03.20.14
Observed | Exhibitions

Complaints Posters


Poster, Y'KNOW?, 2014. George Lois, artist. In Complaints! An Inalienable Right, an exhibition organized by The Wolfsonian–FIU and curated by Steven Heller in conjunction with Power of Design 2014: Complaints.

Opening today, as part of the Power of Design 2014: Complaints conference, is the exhibition Complaints! An Inalienable Right, curated by author, design critic, educator and Design Observer friend Steven Heller. Topics addressed include the dumbing down of language, AIDS, people who stop at the top of escalators, Congress, global warming, certainty, smokers, work and many more.

The Wolfsonian-FIU's Power of Design blogger, Shawn Clybor talked to Heller about the exhibition.
Shawn Clybor: As a leading authority on graphic design, what connections do you see between complaints and design?

Steven Heller: Designers are supposed to (but don’t always) improve their worlds. Complaining is a road into that process. The complaint triggers the design. In the case of posters, we are asking the designers to translate their complaints into word and picture, type and graphics. But the trick is to not make it a whine. We need to learn something from the complaint, not just ingest it and let it sit like a heavy piece of flanken.

Read the full interview here.


Poster, This is an EX parrot, 2014. Philip Brooker, artist. In Complaints! An Inalienable Right, an exhibition organized by The Wolfsonian–FIU and curated by Steven Heller in conjunction with Power of Design 2014: Complaints.



Posted in: Arts + Culture, Graphic Design




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