Design Observer is a website devoted to a broad range of design topics centered on graphic design

Graphic design

Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...

, communications arts, print, typography and criticism. The content of the site is composed of short essays and articles. These are organized by category.

Four prominent design writers founded the site in October 2003: Rick Poynor

Rick Poynor

Rick Poynor is a British writer on design, graphic design, typography and visual culture. He began as a general visual arts journalist, working on Blueprint magazine in London. After founding Eye magazine , which he edited from 1990 to 1997, he focused increasingly on visual communication...

 had been the founder and first editor of London-based Eye magazine, in addition to being author of many books; Michael Beirut is a partner in the New York office of Pentagram

Pentagram (design studio)

Pentagram is a design studio that was founded in 1972 by Alan Fletcher, Theo Crosby, Colin Forbes, Kenneth Grange and Mervyn Kurlansky in Needham Road, West London, UK...

 and is a design critic at Yale School of Art

Yale School of Art

The Yale School of Art is one of twelve constituent schools of Yale University. It is a professional art school, granting only Masters of Fine Arts degrees to those completing studies in graphic design, painting/printmaking, photography, or sculpture....

; Jessica Helfand

Jessica Helfand

Jessica Helfand is an author, columnist and lecturer on graphic design. She is the partner of William Drenttel of Winterhouse Studios, Winterhouse Editions and Winterhouse Institute located in Falls Village, Connecticut. She is a critic in graphic design at Yale University, where she earned her...

 is also a critic at Yale and is author of numerous books; William Drenttel

William Drenttel

William Drenttel is a graphic designer, editor, a partner in Winterhouse Studios, and President Emeritus of the American Institute of Graphic Arts . Drenttel received a BA in European Cultural Studies from Princeton University....

 is a designer, critic and partner with Jessica Helfand of Winterhouse Studios in Connecticut.

As of October 2007, contributing writers include: Steven Heller

Steven Heller (graphic design)

Steven Heller is an American art director, journalist, critic, author, and editor who specializes on topics related to graphic design....

, Adrian Shaughnessy, Dmitri Siegel, Alice Twemlow

Alice Twemlow

Alice Twemlow is a writer, critic and educator whose work focuses on graphic design.Twemlow earned an MA in design history from a joint program of the Royal College of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. She has been a guest critic at the Yale University School of Art and at RISD...

, Tom Vanderbilt

Tom Vanderbilt

Tom Vanderbilt is an American journalist, blogger, and author of the best-selling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do .-Personal life:...

 and Lorraine Wild

Lorraine Wild

-Biography:Lorraine Wild was born in Ontario, Canada, but has lived in America for a greater part of her life. She is a world-famous graphic designer, published writer, art historian, and art instructor of design. In 1973, she entered the Cranbrook Academy of Art program which was, at the time,...

.