On My Shelf: Continuum's 33 1/3 Series

The 33 1/3 books about classic albums are a perfect example of how design can help focus an editorial idea and make it irresistible. The volumes are enticingly small, but their width in relation to their height makes them feel considered and substantial. A miniature reproduction of the original album cover is the only pictorial device; it’s celebratory, serious, archival and a little bit fetishistic all at the same time — exacty right for the audience.

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On Display: The Kirkland Museum

A couple of weeks ago, in the Denver Art Museum, I walked into a room full of marvelous paintings by an artist who was unknown to me. I had seen two or three similar pictures by him before, though I had never taken in the painter’s name, Vance Kirkland. I made a mental note to find out more. The next day I was wandering in the city when I noticed on a map that there was a Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art. How many significant artists called Kirkland could there be in Denver?

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Did We Ever Stop Being Postmodern?

The Victoria and Albert Museum’s exhibition about postmodernism and design ends with a defiant assertion: “like it or not we are all postmodern now.” Do you think of yourself that way — as a postmodern person? Most probably not. The movement’s ideas dominated the academy for more than a decade, but it was never a term that commanded much public understanding. Could this be the moment to rethink postmodernism?

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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
Rick Poynor
Moravian Gallery, 2010
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