Rick Poynor

Rick Poynor|Essays

The Conceptual Advertising of J.G. Ballard

J.G. Ballard’s conceptual ads anticipated the emergence of culture jamming, subvertising, design fiction and speculative design.

Rick Poynor|Essays

In Response to An Anatomy of Uncriticism

Alexandra Lange’s article in Print about the sacred cows of graphic design sidesteps the issue it raises.

Rick Poynor|Exposure

Exposure: Striporama street scene by Vivian Maier

How good was the photographer nanny?

Rick Poynor|Essays

Career Prospects in the Pain Business

Freedom from Torture’s “torture recruitment” ads deliver perfectly calculated moments of cognitive dissonance.

Rick Poynor|Exposure

Exposure: Luigi Russolo’s Noise Machines

Sonic conjurors of experimental music

Rick Poynor|Reviews

Barney Bubbles: Optics and Semantics

“Get Happy!!” poster for Elvis Costello and the Attractions, 1980Barney Bubbles has a unique place in British graphic design. Even more than Robert Brownjohn, who also died much too soon, Bubbles feels both known and unknown. If only …

Rick Poynor|Dialogues

We Found It at the Movies: Part I

Rick Poynor: Looking back, it’s surprising how long we’d known each other before it emerged that we shared an obsession for film.  Adrian Shaughnessy: Your obsession with film came as a surprise. Before lending you …

Rick Poynor|Dialogues

We Found It at the Movies: Part II

The second installment of Rick Poynor and Adrian Shaughnessy’s conversation about film. Can genre movies express a personal vision? Are films blurring into other media? And what’s the state of film culture today?

Denise Gonzales Crisp|Dialogues

A Critical View of Graphic Design History

Now comes yet another historical survey, Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide by Johanna Drucker and Emily McVarish. Denise Gonzales Crisp and Rick Poynor have been marking pages, making notes and exchanging views...

Rick Poynor|Essays

Lost America: The Flamingo Motor Hotel

I found this old photo in a box at the back of my attic. It shows a motel in Flagstaff, Arizona where I stayed for a couple of nights in May 1978. I was 20, it was my first visit to the US, and for three weeks I had been touring around on …

Rick Poynor|Essays

Dancing to the Sound in Your Head

We might not appreciate advertising conducted like a saturation bombing campaign in public spaces. Yet now, to complicate things, the personal stereo is being used as a way of reasserting spontaneity, exuberance and passion in …

Rick Poynor|Essays

Emigre: An Ending

Issue 69 of Emigre will be the last. In its heyday, it was the most consistently interesting design publication produced by anyone, anywhere. By 1990, it was one of those magazines you simply had to get hold of and read straight away.