

Barney Bubbles He was a pioneer of British graphics, but he refused to sign his own work To describe Whitton, on the outskirts of west London, as a suburb is to do it an injustice; Whitton is the epitome of English suburbia. A conservative backwater…