Since July, Monotype has had a new face in its London studio – creative type director Tom Foley. With seven years at foundry Dalton Maag under his belt, Tom now leads Monotype’s Studio team in London at a crucial time for type, as VR and AV technology push it to its limits.

The Middle East’s first graphic design biennial opened in Sharjah last week, bringing together practitioners that test the discipline’s limits, scope and purpose in the rapidly changing world of the 21st century. For a jam-packed 21 days, the festival’s Department of Mapping Margins is a space where talks, events and interactions reflect on the state of graphic design’s power to address cross-cultural questions, overlapping working methods, conditions and models.

We talk to the creative lead behind Intoart and John Smedley’s jaw-dropping collaboration – fashion legend Holly Fulton.

The UAE's visionary, ground-breaking and entirely fictitious government department – the Ministry of Graphic Design – opened its doors today in Sharjah, marking the beginning of an extraordinary and multifaceted three-week examination of contemporary graphic design and what it means for the world today.

‘We have much to gain from conversations with one another across our differences’ – we chat to Nina Paim and Corinne Gisel of Swiss studio common-interest, who are investigating the importance of in-between spaces, non-fixed identities and how to use ambiguity to bridge divisive politics, as part of their installations at Fikra Graphic Design Biennial this month.

The only graphic design-focused event of its size and scope in the Middle East, Fikra’s inaugural biennial sets out to celebrate design innovation in the UAE, and explore the impact and implications of the discipline in the 21st century.

We capture on camera the gripping stories behind the designs.