New York City 2012

New York City is the smallest region, but it’s particularly rich in design talent. “There were the usual suspects, and all the work was strong,” say the Heads of State’s Jason Kernevich and Dustin Summers, citing in particular the MoMA Design Studio. But New York isn’t immune from tropes circulating elsewhere. “We noticed a lot of lettering and expressive typography, which speaks to that particular trend having its moment,” Kernevich and Summers say. One of the most striking entries, however, barely uses typography at all: Metropolis’s cover marking the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks featured a photo of the World Trade Center footprints with no cover lines—a choice the magazine describes as “a moment of silence.”