Design Observer

Archive
Books + Store
Job Board
Email Archive
Comments
About
Contact
Log In
Register



Observatory

Resources
Submissions
About
Contact


Featured Writers

Michael Bierut
William Drenttel
John Foster
Jessica Helfand
Alexandra Lange
Mark Lamster
Paul Polak
Rick Poynor
John Thackara
Rob Walker


Departments

Advertisement
Audio
Books
Collections
Dialogues
Essays
Events
Foster Column
Gallery
Interviews
Miscellaneous
Opinions
Photos
Poetry
Primary Sources
Projects
Report
Reviews
Slideshows
Today Column
Unusual Suspects
Video


Topics

Advertising
Architecture
Art
Books
Branding
Business
Cities / Places
Community
Craft
Culture
Design History
Design Practice
Development
Disaster Relief
Ecology
Economy
Education
Energy
Environment
Fashion
Film / Video
Food/Agriculture
Geography
Global / Local
Graphic Design
Health / Safety
History
Housing
Ideas
Illustration
India
Industry
Info Design
Infrastructure
Interaction Design
Internet / Blogs
Journalism
Landscape
Literature
Magazines
Media
Museums
Music
Nature
Obituary
Other
Peace
Philanthropy
Photography
Planning
Poetry
Politics / Policy
Popular Culture
Poverty
Preservation
Product Design
Public / Private
Public Art
Religion
Reputations
Science
Shelter
Social Enterprise
Sports
Sustainability
Technology
Theory/Criticism
Transportation
TV / Radio
Typography
Urbanism
Water


Rick Poynor
Recent Essays | Biography | About | Books | Other Essays | Public Speaking | Uncanny | Other Exhibitions | Contact

Archive: December 2003


Notes on Experimental Jetset

 Experimental Jetset’s argument that design should have a certain autonomy and an inner logic separate from tastes and trends makes sense, but as a rationale for defaulting to Helvetica, is it convincing?

READ MORE | COMMENTS (20)

Adbusters in Anarchy

 Adbusters’ once orderly pages are in a state of heaving agitation. The magazine seems to be seduced by the coolness of design as a gesture, even though this is part of the surface-fixated postmodernism it deplores.

READ MORE | COMMENTS (24)

Remember Picelj

 The English-speaking world knows little about the design history of Communist Europe. Few will have heard of the distinguished Slovenian Ivan Picelj. His prints ask us to remember; they are full of yearning.

READ MORE | COMMENTS (8)
Rick Poynor is a writer, critic, lecturer and curator, specialising in design, media 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.


Recent Book


Uncanny Surrealism and Graphic Design
Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design
Rick Poynor
Moravian Gallery, 2010
More books by Rick Poynor >>


Design Observer Archive


2012
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2011
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2010
December
November

2008
December
June
February

2007
April

2005
November
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January

2004
November
October
July
June
April
March
February
January

2003
December
November





DESIGN OBSERVER JOBS








BLOGROLL


Ballardian
Bldgblog (Geoff Manaugh)
Book Works
David Byrne
Centre for the Study of Surrealism and its Legacies
Click Opera (Momus)
Creative Review
D-Crit
E-flux
Emigre
Eye
Feuilleton (John Coulthart)
Frieze
Guardian: Art & Design
Kinoblog (Michael Brooke)
K-punk (Mark Fisher)
London Review of Books
Metahaven
Morbid Anatomy
Senses of Cinema
Shovelware (Mark Dery)
Sight & Sound
Sit Down Man, You’re a Bloody Tragedy (Owen Hatherley)
Strange Harvest (Sam Jacob)
21C The Future is Here
UbuWeb
Wellcome Collection

RICK POYNOR: RECOMMENDED BOOKS


Shoot! Existential Photography
Clément Chéroux, editor

Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change
Philip Brookman

What is Contemporary Art?
e-flux Journal

Iaspis Forum on Design and Critical Practice: The Reader
Martin Frostner & Magnus Ericson et al., editors

Volume: Writings on Graphic Design, Music, Art, and Culture
Kenneth FitzGerald & Rudy VanderLans

Song and Circumstance: The Work of David Byrne from Talking Heads to the Present
Sytze Steenstra

Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?
Mark Fisher

No Return: Journeys in the Holocaust
Romek Marber

Turning Pages: Editorial Design for Print Media
Robert Klanten et al., editors

Remainder
Tom McCarthy

RICK POYNOR: OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS


Inside Job
Charles Ferguson

Blow Out
Brian De Palma

Songs from the Second Floor
Roy Andersson

Red Desert
Michelangelo Antonioni

MisinforMation
COI/Mordant Music

Ace in the Hole
Billy Wilder

The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema
Slavoj Žižek