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

Archive: April 2004


Critics and Their Purpose

 Pulling a 1960s art magazine from the shelf, I opened it at random to find a long list of thoughts about art criticism assembled in 1966 by students at the Royal College of Art in London. Many of these ideas apply to design.

READ MORE | COMMENTS (6)

Theory with a Small "t"

 A critical writing determined by the need to shape practice will be limited in the cultural insights it can offer. This is the last thing that design writing needs when ways to engage a wider public could be opening up.

READ MORE | COMMENTS (10)

How to Say What You Mean

 There is a crucial difference between subtle and complex ideas and needlessly convoluted forms of expression. The challenge now for design writing is to move outwards into a world in which design is everywhere.

READ MORE | COMMENTS (37)

The Two Cultures of Design

 In the past 25 years, graphic design has separated into two distinct strands. On one side there is professional practice in all its forms; on the other a self-directed design culture that is finding a wider audience.

READ MORE | COMMENTS (37)
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 >>


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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
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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