Writing

Rick Poynor on ‘Design Academics’: Having His Cake and Eating It Too

April 19, 2012 Design

[This article was swiftly written as a provisional response to Rick Poynor's article The Closed Shop of Design Academia which first appeared on Design Observer on April 13, 2012. The editors of DO had agreed in principle to publish my response, but shortly afterwards decided it should be confined to the comments section of Poynor's article. [...]

Sight & Sound (aka Men & Movies)

April 22, 2009 Blog

Letter to the Editor: Reading the most recent issue of Sight & Sound (‘Seeing the Light’, April ’09) made me wonder if your magazine shouldn’t be renamed Movies & Men. Your article ‘Talking Shop’ features thirteen (white) cinematographers, only one of whom is a woman. Representative? Perhaps not. Your list of Contributors features fifteen names [...]

Dissertation: Graphic Design/Graphic Dissent

January 10, 2008 Scholarly

Today I read an article on Design Observer by Michael Bierut all about the Ernst Bettler story that appeared some years ago in dotdotdot. The ‘Bettler affair’ was a key part of my PhD dissertation, which I finished in 2002. The dissertation, which I hope is reasonably accessible, addresses the politics of graphic design practice [...]

Design Anarchy (Lasn, 2006) – Review

August 12, 2007 Blog

This is the unedited version of a review I wrote of Kalle Lasn’s new book Design Anarchy (ORO Editions, 2006) for Eye magazine. He’s a West-coast sneaker marketer with one of the coolest brands around. He’s ironic and media-savvy, and he understands his target audience. He has a singular appreciation of the power of graphic [...]

Paula Scher on the Bush administration’s record

July 6, 2007 Blog

Pentagram partner Paula Scher speaks truth to power. A timely reminder for those designers who claim that graphic design has nothing to do with politics.

Do you see what I see?

September 26, 2006 Blog

When I opened Saturday’s edition of The Globe and Mail and saw this photo, all I noticed, at least initially, were the two white horns protruding from the man on the left’s head. On further inspection, I decided they weren’t so much wildly out of place as simply on the wrong head.

Adding my own Voice

September 17, 2006 Blog

A recent piece by me in Voice, the AIGA’s online journal of graphic design.

New issue of Public

February 26, 2006 Blog

Full Circle

October 11, 2005 Blog

Public lettering is a term that is increasingly used to describe the totality of visible letterforms that surround us: on street signs, storefronts, monuments, drain covers, bus tickets, etc. Public lettering predates the development of graphic design and of typography before that.

We’ve arrived.

September 20, 2005 Blog

Interview with Klik magazine

July 21, 2005 Blog

I’ve just finished an interview with a Slovenian journalist called Barbara Predan for Klik magazine. She contacted me because I was a jury member for this year’s Memefest. I found Predan’s questions about the politics of graphic design, especially logos and culture jamming, both informed and challenging. I’m posting the full, unedited, English version here [...]

What a difference a year makes.

July 11, 2005 Blog

It’s almost a year to the day since we last joined our friends for a trip to Lake Champlain. This time around we even stopped at the same gas station – which led me to take a snap of this motel sign across the road once more (top: 2004; bottom: 2005). It’s definitely the same [...]

← Previous Entries

Writing

Rick Poynor on ‘Design Academics’: Having His Cake and Eating It Too

Sight & Sound (aka Men & Movies)

Dissertation: Graphic Design/Graphic Dissent

Design Anarchy (Lasn, 2006) – Review

Paula Scher on the Bush administration’s record

Do you see what I see?

Adding my own Voice

New issue of Public

Full Circle

We’ve arrived.

Interview with Klik magazine

What a difference a year makes.

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