Deb Aldrich
Author · Other
Articles & interviews
- Type Design Through the Years: PRINT’s Favorite Honorees
PRINT Magazine’s Type Tuesday column by Deb Aldrich revisits standout type design honorees from past PRINT Awards, highlighting influential typefaces and designers from 2012 through 2025. The article celebrates works like Operator Mono, Classic Grotesque, Ferrofluid Type, and Rosalie, emphasizing the evolution and enduring impact of type design. It underscores typography’s role as both an invisible infrastructure and expressive art form.
- Boxal Revives Arcade Typography with Modern Proportional Spacing
PRINT Magazine’s Type Tuesday feature by Deb Aldrich spotlights Boxal, a new typeface from The Northern Block designed by Jonathan Hill. Inspired by 1980s arcade typography, Boxal modernizes pixel-based letterforms with proportional spacing and multiple stylistic variations. The article celebrates its balance of nostalgia and contemporary refinement, positioning it as a flexible toolkit for designers revisiting early digital aesthetics.
- AI’s Machine Gaze Redefines Human Identity
The article by Deb Aldrich explores designer Ronnie Alley’s graduate thesis project 'Machine Gaze', which examines how generative AI interprets and reconstructs human identity. Through four studies, Alley reveals how AI systems replicate and amplify cultural biases, reducing complex identities into simplified or stereotyped forms. The piece argues that designers must remain critical and intentional when using AI tools to avoid surrendering creative and ethical control.