Product Description

Titel is published in cooperation with August, London Design critic Rick Poynor explores the thinking behind contemporary visual culture - intriguing and fascinating appraisal. In the twenty-first century, commerce and culture are ever more closely entwined. This new collection of essays by design critic Rick Poynor takes a searching look at visual culture to discover the reality beneath the ultra-seductive surfaces. Poynor explores the thinking behind the emerging resistance to commercial rhetoric among designers, and offers critical insights into the changing dialogue between advertising and design. Other essays address the topics of visual journalism; brands as religion; the new solipslsm; graphic memes; the pleasures of imperfect design; and the poverty of "cool". Around the world, many are now waking up to the dominance of huge corporations - invariably expressed by visual means. This pointed and provocative counterblast arrives at a moment when critical responses are vital if this mono-culture is to be challenged. It offers inspirational evidence of alternative ways of engaging with design, and it will appeal to any reader with a questioning interest in design, advertising, cultural studies, media studies, and the visual arts. Rick Poynor writes about design and visual culture. He was founder editor of Eye, the international review of graphic communication. He is the author of seven previous books, including Design Without Boundaries (1998).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #819765 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Douglas Coupland, novelist
A terrific book. Essential. After you've read it, you really can't look at the world in the same way... which is also one definition of art.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding, probably the best book I have bought this year.
I have always keenly read Rick Poynors essays in design magazines such as Eye, where he is Writer at large, and enjoyed his previous book 'Design without Boundaries', so when I first heard of this book I was sure that I would not be disappointed. However the reality far exceeded my expectations. Unlike 'Design without Boundaries', the book is littered with lavish colour examples, which illustrate the articles perfectly. The book is a great object and the design makes the incisive text a pleasure to read. As cliched as it sounds once you pick this book up it is difficult to put down.
It is great to re-visit texts such as 'Surface wreckage', which I remembered reading in Eye last year as well as others such as 'When objects dream' which were new to me. I have been telling anyone who will listen that this is probably the best book I have read this year.

"Life must be seen, before it can be known"
Obey the Giant beautifully deals with many and most of the places where images come into our world. From a pithy critique of Damian Hirst's pop monograph to an ironic look at the ad mans love of shopping, it's all found within this monster. Sections like Too Much Stuff and When Objects Dream are good but Poynor is best when he becomes personal and subjective. In Death in the Image World we are taken on a visit to the London Dungeons, a tourist attraction where we dance with our fascination with dying and death. He proposes a more than straight forward connection between fiction and real violence - both having consequences for each other, and how there is unavoidable traffic between the two. History with the nasty bits left in! The picture research and repro is first-class (as it should be with a book dealing with life in the image world), as are the collage like illustrations by some guy called Kan Tang. Art, design, advertising, world images and how we look at them. "Life must be seen, before it can be known" the same can be said of "Obey the Giant"