The Failed Painter: Or: Unchained by Material Anxiety

by Ian Lynam

"Ian Lynam is the Hunter S. Thompson of design writing." –Sereina Rothenberger A personal book about material anxiety in creative work, The Failed Painter discusses singular and multiple production processes, perfectibility and imperfectability in times of virtual surface, and hunger for authenticity. Writing in the persona of the titular "failed painter," Ian Lynam, author of The Impossibility of Writing for Designers, Artists & Photographers (2021), directly addresses design practitioners by calling them to investigate how the material components of their practice are sourced, delving into everything from the labor conditions of manufacturers to the intricate processes of production and distribution. Lynam grounds his investigation in the day-to-day with a collection of essays on design and art spanning culture, race, nation and sheer vandalism. This highly curated yet various assortment of approachable writing on aesthetics touches on space exploration, mercenaries, puberty, instant nostalgia, precarious labor and, of course, zombies.

220 pages, Paperback

Published September 5, 2023

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 1 out of 5]

enjoyed his book about writing, but this is a waste of time. sorry, but i tried. i don’t get the concept. it is a weird assemblage of essays. the attempt to knot them together by some aesthetic features does not help. i had a hard time to make any connection to graphic design. and, i think, this was part of the intention, right? there is another book of him here laying around and wanting to be read. i wish it is better than this.

[Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely collection of essays, you never know where each would lead - I found that quite exciting

Ppl:
Kevin Yuen Kit Lol of LOKI (Mtl)
Kathleen & Christopher Sleboda of DrawnDown
Paul Rand and Bruno Munari

Pubs:
Idea mag
DrawnDown books
Graphics ‘55

Books:
Parallel Strokes by Ian lynam
Yellow Pages by Goto Tetsuya and Javin Mo
On Printers’ Flowers by Shirai Yoshihisa
Shikeo Senkoku // Death Sentence by Hagiwara Kyojiro ( of MAVO)

[Gamze Seckin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was misled by the title when I picked up this book. I was hoping to read some insight about a painter's mind and his/her anxieties etc. It turns out the term "failed painter" is used apparently for "graphic designers" (which I had no idea), and the book is about random thoughts of the author's time in Tokyo and other topics such as cats, dogs, etc. Didn't work for me.