Theory + Criticism

Alexandra Lange|Essays

MoMA’s Modern Women

The Museum of Modern Art's new installation, "Designing Modern Women," could have made a bolder statement about the transformative role of women in 20th century design and architecture.

Rick Poynor|Essays

The Writings of William Drenttel

Essays from the Design Observer archive show the wide scope of William Drenttel's interests and concerns.

Rick Poynor|Exposure

Exposure: Untitled Film Still #21 by Cindy Sherman

The photographer as performer

Alexandra Lange|Essays

The Women

While Manohla Dargis rants about the lack of women in charge in Hollywood save for Nancy Meyers, Zaha Hadid similarly represents the dirth of women in architecture.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Making A List...

The New Yorker has a rather expansive round-up of lists online and I particularly like Judith Thurman’s memorable fashion statements of 2009.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

Paper Revelations

Reading a lot of architecture criticism for those same classes, I also start to develop a running mental list of the writerly tics of critics like Paul Goldberger.

Mark Lamster|Essays

Ron Arad at MoMA

I'm not sold on Arad as an architect, but his material experimentation is certainly admirable

Mark Lamster|Essays

Delayed Gratification: On Architectural Criticism

Caught up in the formal design aspects of a building, critics like Nicolai Ouroussoff overlook the social context.

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...

Matt Soar|Essays

Fail Again, Fail Better

Bread shop on Sherbrooke St. W., Montréal, 2008: Amateur mistake or professional flourish? Photograph by Matt Soar.The late magician and comedian Tommy Cooper made a lifelong virtue out of failure. Discovering early on in his career that …

Alice Twemlow|Essays

Some Questions about an Inquiry

Opening night of the “Forms of Inquiry: The Architecture of Critical Graphic Design” exhibition at Casco, Utrecht, January 2008The Audio-Tooth Implant receives digital signals from radios and mobile phones and transmits the …

Alice Twemlow|Essays

When Did Posters Become Such Wallflowers?

What was odd about many of the posters Alice Twemlow judged in a recent competition was that they didn’t promote an idea, event or product; their only purpose seemed to be entering numerous annual poster competitions.