About
Rick Poynor is a writer, critic, lecturer and curator, specialising in design, photography and visual culture. He founded Eye, co-founded Design Observer, and contributes columns to Eye and Print. His latest book is Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design. He is Visiting Professor in Critical Writing in Art & Design at the Royal College of Art, London.Books
No More Rules: Graphic Design and PostmodernismRick Poynor
Laurence King Publishing/Yale University Press, 2003; new edition, 2013
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The past thirty years have seen profound changes in the field of graphic communication. As the computer became a ubiquitous tool, there was an explosion of creativity in graphic design; designers and typographers jettisoned existing rules and forged experimental new approaches. No More Rules is the first critical survey to offer a wide-ranging overview of the graphic revolution during the postmodern period.
The book tells this story in detail, breaking down a broad, multifaceted field of design activity into key developments and themes: the origins of postmodern graphic design; deconstructionist design and theory; issues of appropriation; the revolution in digital type; questions of authorship; and critiques of postmodern graphic design. Each theme is illustrated by spectacular and significant examples of work produced between 1970 and 2000 that changed the way in which designers and their audiences think about graphic communication.
“In the hurly-burly world of design publishing, where word-counts are minimal, and ‘never before published’ images are reputed to be what the punters want, it’s a treat to be presented with such a tightly constructed narrative.”
— Liz Farrelly, Blueprint
“Poynor eases us through the theoretical forest with lucid prose and his profound knowledge of the history of graphic design.”
— Adrian Shaughnessy, Creative Review
“The most comprehensive collection of graphic design work under the rubric of postmodernism yet... Poynor’s undertaking brings clarity to a confusing subject.”
— Armin Vit, Speak Up
“Indispensable... Beautifully printed and bound, lavishly illustrated, comprehensive, and important... Highly recommended.”
— Choice
Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design
Rick Poynor
Moravian Gallery, 2010
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Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design, curated by Poynor for the Moravian Gallery in Brno, in the Czech Republic, is the first major exhibition to explore the influence of Surrealism on graphic image-making and graphic design.
The catalogue, like the exhibition, is divided into thematic sections: Birth of the Marvelous; The Polymorphous Image; The Surreal Body; Cabinets of Wonder; and The Liberated Letterform. The book includes work by Karel Teige, Jindřich Štyrský, Jan Švankmajer, Josef Vylet’al, Roman Cieslewicz, Jan Lenica, Franciszek Starowieyski, Bronislaw Zelek, M/M (Paris), Andrzej Klimowski, Vaughan Oliver, Quay Brothers, Elliott Earls, Edward Fella, Jonathon Rosen, and many others.
Most graphic design conforms to an underlying grid, a sense of structure and good taste, which brings order but also imposes limits. The images and designs collected in Uncanny break free from these restrictions and follow the impulses of a wayward, subjective, dreamlike logic to arrive at their own kind of equilibrium and form. They show that graphic design can also sometimes be a place to encounter the strange, the fantastical and the uncanny, to rediscover our lost sense of mystery, and to experience the convulsive beauty and capacity for enchantment and wonder that the Surrealists called “the marvelous.”
Jan van Toorn: Critical Practice
Rick Poynor
010 Publishers, 2008
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Jan van Toorn is one of the most significant and influential Dutch graphic designers to have emerged since the early 1960s. While graphic design often does little more than give unthinking visual form to the status quo, Van Toorn focused on meaning rather than smooth stylistic expression and developed critical alternatives to the usual design world conventions.
Van Toorn aligned himself with the reflexive tradition of art and communication exemplified by Brecht and Godard. His designs persistently call attention to their status as visual contrivances, obliging the viewer to make an effort to process their complexities. Van Toorn wanted the public to measure the motives of both the client and the designer who mediates the client’s message against their own experiences of the world. He hoped in this way to stimulate a more active and skeptical view of art, communication, media ownership and society.
“Rick Poynor’s essay provides a thoughtful analysis of the designer’s work that helps the reader to make sense of it... Van Toorn is first and foremost a designer, and in that capacity he is well served by this outstanding survey of his illustrious career.”
— Victor Margolin, Print
“This book is not only a commendable contribution to design history but a rare example of a graphic design monograph that celebrates forms and comprehensively presents a body of work that is deeply engaged in issues of social consciousness.”
— Peter Bil’ak, Eye
“This monograph is more than a record of fascinating career. Van Toorn’s output is dissected with the insight and attention to detail only a justly lauded design critic like Poynor could manage. An excellent addition to any designer’s library.”
— Step Inside Design
Designing Pornotopia: Travels in Visual Culture
Rick Poynor
Laurence King Publishing/Princeton Architectural Press, 2006
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Design is the new recreation. Compulsively visual and tactile, it offers a realm of sensual gratification based on luxurious interiors, magical technology, trendy graphics, and shops built like temples. Poynor’s third collection of essays about design and visual culture directs a critical eye at brands, billboards, magazines, architecture, tattoos, and trends in cosmetic surgery. Along the way he considers Björk’s cyber-image, Rem Koolhaas’s “junkspace”, Stefan Sagmeister’s fame, W.G. Sebald’s photographs, and book cover interpretations of J. G. Ballard’s Crash.
A key target is the pervasiveness of sexual imagery in the marketplace and the media’s symbiotic relationship with porn. Poynor shows how commerce exploits the blurring of art and advertising, and paints a vivid, not always comfortable picture of where 21st-century design culture is heading. Designing Pornotopia challenges the climate of mediocrity that dominates much of our commercial environment, highlights alternatives, and considers the way forward.
“Cultural theorists so often come up with sexy-sounding ideas and then kill them dead with dull writing. Not Rick Poynor, whose latest book... is a collection of sharp essays that move from our obsession with sex to interviews with Rem Koolhaas and discussion about the rekindling of our affair with modernism.”
— The Guardian
“Poynor’s delivery is fluid, surprisingly visual, emotional, tough where he needs to be, yet sensitive generally. He offers us food for thought with no intellectual arrogance (damn him) or dictatorial solutions or answers.”
— Blueprint
“Hugely varied content... a bit like National Geographic on speed... rewarding as a thought-provoking insight into the fast-changing nature of today’s creative culture — exciting and energetic but troubling as well.”
— DAMn
“Poynor’s prose is witty and direct, his ideas provocative, and his observations utterly on the mark.”
— Metropolis
“Poynor’s writing is vigorously intelligent.”
— Financial Times
Communicate: Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties
Edited by Rick Poynor
Laurence King Publishing/Yale University Press, 2004
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Communicate explores the work of British graphic designers who maintain their independence as a key principle. It examines the influence of youth culture, pop music and new wave aesthetics on design from the 1960s to the present. Featured projects range from era-defining early classics to the work of today’s leading design teams, including album covers, concert posters, political protest posters, typeface projects and signs, and designs for books, magazines, and film.
Focusing on work from small, highly motivated studios where creative freedom is paramount, Communicate includes projects by more than 80 outstanding designers, including Derek Birdsall, Ken Garland, Neville Brody, Why Not Associates and Graphic Thought Facility. An introduction by Poynor and essays by other contributors trace how and why British graphic design has developed as it has, and interviews with 15 designers — Richard Hollis, Julian House and Margaret Calvert among them — provide insider views on the design world.
“As an exhibition, Communicate was a glorious reflection of British design’s progress. The book captures the spirit of that undertaking, adding rich background details and critical insight to the history.”
“An inside look at how an aesthetic deeply influenced by popular culture, fine art, and fashion has evolved... The reader will come away with a clearer understanding of the power, reach, and eloquence of visual communication... A valuable reference not only for graphic design libraries but also for collections that seek titles exploring the history and language of visual communication.”
— Library Journal
Obey the Giant: Life in the Image World
Rick Poynor
Birkhäuser, 2001
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In the 21st century, commerce and culture are ever more closely entwined. This collection of essays takes a searching look at visual culture to discover the reality beneath the ultra-seductive surfaces. Obey the Giant explores the thinking behind the emerging resistance to commercial rhetoric among designers, and offers critical insights into the changing dialogue between advertising and design.
Other essays address the topics of visual journalism; brands as religion; the new solipsism; graphic memes; culture jamming; death in the image world; the pleasures of imperfection; and the poverty of “cool”. The worldwide dominance of huge corporations is invariably expressed by visual means. Obey the Giant challenges this monoculture by offering inspirational evidence of alternative ways of engaging with design.
“An articulate and poignant set of essays... Poynor is a sensitive, often brilliant writer on visual design in graphics, advertising and commercial visual culture.”
— Art Monthly
“His eloquence, intellectual rigor, and ability to penetrate to the heart of complex cultural issues with surgical precision have won him many admirers... a must-read for anyone with an ounce of interest in widening his understanding not just of design and brands, but of the nature of the contemporary world.”
“A lucid analysis of the current situation... Poynor claims the right to a design criticism comparable to that of literature or film.”
— Domus
“A terrific book. Essential. After you’ve read it, you really can’t look at the world in the same way, which is also one definition of art.”
— Douglas Coupland
Typographica
Rick Poynor
Laurence King Publishing/Princeton Architectural Press, 2001
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Typographica magazine (1949-1967), founded, edited and designed by the renowned British typographer Herbert Spencer, was one of the most extraordinary and distinctive arts publications of the last 60 years. It was unusual for its originality of editorial vision and for its exceptional standards of design and production.
Spencer’s magazine played a pivotal role in introducing modernist approaches into British graphic design, but it was most remarkable for the eclectic synthesis of its subject matter. Alongside groundbreaking articles on modernist pioneers and examples of the new typography and design, Spencer showed traditional printing history, vernacular images from the city and street, and avant-garde innovation in the fine arts. Typographica’s boundary-blurring approach anticipated many of the preoccupations of contemporary designers, artists and cultural commentators.
“A long overdue assessment of what is arguably the most influential design and typographical magazine ever produced... Poynor’s thorough book is worthy testament to Spencer’s energy and vision, and should find its way on to the bookshelves of any designer worth their salt.”
— Graphics International
“It would be hard to find anyone better placed than Poynor to write this long overdue book... [he] brings to his study a keen familiarity with the nuts and bolts of graphic practice, and a thorough understanding of the wider issues.”
— Eye
“A superb account of Typographica and its brilliant editor Herbert Spencer. A must for anyone interested in design history.”
— Victor Margolin
“A loving dissection of an influential journal.”
— Wallpaper*
Design Without Boundaries: Visual Communication in Transition
Rick Poynor
Booth-Clibborn Editions, 1998
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In the late 1990s, it was widely recognized that art and design were moving closer together — that design in at least some of its forms was taking on the characteristics of art. Poynor’s first collection of essays, gathering a decade of critical journalism, documents and analyses these controversial developments. Design Without Boundaries assesses the work of Neville Brody, Peter Saville, Studio Dumbar, 8vo, David Carson, Irma Boom, Jonathan Barnbrook, Tomato, and many others, and traces the development of ideas about authorship in graphic design and applied image-making back to the 1960s and earlier.
“No British writer has done more to promote graphic design as a subject of interest and importance... The clarity of the writing and the author's evident passion make it an illuminating entry into contemporary graphic design.”
— Patrick Cramsie, “Top 10 Graphic Design Books,” The Guardian
“Poynor has made a substantial and undeniable contribution to the fledgling discipline that is design journalism/criticism/theory/history... Design Without Boundaries is a much needed document... Poynor shows us how visual/textual analysis is to be done... a self-motivated investigation into how acts of reading, writing, looking, image-making and designing generate experience and/or understanding.”
— Liz Farrelly, Blueprint
“One of the elder statesmen of design criticism... an informative, inspiring and entertaining read.”
— Graphics International
The Designer as Author, Producer, Activist, Entrepreneur, Curator & Collaborator: New Models of Communicating
Steven McCarthy
BIS Publishers, 2013
An interview with Rick Poynor appears in this book.
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Multiple Signatures: On Designers, Authors, Readers and Users
Michael Rock 2 x 4
Rizzoli, 2013
Two dialogues with Rick Poynor about design criticism appear in this book.
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Notes from the Cosmic Typewriter: The Life and Work of Dom Sylvester Houédard
Edited by Nicola Simpson
Occasional Papers, 2012
An essay by Rick Poynor appears in this book:
"DSH's Typestracts: Horizons and Spirit Levels"
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The Perfect Place to Grow: 175 Years of the Royal College of Art
Edited by Octavia Reeve
Royal College of Art, 2012
An essay by Rick Poynor appears in this book:
"The Useful Art of Graphic Design"
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The Transdisciplinary Studio
Alex Coles
Sternberg Press, 2012
An interview with Rick Poynor appears in this book.
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Stedelijk Collection Reflections
Edited by Jan van Adrichem and Adi Martis
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam/nai010 Publishers, 2012
An essay by Rick Poynor appears in this book:
"Utopian Image: Politics and Posters"
Read the essay here on Design Observer
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39 Steps to the Genius of Hitchcock
Edited by James Bell
British Film Institute, 2012
An essay by Rick Poynor appears in this book:
"Step Thirty-One: Graphic Images"
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Writing and Research for Graphic Designers: A Designer's Manual to Strategic Communication and Presentation
Steven Heller
Rockport, 2012
An interview with Rick Poynor and an essay appear in this book:
"The Death of the Critic"
Read the essay here
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Graphic Design: History in the Writing, 1983-2011
Edited by Sara De Bondt and Catherine de Smet
Occasional Papers, 2012
A dialogue with Rick Poynor and an essay appear in this book:
"A Critical View of Graphic Design History"
Out of the Studio: Graphic Design History and Visual Studies"
Read the dialogue here on Design Observer
Read the essay here on Design Observer
Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970-1990
Edited by Glenn Adamson and Jane Pavitt
V&A Publishing, 2011
Two essays by Rick Poynor appear in this book:
“Big Magazines: Design as the Message”
“True Stories: A Film about People Like Us”
Read the "True Stories" essay here on Design Observer
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Dutch Design Yearbook 2010
Edited by Antoine Achten et al
NAi Publishers, 2010
An essay by Rick Poynor appears in this book.
"Agency or Studio? The Dutch Graphic Design Dilemma"
Read the essay here on Design Observer
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Now is the Time: Art & Theory in the 21st Century
Edited by Jelle Bouwhuis et al
NAi Publishers, 2009
An essay by Rick Poynor appears in this book.
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Design in Britain
Edited by Deyan Sudjic
Conran Octopus, 2009
An essay by Rick Poynor appears in this book.
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Design and Art
Edited by Alex Coles
Whitechapel and MIT Press, 2007
An essay by Rick Poynor appears in this book.
"Art's Little Brother"
Read the essay here
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Articles + Essays
This list is regularly updated with both new and older writing available online.INTERVIEWS WITH RICK POYNOR
Neshan, 2012Thought Catalog, 2011
Designers & Books, 2011
Design Taxi, 2007
Emigre, 1995
LATEST COLUMNS
Photo Critique: Empathy and Doubt in ArlesEye, July 2013
See all Eye Critique columns
Observer: Picture This
Print, April 2013
See selected Print Observer columns
SELECTED COLUMNS, ARTICLES & ESSAYS
Books Every Graphic Designer Should ReadDesigners & Books, 2011
Notable Books of 2011
Designers & Books, 2011
Notable books of 2012
Designers & Books, 2012
Screen Prints: 1960s Posters from the Royal College of Art
Eye, 2013
Critique: Commitment to Content (on Criterion Collection covers)
Eye, June 2011
Critique Commentary (Criterion Collection cover images)
Eye, June 2011
Interview with Robin Kinross
Eye, 2011
Metahaven: Borderline
Eye, 2009
Love of Lexicons
Eye, 2010
Critique: Graphic and Grotesque
Eye, 2012
Surrealism and Design, Part 1: Dark Tools of Desire
Eye, 2007
Eye, 2007
Surrealism: The Enduring Appeal of Convulsive Beauty
Creative Review, 2009
Bruno Munari's Design as Art
Icon, 2008
Observer: The Takeway Effect
Print, February 2013
Observer: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Print, October 2012
Observer: Throwaway Culture
Print, August 2012
Observer: Power by Design
Print, January 2012
Icon, 2008
Critique: Enter the Void — A Soul Drifting in Neon Limbo
Print, 2010
Surrealism: The Enduring Appeal of Convulsive Beauty
Creative Review, 2009
Bruno Munari's Design as Art
Icon, 2008
Observer: The Takeway Effect
Print, February 2013
Observer: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Print, October 2012
Observer: Throwaway Culture
Print, August 2012
Observer: Power by Design
Print, January 2012
Print, October 2011
Icon, 2008
Critique: Enter the Void — A Soul Drifting in Neon Limbo
Eye, 2011
Icon, 2006
Presented at Looking Closer: AIGA Conference on Design History and Criticism, 2001
The Graphic Grab
The Guardian, 2004
Icon, 2006
Down with Innovation
I.D., 2008
Print, 2005
Creative Review, 2010
Creative Review, 2009
Creative Review, 2006
Creative Review, 2009
Creative Review, 2006
First Things First Revisited
Emigre, 1999
Design Conferences: Time We Demanded More?
Creative Review, 2008
Canonical Design: Absolutely the “Worst”
Eye, 2008
We Need More Galleries
Print, 2010
In Praise of the Imperfect
Graphis, 2000
Critique: British Posters – All Mouth and Trousers?
Eye, 2010
Collapsing Bulkheads: The Covers of Crash
Ballardian, 2007
Henry Cohen: The Shape of a Pocket
Eye, 2011
Henry Cohen: Bright Idées
Eye, 2011
Richard Hamilton: Typotranslation
Eye, 2000
The Guardian, 2002
Romek Marber: Penguin Crime
Eye, 2004
Romek Marber: Survivor
Eye, 2010
Will Burtin: Forgotten Master of Design
Creative Review, 2007
Unimark: When Designers Wore Lab Coats
Creative Review, 2009
The Independent, 1999
Tibor Kalman: Maintaining Tiborocity
Print, 2002
Edward Fella: Out There
Frieze, 1992
Elliott Earls: A Designer and a One Man Band
Eye, 2002
Graham Rawle: Paste-up Ladies
Eye, 2005
Stefan Sagmeister: Brilliant, Engaging, But Modest It’s Not
Metropolis, 2008
Reza Abedini: A Man Apart
Creative Review, 2007
Look Inward: Graphic Design in Australia
Eye, 2002
Public Speaking
As a speaker about design, visual culture and visual communication, Rick Poynor aims to challenge, provoke, inform and inspire.The subjects of recent talks include design ethics and responsibility, design thinking and critical design, the possibilities of visual writing, curating and criticism, the potential of the art and design interface, and the relationship between Surrealism and the graphic image — a continuing research project.
Poynor has given public lectures and taken part in speaking events in Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States.
A regular visitor to the USA, he has been invited to talk in many cities, including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle.
To arrange a lecture or other event, email Rick Poynor.
SELECTED RECENT APPEARANCES
Dom Sylvester Houédard (Letters in Space)Lecture, May 2013, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
The Space of the Page: Some Possibilities of Visual Writing
Lecture, April 2013, Christine Brooke-Rose: Remade symposium, Royal College of Art, London, UK
What Does Design Criticism Want? (And Who Wants Design Criticism?)
Keynote lecture, April 2013, Blunt: Explicit and Graphic Design Criticism Now, AIGA conference, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Writing with Pictures
Lecture, April 2013, School of Visual arts, New York, USA
Dom Sylvester Houédard (Letters in Space)
Lecture, March 2013, Bold Italic, conference, Ghent, Belgium
Writing with Pictures
Lecture, November 2012, Personal Views series, Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Porto, Portugal
The Inescapable Politics of Design
Lecture, October 2012, Graphic Knowledge Fair, conference, Warsaw, Poland
Films within Films: The Evolution of Hitchcock's Titles
Lecture, September 2012, Hitchcock & Design, study day, British Film Institute, London, UK
Uncanny: Surrealism and the Graphic Image
Lecture, May 2012, Grafist 16, conference, Istanbul, Turkey
Uncanny: Surrealism and the Graphic Image
Lecture, March 2012, Blokovi, Belgrade, Serbia
Uncanny: Surrealism and the Graphic Image
Lecture, March 2012, Zgraf 11, conference, Zagreb, Croatia
Postmodern Legacy
Panel about graphics (with Glenn Adamson and Teal Triggs), October 2011, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
We the Undersigned: A Manifesto about Manifestos
Lecture, October 2011, School of Visual Arts, New York, USA
What Could We Mean by Design as Politics?
Conference keynote lecture, September 2011, Cumulus conference hosted by RMCAD, Denver, Colorado, USA
In Beauty We Trust?
Panel (with Stefan Wagner, Cornel Windlin, Catherine Hug, Wendelin Hess), June 2011, The Most Beautiful Swiss Books, Helmhaus, Zurich
Uncanny: Surrealism and the Graphic Image
Lecture, June 2011, OFFF Year Zero, conference, Barcelona, Spain
Graphic Design in the Netherlands: Wim Crouwel in Context
Lecture, May 2011, Design Museum, London, UK
Is Curating the New Editing?
Lecture, May 2011, Graphic Design: History in the Making, conference, St Bride Library, London, UK
Wim Crouwel and Mels Crouwel
Interview, March 2011, Design Museum, London, UK
Redesigning Design
Lecture, February 2011, Making/Crafting/Designing: Perspectives on Design as a Human Activity, conference, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany
Art and Design: Friends or Foes?
Panel (with Alex Coles, Scott King, Matthew Darbyshire), February 2011, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design
Lecture, January 2011, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
Bureau or Studio? The Dutch Graphic Design Dilemma
Panel (with Max Bruinsma, Tirso Francés, Luna Maurer, Antoine Achten), December 2010, Items Live, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Vortex of Signs: The Typographic Experiments of the 1990s Reassessed
Lecture, November 2010, Conceptual Type — Type Led by Ideas, conference, Copenhagen, Denmark
All Art Aspires to the Condition of Music (or vice versa)
Lecture, September 2010, annual Birket Williams lecture series, Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas, USA
Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design
Lecture, June 2010, International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno, conference, Brno, Czech Republic
First Things . . . When Exactly?
Lecture, May 2010, Respons_ability: Ethics and Sustainability in Design Education, AIGA conference, Toledo, Ohio, USA
Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design
Guest curator: Rick Poynor
Moravian Gallery curator: Marta Sylvestrová
Exhibition design: Šárka Ziková
Exhibition graphics: Adam Machácek and Sébastien Bohner
Moravian Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic
23 June to 24 October 2010
Kunsthal, Rotterdam, Netherlands
24 September to 4 December 2011
Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design, conceived and curated by Poynor for the Moravian Gallery in Brno, is the first major exhibition to explore the influence of Surrealism on graphic image-making and graphic design. Featuring more than 250 items — posters, prints, books, magazines, record sleeves, typefaces and films — Uncanny investigates the profound impact of Surrealist ideas and images on visual communication from the 1930s to the present.
The exhibition presents this material in seven sections. “Birth of the Marvelous” uncovers the origins of Surrealist design. “The Polymorphous Image” shows diverse examples of fantastical transformation. “The Surreal Body” focuses on treatments of anatomy, including the body in fragments and the eye. “Cabinets of Wonder” traces the influence of the Wunderkammer on graphic image-making. “Obscure Objects of Desire” considers the portrayal of woman as Surrealist muse. In “The Liberated Letterform” the alphabet assumes bizarre new shapes and words become as malleable and potent as other kinds of surreal image. “Dream Cinema” shows short films made by graphic artists under the spell of Surrealism.
Uncanny includes images and designs by Karel Teige, Jindřich Štyrský, Toyen, Jindřich Heisler, Jan Švankmajer, Eva Švankmajerová, Josef Vylet’al, Karel Teissig (Czechoslovakia); Roman Cieslewicz, Jan Lenica, Franciszek Starowieyski, Bronislaw Zelek (Poland); M/M (Paris), Marion Bataille, Laboratoires CCCP (France); Andrzej Klimowski, Vaughan Oliver, Quay Brothers, Graham Rawle (UK); Elliott Earls, Brian Schorn, Edward Fella, Jonathon Rosen (US), and many others.
This cornucopia of images shows that graphic design, too, can sometimes be a place to encounter the strange, the fantastical and the uncanny, to rediscover our lost sense of mystery, and to experience the convulsive beauty and capacity for enchantment and wonder that the Surrealists called “the marvelous.”
Uncanny is available to tour internationally from Barbican International Enterprises.
Uncanny, Moravian Gallery
Photographs: Moravian Gallery
Uncanny, Kunsthal
Photographs: Kunsthal
Other Exhibitions
TypographicaGuest curator: Rick Poynor
Kemistry Gallery, London
11 September to 31 October 2009
Typographica (1949-1967), founded, edited and designed by the renowned British typographer Herbert Spencer, was one of the most extraordinary and distinctive arts publications of the past 60 years. The magazine was unusual for its originality of editorial vision and for its exceptional standards of design and production. Spencer’s boundary-blurring approach anticipated many of the preoccupations of contemporary designers, artists and cultural commentators.
This exhibition at Kemistry Gallery in London was the first to focus on Typographica since the 1960s. It set out to evoke the experience of turning the magazine’s exquisitely constructed pages by presenting key page sequences and, in some cases, entire articles. Three thematic sections explored Spencer’s principal concerns as editor. “The Camera as Pen” examined his use of photography both as subject matter and as a tool for “writing” the magazine. “The Liberated Page” looked at his commitment to experimental typography and page design. “Lettering, Print, Ephemera” focused on examples of traditional printing history and vernacular material shown in Typographica’s pages.
Photographs: Rick Poynor
Communicate: Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties
Guest curator: Rick Poynor
Barbican Art Gallery curator: Jane Alison
Exhibition design: Azman Associates
Exhibition graphics: Nick Bell
Barbican Art Gallery, London
16 September 2004 to 23 January 2005
Guangzhou Museum of Art, Guangzhou
29 April to 15 May 2005
Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre, Shanghai
2 June to 19 June 2005
Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing
29 July to 14 August 2005
The China Millennium Monument, Beijing
16 September to 9 October 2005
Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich
18 March to 7 May 2006
Communicate, created by Poynor for the Barbican Art Gallery in London, explored the work of British graphic designers who maintain their independence as a key principle. The exhibition, featuring more than 500 items, offered the first panoramic survey of the huge impression made by these communicators on the visual landscape of Britain in the past 50 years.
Communicate was organized in seven sections: Publishing, Arts, Music, Politics and Society, Identity, Self-Initiated Projects, and Web Design. Featured projects, many of them iconic designs, included record sleeves for Led Zeppelin, Sex Pistols, New Order and Primal Scream; book designs for Penguin, Faber and Monty Python; graphic identities for the Biba department store, BBC2, Big Brother and Paul Smith; magazines such as Oz, Nova, Time Out and i-D; protest posters for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Anti-Nazi League; and websites for The Guardian and Donnie Darko.
The exhibition celebrated the achievements of British designers as diverse as Alan Fletcher, John Sewell, Ken Garland, Derek Birdsall, Raymond Hawkey, Richard Hollis, Robert Brownjohn, Margaret Calvert, Michael English, Hipgnosis, Pearce Marchbank, Katy Hepburn, David King, Barney Bubbles, Peter Saville, Neville Brody, The Designers Republic, Tomato, Fuel, Graphic Thought Facility, Lucienne Roberts, Julian House, Daniel Eatock, Åbäke, Scott King, and many others.
Photographs: Barbican Art Gallery
Observed
Coming soon to the Center for Contemporary Arts In Berlin, an exhibition featuring more than100 original posters by one of Japan’s most influential and internationally renowned graphic designers and poster artists, Shigeo Fukuda.
The Design Newsroom is a new digital platform designed to streamline the interaction between award-winning designers, brands, and the global media landscape.
“The idea was to create a sanctuary in the center of the city where anyone is welcomed, no matter their faith, religion, what brings them there, or their backgrounds, “ observes Krista Nightengale, Executive Director of Better Block, a placemaking nonprofit based in Dallas. Read more about their newest initiative: a design competition to combat loneliness. Elswehere in Texas, Icon—an Austin-based startup—launched own competition, inviting professionals to design homes that could be built for $99,000 or less “without sacrificing beauty, dignity, comfort, sustainability, or resiliency”.
Two Australian First Nation artists, Naminapu Maymuru-White and Daniel Boyd, are uniting at Art Basel Hong Kong to present complex and contrasting views of Indigenous identity.
March 21st was the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. We may need more than one day for this.
Ryan O’Rourke, Alberto Ponte, and Dan Sheniak are responsible for some of the most iconic ad campaigns Nike ever produced. The Wieden+Kennedy veterans are heading out on their own with Someplace, a new LA-based, full-spectrum creative, brand, identity, and design shop. “We wanted to challenge ourselves in a new way,” says Sheniak. “What does our next chapter look like? How do we push ourselves and make ourselves uncomfortable to create something? From there, we just started getting excited about what we could dream up together.”
Along with Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Van Saene, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Bikkembergs, and Marina Yeeone (originally known as the Antwerp Six), renowned Dutch designer Dries Van Noten—whose clothes are known for their simplicity, elegance, and drape—makes a graceful exit.
Enzo Mari saw design as the production of knowledge (as opposed to consumption). The Italian theorist, ethicist, and spirited provocateur—who died in 2020—is the subject of a new show opening next week at London’s Design Museum, and running through September.
Are you lying awake at night pondering the future of the world—and in particular, of design? “And when it doesn’t seem to matter, suddenly it really does..” The extraordinary Forest Young weighs in.
Prospective students working at the nexus of virtual reality, video games, political campaigns, or even on the next Hollywood blockbuster, look no further. A new one-year Masters program at Sci-Arc in Los Angeles may be just what you're looking for.
Designing an app for a … (wait for it) … parrot.
Fast Company's Most Innovative Design Companies for 2024 include Adobe—"for embracing generative AI the right way—and a shortlist of tech, product, and branding firms.
While human-centered design was once the pinnacle of progressive ambition, a tricky question now confronts us all: what about the rest of life? Working with John Thackara and Caterina Castiglioni, at the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano twenty international design students were asked to design an urban ecology tool, place, equipment, or experience, that would enhance the interdependence of all of life in practical ways. Their conclusions are diverse, inspiring, and powerful. (Read the full report here.)
Reports of discrimination (and a lawsuit) at Harvard's Graduate School of Design.
Native American graphic design: a primer.
Cheryl Holmes's next book documents the history of the question she has been asking for decades—where are the Black designers?— along with related questions that are urgent to the design profession: where did they originate, where have they been, and why haven't they been represented in design histories and canons? With a foreword by Crystal Williams, President of Rhode Island School of Design, HERE: Where the Black Designers Are will be published next fall by Princeton Architectural Press.
Can ballot design be deemed unconstitutional? More on the phenomenon known as "Ballot Siberia," where un-bracketed candidates often find themselves disadvantaged by being relegated to the end of the ballot.
Designing the Modern World—Lucy Johnston's new monograph celebrating the extraordinary range of British industrial designer (and Pentagram co-founder) Sir Kenneth Grange—is just out from our friends at Thames&Hudson. More here.
Good news to start your week: design jobs are in demand!
An interview with DB | BD Minisode cohost and The State of Black Design founder Omari Souza about his conference, and another about his new book. (And a delightful conversation between Souza and Revision Path host Maurice Cherry here.)
What happens when you let everyone have a hand in the way things should look and feel and perform—including the kids? An inspiring story about one school’s inclusive design efforts.
Graphic designer Fred Troller forged a Swiss modernist path through corporate America in a career that spanned five decades. The Dutch-born, Troller—whose clients included, among others, IBM, Faber Castell, Hoffmann LaRoche, Champion International, and the New York Zoological Society—was also an educator, artist, and sculptor. Want more? Help our friends at Volume raise the funds they both need and deserve by supporting the publication of a Troller monograph here.
The Independence Institute is less a think tank than an action tank—and part of that action means rethinking how the framing of the US Constitution might benefit from some closer observation. In order to ensure election integrity for the foreseeable future, they propose a constitutional amendment restoring and reinforcing the Constitution’s original protections.
Design! Fintech! Discuss amongst yourselves!
The art (and design) of “traffic calming” is like language: it’s best when it is extremely clear and concise, eliminating the need for extra thinking on the receiving end. How bollards, arrows, and other design interventions on the street promote public safety for everyone. (If you really want to go down the design-and-traffic rabbit hole with us here, read about how speculative scenario mapping benefits from something called “digital twins”.)
Opening this week and running through next fall at Poster House in New York, a career retrospective for Dawn Baillie, whose posters for Silence of the Lambs, Little Miss Sunshine, and Dirty Dancing, among countless others, have helped shape our experience of cinema. In a field long-dominated by men, Bailie's posters span some thirty-five years, an achievement in itself. (The New York Times reviews it here.)
Can't make it to Austin for SXSW this year? In one discussion, a selection of designers, policymakers, scientists, and engineers sought identify creative solutions to bigger challenges. (The “design track” ends today, but you can catch up with all the highlights here.)
Should there be an Oscar for main title design?
Design contributes hugely to how we spend (okay, waste) time online. But does that mean that screen addiction is a moral imperative for designers? Liz Gorny weighs in, and Brazillian designer Lara Mendonça (who, and we love this, also self-identifies as a philosopher) shares some of her own pithy observations.
Oscar nominees, one poster at a time.
Jobs | March 29