Nigel Ball
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Nigel Ball
@nigelball.co.uk
810 followers 810 following 130 posts
designer, educator, writer | Ipswich, UK
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Among other things, we saw Mark Požlep’s Leviathan—SPILL’s flagship commission for 2025—an audio-visual installation in Ipswich’s St Clement’s Church. A moving work about the Suffolk coast, the fishing industry, and geopolitical forces that have brought incalculable social and environmental change.
Two screens with images of cranes and water. In front, someone sits on a red sofa, and a stain glass window can be seen above the screens in the background.
October 26, 2025 at 2:29 PM
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Psyche out

digital screen x iPhone lens
A digital advertising screen with colourful moiré pattern, in front of long grass, poppies and railings
June 8, 2025 at 9:45 AM
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Skip typography
Black letters on a yellow painted metal surface with some rust Black letters on a yellow painted metal surface with some rust
May 27, 2025 at 7:02 PM
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Living typography
A grave stone with moss growing in carved letters
May 26, 2025 at 5:35 AM
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2/2

I’m hoping it will act as a personal motivator, after the project has been in semi-hiatus for several years while the day-job dominated my time. Hopefully, it can also be a critical prompt for how we consider the impact of graphic design upon of our shared environments.
A billboard with ripped adverts overlaid on each other. Two faces can be seen on the left.
May 24, 2025 at 9:29 AM
nigelball.co.uk
1/2

Graphic Commons is a long running research project exploring the visual culture of public space. As a way to collect and organise my thoughts, I’ve launched an Instagram feed for the project—not an outcome, more a journal.

Instagram.com/graphiccommons

#urbanism #visualculture #visualsociology
A shop window vinyl display of bottle of drink with a grill in front
May 24, 2025 at 9:29 AM
nigelball.co.uk
1/4
Anarcho-typography!

I’ve just finished reading Boff Whalley’s (of Chumbawamba + @commonerschoir.bsky.social fame) book: ‘But—Life Isn’t Like That, Is It?’

Designed and typeset by Bracketpress, it’s a thing of anarchic typesetting and literary digressions, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A yellow book cover with the words: But—Life Isn’t Like That, Is It? A double page book spread with chaotic typesetting. A double page spread of a book with typesetting horizontal on one page and vertical on another, and the word disruptors bold across the margin. A double page spread from a book with the text typeset in the margins.
April 25, 2025 at 2:08 PM
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1/4
What started as an exploration into civic pride, maps, supergraphics and psychogeography by University of Suffolk Graphic Illustration student Sammi Wong, has now gone large on the side of R & W Paul’s redundant silo building on Ipswich’s waterfront.
A building with a large colourful map on it side
April 11, 2025 at 7:06 AM
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Exploiting my dog for likes
A grey dog looking up
April 6, 2025 at 8:17 AM
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#makeitfair
A display of UK newspapers, most with Make It Fair written in large letters on their cover on a blue background
February 25, 2025 at 8:41 AM
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3/5
… it is sparking so many thoughts, and I haven’t even read the book yet.

Designed by bracketpress.co.uk, it’s a visually exciting object and great to see form being played with in such a way again. …
Handwritten notes in a note book
February 22, 2025 at 9:58 AM
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2/5
… From Stanley Morrison’s Gollancz yellow covers to Futurist experiments in Zang Tumb Tumb, …
A yellow book jacket with name of people in different typefaces A page of a book with the typography set in circles and horizontally
February 22, 2025 at 9:58 AM
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1/5
I’ve just received Boff Whalley’s new book from @pmpress.bsky.social, and there are so many typographic reference points, I feel an essay coming on. …
A yellow book with text reading: Boff Whalley. But Life Isn’t Like That, Is It. The back cover of a yellow book with text printed in reverse, and columns of text A double page spread of type with the word ‘freedom’ increasing in type size letter by letter A double page spread of various type layouts
February 22, 2025 at 9:58 AM
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Now I know! It was deliberate.
Black text reading: ‘To create the band logo, Starr used Letraset and, as per Jerry's instruction, made the lettering bold, heavy and non-descript. Measuring exactly two inches, the height of the lettering ensured the sleeve would be clearly visible in a record shop rack. Affixing a roll of black and white check tape to stretch alongside the band name, the final request was the inclusion of seven deliberate mistakes. They included 'roughing up' the typography to include smudges and uneven lines, listed song titles running 'downhill' and a nick clipped into the base letter 'C' of Specials. That was for Chalkie and Carol, says Davies. We had become Davies & Starr but Jerry thought that was impersonal, so I suggested taking a little bit out of the band lettering.'
February 3, 2025 at 6:33 PM
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For 45 years I’ve wondered about that little missing bit of the C in Specials on their first and second albums.
A black and white record sleeve with 7 men standing looking up, the word Specials at the top next to black and white squares, and a track listing down the right hand side A close up of a word with a capital C and a small gap at the bottom of the letter A group of people sitting around a table of drinks with the words More Specials at the top and a pink circular sticker. A close up of a word with a capital C and a small gap at the bottom of the letter above a colour photo of a head
February 3, 2025 at 6:33 PM
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…and Louis Hellman’s illustration ‘Early Corb’, from his Architêtes series, gets a full page reproduction in an article about the cartoonist who contributed regularly to Architects’ Journal.

6/6
A photograph of a magazine page featuring a full page illustration of geometric shapes forming a human face of a bald man in round black glasses wearing o bow tie
December 8, 2024 at 11:28 AM
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An Eduardo Paolozzi mosaic is mentioned in a feature on Redditch New Town…

5/6
A photograph of a magazine page with black text, the title ‘Red brick, green plan’, and a photo of a colourful abstract mosaic
December 8, 2024 at 11:28 AM
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A call out for citizen research submissions of ‘pithead baths’, to record this important aspect of working class modern architectural history, is accompanied by a Miners’ Modernism banner by Ed Hall.

4/6
A photograph of a magazine page with black text and the title Miners’ Modernism. It also features a banner with a colourful abstract illustration of a building and the sun and a giant man, and the words: Miners’ Modernism, Pithead Baths, Architecture Welfare and Coal
December 8, 2024 at 11:28 AM
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Graphic designer FHK Henrion’s incredible Beckenham street sculpture, a large 3-D road map, is featured in a section about Heritage of London’s restoration programme.

3/6
A photograph of a magazine page featuring black text, the title: Spotlight, Heritage of London Trust, and a photo of a street sign in the form of a 3-d road map
December 8, 2024 at 11:28 AM
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…the featured typeface for the latest issue is Fernhout, by The Foundry Types and Thonik, and is based on Wim Crouwell’s display font for a 1963 exhibition of painter Edger Fernhout.

2/6
A photograph of a magazine page with black text and two colour photographs A photograph of a magazine page with a black background, a photo of a ‘modern’ single story building, and an abstract typeface heading that reads: the tale of two houses
December 8, 2024 at 11:28 AM
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The 6th + final edition of The City Is Ours is out now and explores Involuntary Sculptures.

Having followed the series from the first edition, it’s an honour to have my photography featured in the last. Thank you 🙏

www.thecityisours-bookzine.com

#urbanism #visualsociology #psychogeography
A green book on a wooden surface with a photo of the back of a sign, and the words: The City Is Ours, Involuntary Sculptures. Other words are obscured by the photograph. An open book in a wooden surface. Two photos of metal and plastic objects in a street can be seen. A postcard on a wooden surface with the words: Escape the virtual—walk—observe—rediscover—the more you do it, the more you will see. The City Is Ours.
November 22, 2024 at 8:52 AM