National Grid is a peripheral publication for graphic design; a provincial publication for graphic design; a paranoid publication for graphic design; a frail barricade for graphic design; a colonial outpost for graphic design; a maintenance manual for graphic design, respectively.

It’s also a graphic design magazine that focuses a good deal on the tangible history of music, the beautiful paraphernalia of promotion and distribution, such as in an interview with musician and tape only producer Dylan T. “Phats” Herkes in issue #1:

And this collaboration between Thurston Moore and Tom Surgal, with design by Thurston utilizing a graphic score by Cornelius Cardew (from issue #2):

And just because I can’t help it, album covers for Pork Dukes and The Jerks from issue #5:

Beyond the reprinting of wonderful graphic artifacts, there is a good deal of critical protein between the pages. I suggest you read them all; current issue on display, back issues in the crank-o-matic back stacks. For more information on the National Grid, and other “peripheral” graphic design publications, such as Zed and Dot Dot Dot (both of which we have) consult the article “Designing Graphic Design History” in the Journal of Design History, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 325-340, Dec 2009, also in the back stacks of our periodical stacks.