Design against Design: Cause and Consequence of a Dissident Graphic Practice

by Kevin Yuen Kit Lo

A conversational, impassioned treatise on the realities of a socially engaged design practice Packed with conversational interviews, personal and critical essays, and a wide-ranging collection of graphic works, Design against Design examines the realities and relations that constitute a socially engaged design practice. Canadian designer Kevin Yuen Kit Lo (born 1978) offers candid, almost confessional, insights that challenge the status quo of design writing, demanding that we think more critically about the politics of visual culture under contemporary capitalism, and importantly, how we can act against it.
The collection is organized around four key Critique presents a political economic analysis of graphic design in relation to capitalism and considers practical ways to resist it; Practice looks critically at how designers work toward (and sometimes against) social change; Materiality focuses on the craft of graphic design; and Autonomy considers the emotional and relational aspects of graphic design.

Genres: Design, Art

240 pages, Paperback

Published June 25, 2024

Reviews

[emilia]

Viva la escritura tan honesta y articulada

[Alexandra Zotica · Rating 4 out of 5]

In some ways I'm so glad that it took me a year to finish this book, both because its most interesting ideas are in the last chapters and also because I'm in the exact mental / professional / whatever-one-might-call-it space to understand and relate to what Kevin is saying. Disillusionment, anxiety, skepticism and lack of purpose have been constantly running through my mind lately, because of many different reasons. One of them is the rather recent realization of my misalignment from my university's methods, where notions of social and political design are co-opted to create projects that supposedly raise awareness, but that are not based on the methodological and ideological background required to do so; the importance of direct engagement with the communities whose struggle we'd want to highlight is ignored, as well as the need of an appropriate textual and visual dictionary when discussing topics we might not have a real understanding of because of our privilege. Social design is "taught" by giving the designer too much credit and as a result projects—beyond the communicative goals declared in presentation slides—are purposeless, at best soothing one's guilt as we acknowledge our privilege in a rotten world. And on that note, designing a website or a magazine or a poster feels increasingly small and powerless in front of genocide and all the fucked up things that are going on, it clashes with the rhetoric we're constantly sold and taught that design is a powerful tool: it's not that it isn't, but it's also important to acknowledge first that by itself it's never going to be enough. It's in this middle ground that I'm finding solace: putting my skills at the service of activism, using it to raise donations, even just going to protests.

Reading about the existence of design studios like Loki is a breath of fresh air and what Kevin has to say, not just about social design, but about design itself is insightful to the disillusioned, opening up for a possibility to fall in love again with what drew me to design in the first place. Opening up for a practice that thrives in community, trust and care both for each other and for the people we work for.

"Design should be an act of translation, but too often it's simply an act of reproduction. The algorithm cannot create anything new, only remix and repurpose what already exists. [...] We can imbue our aesthetic choices with direction and purpose [...] we can see our work as full of meaning, just aching to be told. Breathe life into it and create gentle memories to hold on to."

[Val Horoman · Rating 5 out of 5]

a great guide to the activist world of design, dissident practices, community collaboration, autonomous collectives, self doubt and anxiety in times of upheaval, beautiful intmiate radical projects and a source of hope for designers that want to change the world

[Jacob Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Over the course of writing this, Kevin and I had a conversation that resulted in him helping to shift my ideological stance in regard to why I am a designer and design teacher. An earlier version of this essay talked about “helping people,” which he really kicked back against. He stated, “I prefer not to use the frame of helping people, though I feel what you’re saying and if it applies to your self-thinking, that’s fine, but with our work, I think of it as working in solidarity with… and an understanding that I’m doing this as much for myself as for others is really important to me.” It was really refreshing for me to hear, but also made me question certain aspects of what the hell I’ve been doing as a designer, teacher, and writer. For some reason, over the past handful of years, I had deluded myself into thinking that I was designing and teaching and writing in order to “help people,” which sounds honourable, but actually articulates a locus of superiority and privilege. Kevin was nice enough not to spell it out for me, but I get what he implied: we don’t need any more self-cast saviour types – there are already enough self-appointed messiahs out in the world.”
– Ian Lynam, Debts

[From the forward to the book Design against Design: Cause and Consequence of a Dissident Graphic Practice by Kevin Yuen Kit Lo]