Design Issues: How Graphic Design Informs Society FROM THE PUBLISHER
Talk about Pok�mon or Paul Rand, a magazine like Flaunt or the electronic leaflet campaigns during the last presidential ballots, and you talk about graphic design as a driving cultural force. Often considered a subset of popular culture, graphic design has spawned some of the most prominent heroes and legends of everyday culture, from our children's playmates to the way we conduct political campaigning. In THE GRAPHIC DESIGN READER, art director and pop culture aficionado Steven Heller talks about the designer's new role in influencing pop culture and about his own lifelong flirtation with its makers and makings.
This highly personal collection of fifty essays is a passionate tribute to the craft of design. Singling out familiar cultural icons, groundbreaking publications, influential designers, and underground movements, Heller provides a sweeping view of American pop culture as seen from the eyes of a graphic designer. The author, known for his rich knowledge of graphic design history, delves into a sweeping array of topics ranging from the early days of show-card writing and the teen magazines of his childhood to his tumultuous days in the magazine world of the 70s and his appreciation for illustrator and journalist Julian Allen. Rich with irony, nostalgia, and humor, THE GRAPHIC DESIGN READER also includes
Reviews of notable and notorious magazine designs, such as The New York Review of Sex, The Progressive, and Playboy, Flaunt, and the "daringly innovative" Nest
Inspiring portraits of graphic design's legends and its forgotten heroes, including Paul Rand and his landmark style, the author's mentor Brad Holland, the "Gilbert and Sulivan of Design" Suntar & L�ndberg, and Gentry publisher William C. Segal
Timely and critical thoughts about graphic design in the service of war propaganda ("the visual lexicon of hate")
Personal memories from a pop culture buff and a graphic designer who began his career as art director, designer, and publisher of the New York Review of Sex
About the Author
Steven Heller is the art director of the New York Times Book Review and co-chair of the graphic design masters program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He is author, co-author, or editor of more than seventy books on graphic design, including The Education of a Graphic Designer, The Education of an Illustrator, The Education of an E-Designer, Graphic Design Time Line, Graphic Design History, Design Connoisseur, Sex Appeal, The Swastika, Design Dialogues, Design Literacy, Design Literacy (continued), Design Culture, Looking Closer 3, Looking Closer 2, and Looking Closer, all published by Allworth Press. He lives in New York City.
SYNOPSIS
Driven by a lifetime in graphic design and a passion for everything pop culture, acclaimed graphic designer Steven Heller delivers a provocative and highly personal interim report of his craft in this enthralling collection of essays. From the lost art of show-card writing, the tumultuous days of guerilla magazine publishing to the latest in electronic leaflets design, Heller provides stunning examples of how graphic design has turned from a subset of pop culture to a cultural driving force on its own. Rich in its scope and full of piercing observation, this refreshing collection of essays combines candid introspection, interviews with landmark design personalities and the philosophical elixir of thirty-four years of design. The more than fifty carefully selected essays are divided into five sections and provide a panorama of design issues that is both deeply personal and universal. Graphic Design Reader is the legacy of a master who has played a key role in shaping the identity, image, and formation of contemporary design.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Designer Holland presents 34 of the "Design Issues" columns, written by 20 different authors, originally published in magazine under her tenure as editor of design issues. The contributions on graphic design are organized into sections on branding, critical design, ethics, the tension between designer creativity and client satisfaction, and the place of graphics design in the wider world. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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