Zoe Guttenplan

The signs in Britain tell stories — of a young school-girl in South Africa, some off-duty airmen, a French town sticking its nose up. A new book dedicated to #MargaretCalvert celebrates the glory of great public design.

My latest for @litreview.bsky.social

literaryreview.co.uk/man-opening-...

Essay | Inside the Vanishing Point by Zoe Guttenplan - The London Magazine From our February / March issue, Zoe Guttenplan on vanishing points, the age of sameness and the merits and shortcomings of 'clear' typography.

'Electronic media has done away with both the fixed point and the frame. Once we were individuals each gazing towards a single, vanishing, point; now we are a mass.'

@zoeguttenplan.bsky.social on invisible media, AI and the age of sameness: thelondonmagazine.org/article/essa...

Zoe Guttenplan - Font of Information Zoe Guttenplan: Font of Information - Type Designers of the Twentieth Century by David Jury

“…hundreds of tiny letters could then be cast in a fast-cooling lead alloy – rows of ‘O’s like eyes and ‘I’s like soldiers, perfectly identical, ready to be printed.”

I wrote about the history of fonts, and who gets to say they designed a typeface, for @litreview.bsky.social

I wrote about the Microsoft Word default font you didn't know you were using

Colors and Shapes | Zoe Guttenplan, Daniel Drake “The best design is one that is clearly and immediately comprehensible but also notably beautiful.”

Here I am in @nybooks.com talking about mass transit, book design, Mrs Dalloway

www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

A brilliant review by @zoeguttenplan.bsky.social for @litreview.bsky.social, including a nice mention of @markhussey.bsky.social's new book, Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a novel', which is "full of delightful details" about the modernist masterpiece.

Full review linked below 👇 #booksky

Zoe Guttenplan - To the Postbox Zoe Guttenplan: To the Postbox - The Uncollected Letters of Virginia Woolf by Stephen Barkway & Stuart N Clarke (edd)

There are 1,400+ newly collected Virginia Woolf letters. Some of them are peak Woolf cattiness, some are heartbreaking. I wrote about this incredible feat of scholarship and indispensable resource in
@litreview.bsky.social

literaryreview.co.uk/to-the-postbox

The sensational designs of Alphonse Mucha | Apollo Magazine In his posters and illustrations, the art nouveau artist fused Slavic motifs with Japanese influences to create a style that was truly cutting-edge, writes Zoe Guttenplan

‘When Sarah Bernhardt called to request a new advertisement for her production of Gismonda, Mucha was in the right place at the right time.’ – Zoe Guttenplan on the life and work of Alphonse Mucha

Happy centenary to Mrs. Dalloway! I listened to the leaden circles dissolve on my way to work this morning and smiled.

Spaghetti Underground | Zoe Guttenplan Massimo Vignelli wore a chalk-stripe suit. He stood on the stage of Cooper Union’s Great Hall, one hand holding a microphone with a long, snaking cord,

"It’s not quite as sexy as the 1972 original, but it is a lot more functional, even as it reproduces some of the design features for which Vignelli was criticized back then." —@zoeguttenplan.bsky.social on NYC subway maps for @nybooks.com

www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

The sensational designs of Alphonse Mucha | Apollo Magazine In his posters and illustrations, the art nouveau artist fused Slavic motifs with Japanese influences to create a style that was truly cutting-edge, writes Zoe Guttenplan

In his posters and illustrations, the art nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha fused Slavic motifs with Japanese influences to create a style that was truly cutting-edge, writes Zoe Guttenplan

Terrific, terrific piece. (I would nerdishly defend the MTA spending money on the contactless payments as an absolute necessity, though.)

Spaghetti Underground | Zoe Guttenplan Massimo Vignelli wore a chalk-stripe suit. He stood on the stage of Cooper Union’s Great Hall, one hand holding a microphone with a long, snaking cord,

I’m in @nybooks.com online today, writing about the new MTA Subway Diagram — and the long history of failed subway maps that came before.

www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

Zoe Guttenplan - Hashtag Living Zoe Guttenplan: Hashtag Living - Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (Translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes)

Lovely to see #Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes, shortlisted for the #InternationalBookerPrize (@fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social)

Here’s my review from March:

literaryreview.co.uk/hashtag-living

Zoe Guttenplan - No Sex Please, We’re Married Zoe Guttenplan: No Sex Please, We’re Married - Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata (Translated from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori)

I wrote about the new Sayaka Murata novel for @litreview.bsky.social. The piece comes with a pretty good headline and a Charlotte Perkins Gilman shout out.

literaryreview.co.uk/no-sex-pleas...

What a privilege to design the cover of the forthcoming @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social edition of Mrs. Dalloway. Thinking of rebirth, renewal etc on this surprisingly sunny day here in London, 84 years after Virginia's death

www.nyrb.com/products/mrs...

Literary Review - For People Who Devour Books In the Current Issue: Peter Marshall on the Peasants' War * Philip Snow on Hiroshima * Jonathan Sumption on free speech * Stephen Smith on Gilbert & George * Maria Margaronis on Chimamanda Ngozi Adich...

Out now! Literary Review's March 2025 issue, featuring

Peter Marshall on the Peasants' War
Jonathan Sumption on free speech
@mariamargaronis.bsky.social on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Owen Matthews on the Baltic
Stephen Smith on Gilbert & George

and much, much more: literaryreview.co.uk

A Town Without Time, Gay Talese; New York Sketches, E.B White | Review When the late city edition of the New York Times hit the pavement on April 8, 1972, it was following in the final footsteps of “Crazy Joe” Gallo, the mob boss whose austere gaze met readers’ eyes from...

I wrote about New York — its legends, its underbelly — for @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.co.uk/world/cities...

And I was v pleased to read my own words in Washington Review of Books latest newsletter

www.washingreview.com/p/wrbdec-4-2...

Zoe Guttenplan - Shadow Lives Zoe Guttenplan: Shadow Lives - The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami (Translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel)

I love libraries, so I was excited to read Murakami’s latest about a DREAM library. Here are my thoughts: literaryreview.co.uk/shadow-lives

No one tells you that a large portion of your time in archives will be spent wondering what the words ‘ongyny’ ‘suprenes’ or ‘snoroings’ would be if you could only read your subject’s handwriting

Heading across the pond to spend three weeks in the @nypl.bsky.social special collections. Wonder if they’ll let me take Woolf’s walking stick for a spin around the room.