recently i have been doing a hell of a lot of reading and have found a few theorist/critics/designers that writtings have inspired my way of thinking and thought process:
Rick Poyner and Ellen Lupton and katherine McCoy, Vignelli, paula scher
but most defernately these few reads:
BOOK1 :No more rules. graphic design and postmodernism Rick Poyer
well Rick Poyner decided to bravely challenge gathering a number of example that where the centre of postmodernism and creating a amazing book on the subject. really idenitfying some key themes in this style of dessign:
Deconstruction, authorship, origins, technology etc
it an on going read but really help you understand the different substyles in postmodernism and how these labels game about. understand your target audience to what the design should look like.this book also touches on designer as authorship and the opposition.
book2:
katherin McCoy she had written a number of inspiring essays on design and also inspired me with her students work from the 80′s Cranbrook Academy. also her essay in book:
Design Studies: theory and research in graphic design A. Bennett, S. Heller (2006) Princeton Architectual Press
- graphics desin in a multicultural world k. McCoy
talking about industrial revolution of mass inspiring the modernist ideals of one style fits all. but also talking about tailored messages for a specific audiences. a language, cultural values, needs and preferences that exist in audience centre design, which is what the postmodernist celebrated. Acknowledging the cultural diversity and sub-cultural audiences.
Book3
i have also already wrote about this in my recent blog but also i tell any1 who want a book on great modernist aesthetics massimo Vignelli downloadable pdf is amazing read to understand his basic structure to design:
Semantics, syntactics, pragmatics, discipline, appropriateness, Ambiguity, design is one, Visual power. intellectual elegance, timelessness, responsibility and equity.
which i believe are important to understand and know but you do not have to always acknowledge in everything you do, but still make you more aware of the knowledge to understand why you do things a certain way. Also this read give you and intellectual understand of a mondernists way of thinking.
book4:
Paula Scher make it bigger, is an awesome read. the book is about her career but also touching on other people thoughts, styles and style wars, what it like in the business of design, steps to the top etc. but also explain what design was like in her youth and the reason she is a postmodernist enjoying the loud expressive work she has produced. a brilliant read, well on going as it so thick.
internet:
Émigré site is an awesome read and the archive is brilliant, the essay by Rudy Vanderlans himself and Mr. keedy etc. great writtings on postmodernism
essays on :
in and around culture: Cultures of design and the design cultures
Graphic design in the postmodern era.
interview with rick poynor.
