Design Against Design: Cause and Consequence of a Dissident Graphic Practice - Softcover

Lo, Kevin Yuen Kit

Softcover

ISBN 10: 908331880X ISBN 13: 9789083318806

Publisher: Set Margins' publications, 2024

Synopsis

A conversational, impassioned treatise on the realities of a socially engaged design practice

Packed with conversational interviews, personal and critical essays, and a wide-ranging collection of graphic works, Design against Design examines the realities and relations that constitute a socially engaged design practice. Canadian designer Kevin Yuen Kit Lo (born 1978) offers candid, almost confessional, insights that challenge the status quo of design writing, demanding that we think more critically about the politics of visual culture under contemporary capitalism, and importantly, how we can act against it.
The collection is organized around four key themes: Critique presents a political economic analysis of graphic design in relation to capitalism and considers practical ways to resist it; Practice looks critically at how designers work toward (and sometimes against) social change; Materiality focuses on the craft of graphic design; and Autonomy considers the emotional and relational aspects of graphic design.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Design Against Design argues for the urgent necessity of critical engagement and political resistance through graphic practice. It draws on insights from the practice of LOKI, a small graphic design studio committed to working with social movements towards radical political change. With con­versational interviews, personal and critical essays, and a wide-ranging selection of graphic works, this book unravels the real-world relationships, motivations and contradictions involved in a socially engaged design practice. Both a passionate indictment of the discipline of graphic design, and a utopian love letter to its radical potential, Kevin Yuen Kit Lo’s collection of almost confessional, candid essays challenge the status quo of design writing. Design Against Design demands that we think more intimately about the politics of visual culture under contemporary capitalism and, importantly, how we can act against it.

Edition details

• Publisher: Set Margins' publications
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 908331880X
• ISBN 13: 9789083318806
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240