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Why Graphic Culture Matters
- GenresNonfictionDesign
316 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2023
6 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Rick Poynor
40 books26 followersRick 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 26, 2025
This book is part critique, part love letter, and part intellectual wake-up call. The author Rick Poynor is like the funny sharp professor who intimidates you a little but also makes you rethink everything.
What makes the book so engaging is that it doesn’t just talk about design, it talks about why it matters. Why it shapes culture. Why it influences politics, identity, and the way we think. And why reducing it to “just business” is not only boring but dangerous. Poynor reminds us that design has soft power and that we should be aware of it and use it. Mind you, this book isn’t only for designers.
I didn’t find any dry theory here. Instead it has precise observations, cultural criticism, and a gentle roast of design’s current state while also questioning whether “graphic design” even describes what designers do anymore.
What makes the book so engaging is that it doesn’t just talk about design, it talks about why it matters. Why it shapes culture. Why it influences politics, identity, and the way we think. And why reducing it to “just business” is not only boring but dangerous. Poynor reminds us that design has soft power and that we should be aware of it and use it. Mind you, this book isn’t only for designers.
I didn’t find any dry theory here. Instead it has precise observations, cultural criticism, and a gentle roast of design’s current state while also questioning whether “graphic design” even describes what designers do anymore.
Displaying 1 of 1 review