Anarchie der Zeichen: Grafik-Design von den Achtzigern bis heute

by Rick Poynor

Anarchie der Zeichen ist ein kritischer und systematischer Uberblick uber die grafische Revolution der letzten 20 Jahre, in welcher sich Grundlegendes geandert hat. Die Entwicklung begann schon in den fruhen 80er Jahren, als der Mac allgegenwartiges Arbeitsinstrument wurde. Mit seiner internationalen Verbreitung in den 90ern beschleunigte sich diese Entwicklung und fuhrte zu einer kreativen Explosion im Grafik-Design: Designer und Typographen warfen bestehende Regeln uber Bord und gingen neue experimentelle Wege. Grafik-Design diente zuweilen mehr der Selbstdarstellung, wurde ubertrieben, sogar extrem. Anarchie der Zeichen rekonstruiert die wichtigsten Entwicklungen und Themen dieser Geschichte unter Begriffen wie Ursprunge, Dekonstruktion, Aneignung, Techno, Autorschaft, Opposition. Es schlusselt so das weite und facettenreiche Feld des zeitgenossischen Grafik-Designs auf und ist eine einzigartige Quelle fur Fachleute und Lehrende, Studenten, Werbefachleute und bildende Kunstler.

Paperback

First published November 24, 2003

About the author

Rick Poynor is a British writer on design, graphic design, typography and visual culture. He began as a general visual arts journalist, working on Blueprint magazine in London. After founding Eye magazine, which he edited from 1990 to 1997, he focused increasingly on visual communication. He is writer-at-large and columnist of Eye, and a contributing editor and columnist of Print (magazine).

In 1999, Poynor was a co-ordinator of the First Things First 2000 manifesto initiated by Adbusters. In 2003, he co-founded Design Observer, a weblog for design writing and discussion, with William Drenttel, Jessica Helfand and Michael Bierut. He wrote for the site until 2005. He was a visiting professor at the Royal College of Art, London from 1994 to 1999 and returned to the RCA in 2006 as a research fellow. He has also taught at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. In 2004, Poynor curated the exhibition Communicate: Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties at the Barbican Art Gallery in London. The exhibition subsequently travelled to four venues in China and to Zurich.

Poynor's writing encompasses both cultural criticism and design history and his books break down into three categories. He has written several monographs about significant British figures in the arts and design: Brian Eno (musician), Nigel Coates (architect) and Vaughan Oliver and Herbert Spencer (graphic designers). Other books document and analyse general movements in graphic design and typography. Among these are Typography Now, the first international survey of the digital typography of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and No More Rules, a critical study of graphic design and postmodernism. Poynor has also published three essay collections, Design Without Boundaries, Obey the Giant and Designing Pornotopia, which explore the cultural implications of visual communication, including advertising, photography, branding, graphic design and retail design.

Poynor was a prominent interviewee in the 2007 documentary film Helvetica.

Reviews

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein toller Einblick in den Zeitgeist 1980-2000, der interessante Zusammenhänge aufzeigt und nebenher so einige inspirierende Beispiele aus der Grafik liefert. Habe nebenher so einige Bücher gefunden, die ich nun konsumieren möchte. Ebenso eine gute Abhandlung und Balance zwischen Essay und Bildmaterial.