Back to Search

Culture Is Not Always Popular: Fifteen Years of Design Observer

PUBLISHER MIT Press (01/01/2019)
PRODUCT TYPE Hardcover (Hardcover)

Description
A collection of writing about design from the influential, eclectic, and adventurous Design Observer.

Founded in 2003, Design Observer inscribes its mission on its homepage: Writings about Design and Culture. Since its inception, the site has consistently embraced a broader, more interdisciplinary, and circumspect view of design's value in the world--one not limited by materialism, trends, or the slipperiness of style. Dedicated to the pursuit of originality, imagination, and close cultural analysis, Design Observer quickly became a lively forum for readers in the international design community. Fifteen years, 6,700 articles, 900 authors, and nearly 30,000 comments later, this book is a combination primer, celebration, survey, and salute to a certain moment in online culture. This collection includes reassessments that sharpen the lens or dislocate it; investigations into the power of design idioms; off-topic gems; discussions of design ethics; and experimental writing, new voices, hybrid observations, and other idiosyncratic texts.

Since its founding, Design Observer has hosted conferences, launched a publishing imprint, hosted three podcasts, and attracted more than a million followers on social media. All of these enterprises are rooted in the original mission to engage a broader community by sharing ideas on ways that design shapes--and is shaped by--our lives.

Contributors include

Sean Adams, Allison Arieff, Ashleigh Axios, Eric Baker, Rachel Berger, Andrew Blauvelt, Liz Brown, John Cantwell, Mark Dery, Michael Erard, Stephen Eskilson, Bryan Finoki, Kenneth FitzGerald, John Foster, Steven Heller, Karrie Jacobs, Meena Kadri, Mark Lamster, Alexandra Lange, Francisco Laranjo, Adam Harrison Levy, Mimi Lipson, KT Meaney, Thomas de Monchaux, Randy Nakamura, Phil Patton, Maria Popova, Rick Poynor, Louise Sandhaus, Dmitri Siegel, Martha Scotford, Adrian Shaughnessy, Andrew Shea, John Thackara, Dori Tunstall, Alice Twemlow, Tom Vanderbilt, V ronique Vienne, Alissa Walker, Rob Walker, Lorraine Wild, Timothy Young

Show More
Product Format
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9780262039109
ISBN-10: 0262039109
Binding: Hardback or Cased Book (Sewn)
Content Language: English
More Product Details
Page Count: 240
Carton Quantity: 12
Product Dimensions: 8.40 x 1.20 x 10.10 inches
Weight: 2.73 pound(s)
Feature Codes: Bibliography, Index, Price on Product, Illustrated
Country of Origin: CA
Subject Information
BISAC Categories
Design | History & Criticism
Design | Popular Culture
Design | Graphic Arts - General
Grade Level: College Freshman and up
Dewey Decimal: 745.409
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018011907
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
publisher marketing
A collection of writing about design from the influential, eclectic, and adventurous Design Observer.

Founded in 2003, Design Observer inscribes its mission on its homepage: Writings about Design and Culture. Since its inception, the site has consistently embraced a broader, more interdisciplinary, and circumspect view of design's value in the world--one not limited by materialism, trends, or the slipperiness of style. Dedicated to the pursuit of originality, imagination, and close cultural analysis, Design Observer quickly became a lively forum for readers in the international design community. Fifteen years, 6,700 articles, 900 authors, and nearly 30,000 comments later, this book is a combination primer, celebration, survey, and salute to a certain moment in online culture. This collection includes reassessments that sharpen the lens or dislocate it; investigations into the power of design idioms; off-topic gems; discussions of design ethics; and experimental writing, new voices, hybrid observations, and other idiosyncratic texts.

Since its founding, Design Observer has hosted conferences, launched a publishing imprint, hosted three podcasts, and attracted more than a million followers on social media. All of these enterprises are rooted in the original mission to engage a broader community by sharing ideas on ways that design shapes--and is shaped by--our lives.

Contributors include

Sean Adams, Allison Arieff, Ashleigh Axios, Eric Baker, Rachel Berger, Andrew Blauvelt, Liz Brown, John Cantwell, Mark Dery, Michael Erard, Stephen Eskilson, Bryan Finoki, Kenneth FitzGerald, John Foster, Steven Heller, Karrie Jacobs, Meena Kadri, Mark Lamster, Alexandra Lange, Francisco Laranjo, Adam Harrison Levy, Mimi Lipson, KT Meaney, Thomas de Monchaux, Randy Nakamura, Phil Patton, Maria Popova, Rick Poynor, Louise Sandhaus, Dmitri Siegel, Martha Scotford, Adrian Shaughnessy, Andrew Shea, John Thackara, Dori Tunstall, Alice Twemlow, Tom Vanderbilt, V ronique Vienne, Alissa Walker, Rob Walker, Lorraine Wild, Timothy Young

Show More

Editor: Helfand, Jessica
Jessica Helfand is a partner at Winterhouse, a design collaborative in New England, and a founding editor of "Design Observer," She teaches in the graduate program in graphic design at Yale University and has written several books on design and cultural criticism. She lives in Falls Village, CT.
Show More
List Price $39.95
Your Price  $39.55
Hardcover