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Designing Pornotopia: Travels in Visual Culture
Explicit sexual imagery has erupted in every medium and on every surface. While some react to it by pointing and laughing, hardly anyone has stopped to seriously consider its impact. Behind this phenomenon lies the normalization of pornography, which along with the complete turnaround in social attitudes to it, has been one of the most momentous developments in contemporary life. In Designing Pornotopia , Rick Poynor explores recent advertising and design and the invasion of sexual imagery into everyday life, revealing how advertising walks the fine line between prudish and vulgar imagery. Developing the discussion of Poynor's previous anthology, Obey the Giant , Designing Pornotopia covers a wide area of subjects, from magazines, billboard advertising, branding, illustration, photography, tattoos, and music graphics to architecture and includes interviews with architect Rem Koolhaas and maverick American graphic designer and performance artist Elliott Earls. Along the way Poynor reassesses the early work of Peter Saville and tracks the unstoppable rise of Stefan Sagmeister, among others. Poynor's concise, riveting prose constantly challenges the reader with strong and thought-provoking arguments. In its timeliness and poignancy, this anthology is a truly indispensable addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in visual culture and its effects on our daily lives.
- GenresDesignArt DesignArt
208 pages, Paperback
Published July 6, 2006
6 people are currently reading
50 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 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 30, 2016
We live in a world where design reigns supreme. We are so inundated and immersed within it that we take it for granted. More often than not we remain blissfully unaware of its pervasiveness, and therefore of its implications for how it can both reflect and manipulate our lives, particularly in our acquisitive, competitive, commercial world. At the same time, I think it is fair to say that there is very little discussion about it: we seem to be satisfied with adjectival evaluations, using words such as “delightful”, “well”, “poorly”, “interesting”, “arresting”, and other associated adjectives regarding design. Enter Rock Poyner.
This book consists of twenty-eight articles on graphic design. The range is global, and many of the most significant graphic designers are introduced and discussed, with relevant illustrations of their output on display throughout the book. From the title it is rather obvious that the particular concerns of these essays is the sexualisation of graphic designs world-wide. This ranges from the elegantly “sexy” all the way through to more blatant imagery which can accurately be described as “pornographic”. This extends across the board, from magazine covers, book covers, film posters and promos, television promos and commercials, graphic novels, product-selling displays (e.g. in newspaper, magazine, and public promotions on billboards) and graffiti.
All this is meant to be seductive and alluring rather than pornographic as such, and much of the excesses stem from the competitive nature of consumer manipulation. Daring and rebellious designers have thus opened a cornucopia of lucrative options for the audacious. With corporate companies becoming more and more global in reach, there is a lot of money to be made by any designer brazen enough to snatch their marketing departments. International recognition is assured.
But what makes this book much, much better than just the enumeration of facts is Poynor’s writing. He is personal, balanced, intelligent, and immensely readable. One does not have to be working in some aspect of the world of design to appreciate and understand what Poyner is writing about — and those who do work in design will find him equally insightful and informative. He has direct experience with those in the know; he interviews significant players in the field; he is respectful of their achievements, giving praise where praise is due, but voices concern where he suspects there might be other questions that need to be addressed. This is superb writing that treats the reader with respect.
Recommended for anyone interested in or concerned about certain aspects of the West’s visual culture.
This book consists of twenty-eight articles on graphic design. The range is global, and many of the most significant graphic designers are introduced and discussed, with relevant illustrations of their output on display throughout the book. From the title it is rather obvious that the particular concerns of these essays is the sexualisation of graphic designs world-wide. This ranges from the elegantly “sexy” all the way through to more blatant imagery which can accurately be described as “pornographic”. This extends across the board, from magazine covers, book covers, film posters and promos, television promos and commercials, graphic novels, product-selling displays (e.g. in newspaper, magazine, and public promotions on billboards) and graffiti.
All this is meant to be seductive and alluring rather than pornographic as such, and much of the excesses stem from the competitive nature of consumer manipulation. Daring and rebellious designers have thus opened a cornucopia of lucrative options for the audacious. With corporate companies becoming more and more global in reach, there is a lot of money to be made by any designer brazen enough to snatch their marketing departments. International recognition is assured.
But what makes this book much, much better than just the enumeration of facts is Poynor’s writing. He is personal, balanced, intelligent, and immensely readable. One does not have to be working in some aspect of the world of design to appreciate and understand what Poyner is writing about — and those who do work in design will find him equally insightful and informative. He has direct experience with those in the know; he interviews significant players in the field; he is respectful of their achievements, giving praise where praise is due, but voices concern where he suspects there might be other questions that need to be addressed. This is superb writing that treats the reader with respect.
Recommended for anyone interested in or concerned about certain aspects of the West’s visual culture.
December 31, 2010
This year in reading I don't exactly think I failed but I definitely didn't succeed in the way I wanted. Rick Poynor's Designing Pornotopia is the last book I'll get to read for this year 2010. My goal for this year was to read twelve books throughout the year and with two books having to be related to my field, art and design, and two books that taught me something leaving eight books to my discretion. To date Designing Pornotopia will be my sixth book. So, I read this year but I only completed half my list and it is a weird story how I came to read Designing Pornotopia. I was actually reading a different book that I recently stopped, I'll talk about it some day hopefully, and for some reason I got really inspired to read something about design. I've owned Designing Pornotopia for a few years now because I bought it back when I was in design school and never got around to reading it. For some reason now was the time that this book grabbed me. I'd picked it up a few times and it never stuck but this time I picked up Designing Pornotopia and it felt right. It also helped that the book is broken up into chapters that are self contained articles or essays with little bits that connect them but they can be read out of order. This layout made it easy to read while doing a stint working at a slow restaurant for my friend so I could steal away for bits of time and knock out a few pages or a chapter or two. This was also the first essay book I've ever read and I really got into that style of presenting information and have actually picked up a great follow read. As a graphic designer I found myself enthralled with content and writing of Rick Poynor and I also found myself chewing over the material for hours after reading it. The main focus of Designing Pornotopia is the study of graphic design in our modern culture and that sex is becoming more or completely mainstream and that graphic design is becoming indistinguishable from marketing. There are also fantastic essays on designers and the life of Rick plus great anecdotes for designers to grasp. I found myself writing on a scrap food order slip page numbers to go back to later for a quick reference. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone in the design field that is looking to grow as a designer and question the world of design that has been built up around us.
August 10, 2016
Like his earlier book, Obey the Giant, Pornotopia collects Rick Poynor's essays for publications such as Eye magazine (which he founded and edited). The essays are loosely thematically linked, and deal with the intersection of design and pornography, though in many essays the link is tenuous or nonexistent. That didn't bother me, since I bought the book simply to enjoy more of Poynor's writing, whatever the topic.
Comparing Pornotopia to Poynor's earlier work, there is less of an emphasis in this collection on the transformative powers of graphic design. Poynor still champions designers who give voice to dissenting political viewpoints (Inkahoots) and create work that challenges its audience (Stefan Sagmeister), but I get the sense that he is no longer so optimistic that design can be an effective tool for political and cultural change. Nevertheless, his writing is far from cynical, and I finished the book with a renewed enthusiasm for my own design practice.
Good design criticism is rare, and I consider Poynor's writing to be the gold standard. Poynor writes about graphic design and visual culture in a smart and accessible way, and I would recommend Pornotopia to anyone working in the field of graphic design.
Comparing Pornotopia to Poynor's earlier work, there is less of an emphasis in this collection on the transformative powers of graphic design. Poynor still champions designers who give voice to dissenting political viewpoints (Inkahoots) and create work that challenges its audience (Stefan Sagmeister), but I get the sense that he is no longer so optimistic that design can be an effective tool for political and cultural change. Nevertheless, his writing is far from cynical, and I finished the book with a renewed enthusiasm for my own design practice.
Good design criticism is rare, and I consider Poynor's writing to be the gold standard. Poynor writes about graphic design and visual culture in a smart and accessible way, and I would recommend Pornotopia to anyone working in the field of graphic design.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews