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Archive: May 2012
Jan van Toorn: The World in a Calendar
Jan van Toorn’s calendar for 1972/73, designed for the Dutch printer Mart.Spruijt, is one of the most extraordinary and provocative graphic artifacts of its era. The calendar proposed a new form of engagement for the graphic designer as a mediator and manipulator of photographic meaning. The project still looks utterly remarkable 40 years later in a new reprint undertaken by de Ruimte, a design company in Amsterdam.READ MORE | COMMENTS
The Strange Afterlife of Common Objects
The pictures shown here were taken last week in a shop called The Works: “Objects of Desire” in the Çukurcuma district of Istanbul. No matter how seasoned you may be as a browser of junk shops, quirky antique dealers and flea markets, The Works is one of the great rococo emporiums of bric-a-brac. In shops like these, Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk found the objects for his newly opened Museum of Innocence.READ MORE | COMMENTS (2)
Career Prospects in the Pain Business
I was browsing the Guardian newspaper’s recruitment ads this week when I saw this ad for a job as a Torturer. It caught me off guard — as it was meant to — and I felt a few seconds of profound shock and dismay. The three ads in the UK charity Freedom from Torture’s new awareness and fundraising campaign deliver perfectly calculated moments of cognitive dissonance.READ MORE | COMMENTS (1)
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
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
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 PhotographyClément Chéroux, editor
Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of ChangePhilip Brookman
What is Contemporary Art?e-flux Journal
Iaspis Forum on Design and Critical Practice: The ReaderMartin Frostner & Magnus Ericson et al., editors
Volume: Writings on Graphic Design, Music, Art, and CultureKenneth FitzGerald & Rudy VanderLans
Song and Circumstance: The Work of David Byrne from Talking Heads to the PresentSytze Steenstra
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?Mark Fisher
No Return: Journeys in the HolocaustRomek Marber
Turning Pages: Editorial Design for Print MediaRobert Klanten et al., editors
RemainderTom McCarthy
RICK POYNOR: OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS
Inside JobCharles Ferguson
Blow OutBrian De Palma
Songs from the Second FloorRoy Andersson
Red DesertMichelangelo Antonioni
MisinforMationCOI/Mordant Music
Ace in the HoleBilly Wilder
The Pervert’s Guide to CinemaSlavoj Žižek
