Design Dialogues

by Steven Heller

This wide-ranging compilation of interviews offers a colorful and candid introduction to the personalities, passions, and work of thirty- four respected designers, artists, authors, and media producers. With design as the common thread, each exchange opens an individual perspective on the visual culture at large, ranging in focus from the manipulative power of images to the place of theory in design practice to the myriad interactions between design and life. The stories are woven from experiences in media, theory, history, politics, and the blurry realm of interactivity, and are told by such notables as Ellen Lupton discussing her life as a design curator, Tibor Kalman confronting the relationship between practice and social responsibility, John Plunkett on his motivations for founding Wired magazine, and Ralph Ginzburg telling all about the controversial publication that ultimately sent him to prison. Both an oral history of graphic design and a living record of where we are today, these engaging and evocative dialogues provide anyone interested in design or popular culture with a means of understanding, as well as ideas for working in, the visual world around them.



Included are thirty-four black-and-white illustrations and interviews with: Massimo Vignelli, Paul Rand, Stephen Doyle, Jonathan Barnbrook, Jonathan Hoefler, Michael Ian Kaye, Dana Arnett, Chris Pullman, Jose Conde, Nicholas Callaway, George Lois, Philip Meggs, Rick Prelinger, Dan Solo, Rick Poynor, Ellen Lupton, Katherine McCoy, Johanna Drucker, Ivan Chermayeff, Milton Glaser, Michael Bierut, Sue Coe, Stuart Ewen, Ralph Ginzburg, Tibor Kalman, Richard Saul Wurman, Michael Ray Charles, Morris Wyszogrod, Jules Feiffer, Rodney Alan Greenblat, David Vogler, Edwin Schlossberg, Robert Greenberg, and John Plunkett.

Genres: Design, Art

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Steven Heller writes a monthly column on graphic design books for The New York Times Book Review and is co-chair of MFA Design at the School of Visual Arts. He has written more than 100 books on graphic design, illustration and political art, including Paul Rand, Merz to Emigre and Beyond: Avant Garde Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century, Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design Second Edition, Handwritten: Expressive Lettering in the Digital Age, Graphic Design History, Citizen Designer, Seymour Chwast: The Left Handed Designer, The Push Pin Graphic: Twenty Five Years of Design and Illustration, Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits, The Anatomy of Design: Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design. He edits VOICE: The AIGA Online Journal of Graphic Design, and writes for Baseline, Design Observer, Eye, Grafik, I.D., Metropolis, Print, and Step. Steven is the recipient of the Art Directors Club Special Educators Award, the AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement, and the School of Visual Arts' Masters Series Award.

Reviews

[Marko jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Todo designer deveria ser obrigado a ler este livro. É essencial para um entendimento mais abrangente da profissão.

[H.d. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Composto por entrevistas, realizadas na década de 1990, com personalidades tão diferentes quanto Massimo Vignelli e John Plunkett, o livro funciona mais como um mosaico de ideias do que uma coletânea coesa de entrevistas. Essas ideias, que giram em torno de tipografia, negócios, instalações físicas, novos modelos de curadoria, e fragmentos de histórias de vida, prenunciam em vários momentos as mudanças que veremos no design em meios digitais do século XXI. Pessoalmente me chamou a atenção a seção 'De Onde Viemos, Para Onde Vamos' com reflexões sobre a prática e o ensino do design na sociedade contemporânea, a visão editorial de Tibor Kalman e seu fascínio pelo tipo em movimento e o projeto gráfico, belíssimo, questionador em sua forma e de prática leitura.