Politics of Print shows the importance of visual literacy when communicating beyond borders and cultures. It explores the cultural meaning behind the symbols, maps, photography, typography, and colours that are used every day. It is a practical guide for design and communication professionals and students to create more effective and responsible visual communication.
Ruben Pater is a designer and researcher from Amsterdam, the
Netherlands. He finished the
master programme of the Sandberg institute in 2012, and as ‘Untold
Stories’ he works on self-initiated and collaborative projects
between journalism and graphic design. Past projects are Double
Standards (2012), the Drone Survival Guide (2013), and Behind the
Blue Screen (2014). His work has received several international
awards and is featured in exhibitions around the world.
It's the kind of literature that should be handed out to all
students on their first days at art school, along with all the
Albers, Berger, Benjamin, and Sontag that form the backbone of the
design curriculum--an up-to-date assessment of the landscape
through which all modern visual practitioners must navigate.
- AIGA.com Author Ruben Pater, an Amsterdam-based designer and
researcher, uses ideas from anthropology and sociology in creating
a surprising and educational insight in contemporary visual
communication.
- New Design Magazine "The book draws attention to the fact that
every design decision automatically has a political dimension, and
that communication professionals need to take this on board.
Design, after all, "cannot be disconnected from the values and
assumptions in which it was created, from the ideologies behind
it", which makes this "(not so) global manual" a valuable aid, both
for creators and consumers, to understanding design in the context
of its easily overlooked political meaning - and to ensuring we
deal with that context more responsibly in the future."
- Form Magazine Germany Ruben Pater's unpacking of the politics
that underscores most design is a 21st Century companion to Quentin
Fiore and Marshall McLuhan's The Medium Is The Message and War and
Peace In The Global Village.
- Steven Heller This anthropological and sociological
look--covering all or many of the consequences of everyday design
activity--is a philosophic-visual study that's just about
everything I want in a 21st-century design text. And that it's also
compact enough to fit in the pocket with my new iPhone 6s is a nice
bonus.
- Printmag.com The Politics of Design should be put into the hands
of everyone working in communication design. And also probably in
the hands of everyone else since none of us can elude the work of
designers. I can't remember the last time i had such an
entertaining, witty and informative publication to review.
- WeMakeMoneyNotArt.com This little masterpiece really hit the
sweet spot for me. It is a perfectly designed and beautiful manual
for visual communication. Every page shows that an incredible
amount of thought has been put into the book.
- Hans de Zwart This brilliantly written manual unveils politics in
pop-culture, decodes our privileged position and shows how design
inevitable becomes propaganda of our cultural limitations. Ruben
Pater did a magnificent job in showing on one side a broad range of
often witty examples of how our graphic language evolved over time
and space, and influences our way of perceiving the world around
us, at the same time he is able to contextualize the examples with
a razor sharp focus, allowing the reader to decode it's own
perception. This book is an absolute must-read for every
designer.
- Annelys de Vet
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