Rick Poynor
Recent articles by Rick Poynor
Images do the talking
Issue 106, Summer 2024
Seeing ↔ Making: Room for Thought is an inventive and challenging new project from the always interesting publisher Inventory Press
Art of darkness
Issue 106, Summer 2024
Indie magazine Hellebore channels folk horror and the occult with an alchemical sense of graphic style. Critique by Rick Poynor
Banquet for a dude
Issue 105, Autumn 2023
The late Milton Glaser occupies a unique position at the pinnacle of Anglo-American graphic design. While…
Going off brand
Issue 105, Autumn 2023
Jason Grant and Oliver Vodeb’s uncompromising handbook of theory and action ends slyly with a…
Overloading the page
Issue 105, Autumn 2023
A big survey of Dutch photobooks raises issues about visual editing and layout. Critique by Rick Poynor
The creative anarchist
Issue 105, Autumn 2023
Printer, poet, designer and publisher Dennis Gould interweaves the personal with the political in his clamorous, intuitive letterpress work. By Rick Poynor. [EXTRACT]
This is a column
Issue 104, Spring 2023
Design that tells the story of its own making harks back to conceptual art of the 1960s. By Rick Poynor
Waiting at the intersection
Issue 103, Summer 2022
Designers are often fascinated by a visual practice in which the maker enjoys an enviable autonomy usually unavailable to themselves.
Unfinished business
Issue 103, Summer 2022
Scott King’s rallying call for creative freedom takes a satirical swipe at cultural gatekeepers. By Rick Poynor
Experiments in destabilisation
Issue 102, Autumn 2021
A CalArts book celebrates decades of purposeful graphic weirdness. Critique by Rick Poynor
Los Angeles’ lost palace of treasures
Issue 101, Summer 2021
Using photographic evidence, designer Mark Nelson has reconstructed one of the great twentieth-century art collections. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Heroes of wealth and power
An essay published in Mack’s new ‘Discourse’ series accuses three prominent photographers of creating propaganda for global capitalism.
Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Godard becomes ‘Godard’
In 1961, the new wave director posed for a German fashion photographer. The publicity pictures that followed are as self-reflexive as his films. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Palaces of petroleum
The adventurous design of a 1960 book promoting Australia’s fossil fuel industry offers a poignant glimpse of an optimistic, unquestioning age.Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
The haunted shore
Images of spectral sea-bathers haunt the light-filled pages of Nigel Grierson’s self-published photobook.
Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Netherworld of crime
A new book expands upon an impressionistic photo-essay about crime by Gordon Parks, including images not published at the time.
By Rick Poynor
Eye’s early years
Issue 100, Summer 2020
Founding editor Rick Poynor recalls the aims and ideas behind the launch of an independent design magazine
Recolouring the past
At a time when image falsification is a source of concern, the digital colourisation of documentary photographs is a retreat from the truth.
Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Instant object of desire
A Polaroid photo’s aura of ephemeral uniqueness lies in its small white frame and supercharged surface. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Whiteness made strange
A brave, if flawed book of artists’ photographs addresses racism through the lens of white privilege. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Scalpel sharp
A UK retrospective examines the explosive photomontages of feminist artist Linder, from the shock of her punk collages to pictures that juxtapose provocation with flowers and dance
Among the spirits
Nadav Kander’s poetic and mysterious portraits of celebrities steal the limelight in his new book The Meeting. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Four-wheeled dreams
A new book of photographs of cars fails to acknowledge the bigger picture. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Traces of longing
Issue 99, Autumn 2019
For Belgian collagist Katrien De Blauwer, making work is both an obsession and an act of therapy. By Rick Poynor
Defiance and revelation
A new book of Peter Kennard’s work adds context and background detail to his angry, radical photomontages. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Banquet of images
For its 50th anniversary, the Arles festival stages a
generous array of contemporary and historical
exhibitions. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor.
Nature in captivity
Luigi Ghirri’s rigorously composed pictures of
plants outside people’s homes exercise a banal fascination. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
A confederacy of lunches
A text-only book argues that ‘social’ photography is more about self-documentation than aesthetics. By Rick Poynor
Posters for the people
Issue 98, Spring 2019
Photographs by the Polish designer Wojciech Zamecznik investigate the use of posters as public communication By Rick Poynor
Two cheers for publishing
Issue 98, Spring 2019
A two-volume book packed with graphic design history is a visual blockbuster, but does little for scholarship. By Rick Poynor
Catalogue of things
A close relative’s colour slides show a densely layered record of everyday life. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
From out of the blue
Volume one of Anna Atkins’ beautiful study of British algae, issued in 1843, was the first ever publication to be printed using photography.
Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Awkward objects
The tradition of the painted still life has been reinvented by contemporary photographers with pictures that pose a puzzle and slow the viewer down. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Streets without people
Emigre’s Rudy VanderLans explores the clotted terrain of Tokyo’s Shibuya and Shinjuku districts with the eye of a graphic designer
Hole in the head
An artful book of deliberately torn, anonymous photographs from the Cold War era leaves many questions unanswered.
Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Hardcore history
Issue 97, Autumn 2018
More than 40 years after punk happened, the phenomenon is still being fêted as a…
Cinematic view
Issue 97, Autumn 2018
A recent edition of Aperture examines the enduring affinity between two art forms. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Twisting the alien
Set to minimalist techno, Arthur Jafa’s APEX is a cycle of images that illuminate the condition of black people within white-dominated culture. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Scenes from an imperfect world
Even Don McCullin expressed doubts about his photographs of war and suffering. What is their message today? Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Emotion pictures
Alex Prager’s ravishing tableaux mix glamour and unease. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
No fixed style
Issue 96, Spring 2018
Among British independent record companies, Mute Records, founded in 1978 by ‘accident’, has never enjoyed…
Mining the ruins
Issue 96, Spring 2018
When petrol replaced coal, the island of Hashima lost its purpose and slowly decayed. Rick Poynor examines a new photobook haunted by the past
Enigmas of abstraction
Photography records with startling accuracy. Why use it to create non-representational images? Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Different kinds of marginal
Diane Arbus’s unsparing images retain their power to discomfit. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Colour field
By choosing colour over black-and-white, Joel Meyerowitz pioneered a new type of American street photography. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Fabricated reality
Andreas Gursky’s photographs, manipulated like digital paintings, have spectacular impact. But they can display a lofty detachment from their subjects. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Witness of the moment
A book of informal interviews with Henri Cartier-Bresson is testament to a great photographer’s intuitive eye. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Exposing the menace
Issue 95, Winter 2017
David King’s posters integrated type and image with power and uncompromising political commitment. By Rick Poynor
Relentless riches
Issue 95, Winter 2017
A busy blockbuster traces the stunning history of Japanese photobooks. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Mississippi dreaming
Alec Soth’s photographic journey along the Mississippi merges the documentary with the poetic. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Graphic language of the wall
Brassaï’s photographs of graffiti with handwritten typographic treatments made striking, almost punkish paperback covers for Le Livre de Poche
Bauhäuslers at rest and play
Issue 94, Summer 2017
When we think of the photographic experiments of the 1920s, what immediately comes to mind…
Beyond context
Issue 94, Summer 2017
Mysterious equipment, unknown officials and arcane activities combine in a photobook that is testament to the art of selection and editing.
Photo Critique By Rick Poynor
The joy and sadness of dust
A familiar domestic nuisance provides the theme for this ambiguous and labyrinthine exhibition.
Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Inner space man
Mike Halliwell’s montages illustrate J. G. Ballard’s The Atrocity Exhibition with a flair that evokes the late author’s own experiments with cut and paste. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Age of the female gaze
Girl on Girl – a new survey of 40 contemporary photographers – raises questions about the nature of representation without necessarily answering them. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Double satori
For photographer Sergio Larrain (1931-2012), making pictures was a form of spiritual quest. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Modernist cottage industry
Issue 93, Winter 2016
For more than a decade, Ruth Artmonsky has been publishing modest, readable books about design and illustration from her London flat
Reputations: Fuel
Issue 93, Winter 2016
‘We love collecting vernacular … it’s functional, not following a preconceived idea of what is correct. This can give it an unexpected quality … in “real” design all those elements are lost. Everything is too considered.’ By Rick Poynor
Traces of a drifter
Issue 93, Winter 2016
Camera in hand, Harry Pearce dives into the urban underbelly in search of the unfathomable. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Elton John's new vision
‘The Radical Eye’, the superstar’s opulently framed collection of modernist photography, is a revelation. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Feminist scrutiny
Photographs challenge norms of female sexuality, beauty and domesticity. The first in a new series of monthly Photo Critiques by Rick Poynor
Take my concept
Issue 92, Summer 2016
Boris Bućan’s early posters display an audacity that challenges divisions between graphic design and fine art
Browsing, or reading?
Issue 92, Summer 2016
A new shop demonstrates the global resurgence of indie magazines. Critique by Rick Poynor
From trade to poetry
Issue 91, Spring 2016
Barcelona’s new Museu del Disseny shows how design can claim a space for itself. Critique by Rick Poynor
Depth and ambiguity
Another Way of Telling, by John Berger and Jean Mohr, extends the possibilities of the photographic narrative. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Cold War culture-jammer
Hispanic photomonteur Josep Renau aimed Technicolor jets of scorn at the mirage of US consumerist culture. By Rick Poynor
Online rhetoric
Issue 90, Summer 2015
Though intended to make its contents ‘democratic’, art website The Space is a perplexing jumble. Critique by Rick Poynor
Words and pictures talking
Canongate has reissued John Berger and Jean Mohr’s A Fortunate Man, about Gloucestershire doctor John Sassall. How does it compare with the 1967 original? Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Trust me, I’m a photographer
Issue 89, Winter 2014
I’m familiar with Joan Fontcuberta’s work, so I should have known better. The Spanish photographer…
Pay close attention
Issue 89, Winter 2014
Adam Michaels and Prem Krishnamurthy of Project Projects bring deep cultural engagement to every aspect of their practice, both in their client work and in their personal ventures
Against the flow
Issue 89, Winter 2014
As editorial design becomes more predictable, Swedish feminist quarterly Bang kicks against visual norms. Critique by Rick Poynor
Energy and emotion
Aperture’s new series of photography books may prove to be an essential educational resource for serious smartphone snappers
Readymade format
Issue 88, Summer 2014
An illustrated ‘gift book’ dictionary by Heretic brings Marcel Duchamp’s ideas to a wider audience. Critique by Rick Poynor
The retoucher’s accidental art
Issue 88, Summer 2014
The reworked press photos now being discarded are unique objects and compellingly strange images. Raynal Pellicer has a collection
Photographer as page maker
David Campany’s examination of Walker Evans’ freewheeling magazine work – for Fortune, Architectural Forum, Life, and others – is a revelation. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Space for stories
Issue 87, Spring 2014
Visual Editions’ box of literary maps challenges authors to think differently about the structures that link words and images. Critique by Rick Poynor
Occupation hazardous
For ‘place hackers’, subversive and daredevil urban explorers, photography validates a search for the sublime. Photo Critique by Rick Poynor
Incisive vision
Issue 86, Autumn 2013
Eduardo Paolozzi’s gifts as a collagist have been neglected by the worlds of both art and design. Critique by Rick Poynor
Empathy and doubt in Arles
From the cool alienation of colour to the directness of black and white – Rick Poynor reflects on the 2013 Rencontres d’Arles photography festival. Critique by Rick Poynor
Screen prints
Issue 85, Spring 2013
Recently discovered posters for the RCA Film Society provide fresh perspective on the intimate relationship between graphics and cinema in the 1950s and 60s.
Identity crisis
Issue 85, Spring 2013
Rebranding ITV was meant to generate a warm glow – not the heated reaction it received from viewers. Critique by Rick Poynor
Cold-blooded runaways
A third edition of Redheaded Peckerwood, Christian Patterson’s ravishing photobook, gives this enduring American horror story another twist. Critique by Rick Poynor
An outlandish everyman
Issue 84, Autumn 2012
These short films throw new light on the eccentric collaboration between 1960s film-maker / designer John Sewell and artist Bruce Lacey. Critique by Rick Poynor
Look south
In the first of a new series of Photo Critiques, Rick Poynor examines The Latin American Photobook by Horacio Fernández. Critique by Rick Poynor
A disappointing splash
Issue 83, Summer 2012
The archly titled Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing has a semi-legendary reputation as both…
The woman who took on the Wolf Man
Issue 83, Summer 2012
Sława Harasymowicz’s first foray into graphic novels illuminates a Freudian case history with thrilling clarity. Critique by Rick Poynor
Crash covers
Issue 52, Summer 2004
J. G. Ballard’s novel resists attempts to summarise it with a single image
The world made visible
Issue 62, Winter 2006
Motif, edited by Ruari McLean, was a quirky mix of art and illustration, with its roots in graphic art and typography
Iran’s tantalising visual revolution
Issue 62, Winter 2006
This survey of new Iranian design work is exciting and frustrating in roughly equal measure…
Borderline
Issue 71, Spring 2009
Metahaven makes visual proposals that suggest a new role for graphic design in public life
Perfection of an empty page
Issue 13, Summer 1994
The Japanese poster tradition has given us some of the most beautiful and, to western…
Parr’s ambivalent obsessions
Issue 74, Winter 2009
‘Parrworld’, the title of Martin Parr’s latest exhibition, is a bold if not presumptuous declaration…
One week in pictures
Issue 73, Autumn 2009
Now we are deluged with more images than ever, we have lost faith in the power of the photo to express anything other than our personal reality. We don’t take the production of meaning seriously and we use pictures with less fluency and purpose than earlier generations of photographers, designers and editors. We don’t know what we’re trying to say and we don’t know who we are saying it for. We don’t value expertise and commitment and we don’t believe in the photographer’s mission – nor do we think it is likely to have any effect. Rick Poynor looks at one week’s magazine journalism, and finds that this ocean of pictures tells uncomfortable truths about who we are now
The shape of a pocket
Issue 81, Autumn 2011
In 1960s France, Henry Cohen’s inventive photographic covers made Gallimard’s Idées series required reading.
Essential on every level
Issue 66, Winter 2007
The title of Stephen Shore’s The Nature of Photographs promises to peel its subject to…
Machine head
Issue 75, Spring 2010
Fritz Kahn commissioned illustrators to realise his surreal pedagogical vision – mechanical metaphors for the human body.
Protest minus the politics
Issue 12, Spring 1994
The 1990s began ostensibly as the decade of ‘caring and sharing’, with politicians such as…
Reputations: Robin Kinross
Issue 80, Summer 2011
‘It’s to do with meaning, which forces its way up like a root growing under a pavement – it breaks the paving stones. Many people would like these neat stones in a nice grid, but unfortunately there is this tree with all its pressures and necessities and you have to follow it.’
Glaser's genial self-portrait
Issue 39, Spring 2001
I know I’m not alone when I say that Milton Glaser was the first graphic…
Documents of the marvellous
Issue 65, Autumn 2007
The authentic spirit of Surrealism lives on – in projects based on curious collections that celebrate the strange and numinous
Running on empty
Issue 74, Winter 2009
The work of artists such as Ed Ruscha, who base their art on language, raises…
Is anybody out there reading?
Issue 9, Summer 1993
One of the features of Octavo magazine that made it so appealing to anyone who…
Form follows purpose: Inkahoots (extract)
Issue 46, Winter 2002
Does this Brisbane studio offer a role model for socially concerned design? [EXTRACT]
Design is advertising #1: The whispering intruder
Issue 29, Autumn 1998
Advertising soaks into everything. It has become the texture of contemporary life. Graphic design has played a central part in this process. But does it have a viable role of its own?
Reputations: Rick Vermeulen
Issue 21, Summer 1996
‘I don’t think anything designed should be considered as art. It’s not only about the experimentation with form. There is always a client’
Reputations: Peter Saville
Issue 17, Summer 1995
‘This is a post-design era. It’s deliberately going against all those things that were canonised in the 1980s and are now exhausted.’ Interview by Rick Poynor
Knowing
Issue 24, Spring 1997
Mark Farrow’s minimalist graphics have won him a place in the profession’s mainstream usually denied to music designers
Malcolm, Peter … and Keith
Issue 49, Autumn 2003
The British New Wave was born at a boys’ school near Manchester
Other spaces
Issue 25, Summer 1997
Paul Elliman tells his students that “everything you know is wrong”, embracing error to find ideas where others see junk
Typographica
Issue 31, Spring 1999
Herbert Spencer’s magazine, a fusion of Modernism and eclecticism, was one of the most remarkable journals to emerge from British cultural publishing
Penguin crime
Issue 53, Autumn 2004
Romek Marber’s 1960s paperback identity is a landmark of independent British design
Reputations: Stephen Banham
Issue 46, Winter 2002
‘Helvetica has become the generic default, a safe formula under the guise of Modernism. It’s all smoke and mirrors.’
Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities
Issue 20, Spring 1996
As designer, writer and educator, Jeffery Keedy is a committed proponent of postmodernism
The celebrated Mr B
Issue 35, Spring 2000
The graphic output of one of Britain’s best loved artists, the originator of the iconic cover for Sgt. Pepper
Fellapages
Issue 23, Winter 1996
For thirty years Edward Fella was a commercial artist. In his sketchbooks, he applies his mastery of lettering and illustration styles to brilliant improvisations
A designer and a one-man band
Issue 45, Autumn 2002
Cranbrook’s song and dance man goes back to college with a bang
Project for a New Novel
Issue 23, Winter 1996
J. G. Ballard’s ‘Project for a New Novel’ from the late 1950s makes text obsolete, and the author into the designer
The designer as architect
Issue 32, Summer 1999
When Donald Wall made this book about Italian architect Paolo Soleri, he uncannily projected a vision of 1990s typography in its most radical form. By Rick Poynor
Don’t buy this
Issue 27, Spring 1998
Graphic agitation hits the high street in an installation for Friends of the Earth that questions the material obsessions of global consumerism. By Rick Poynor
Reputations: Jon Barnbrook, Virus
Issue 15, Winter 1994
One of type design’s young stars talks about his new company and the pressures of early success.
Design is advertising #2: Nomadic resistance
Issue 30, Winter 1998
Faced by oppressive visual pollution, many designers feel powerless. Yet the visual realm can be turned into a vital site of political and cultural action
What is this thing called graphic design criticism?
Issue 16, Spring 1995
In the last ten years a substantial body of critical writing on graphic design has amassed. In this transatlantic dialogue, Rick Poynor and American design critic Michael Rock explore the state of design criticism now and put the arguments for different approaches
Reputations: Katherine McCoy
Issue 16, Spring 1995
After Cranbrook: Katherine McCoy on the way ahead
First Things First Manifesto 2000
Issue 33, Autumn 1999
Thirty-three visual communicators renew the 1964 call for a change of priorities
Reputations: Dan Fern
Issue 22, Autumn 1996
‘A lot of illustration sits very awkwardly alongside the contemporary digital typography scene. It can look naive, almost folksy’
Reputations: Malcolm Garrett
Issue 12, Spring 1994
‘I figure it’s my job to be this kind of blinkered believer. You know: I am the new futurist, I will live in the technological world.’
Dark tools of desire
Issue 63, Spring 2007
Surrealism’s relationship with graphic design is still strangely unfulfilled. By Rick Poynor
Type as entertainment
Issue 7, Summer 1992
Why Not Associates are the wild boys of the British typographic scene … How do they get away with it?
Both ends burning
Issue 11, Winter 1993
Fuel is a magazine, a design team, and a four letter word. Their style is tough, but ambiguous, too
This signifier is loaded
Issue 22, Autumn 1996
Zurich designer Cornel Windlin is a fluent graphic stylist and a playful manipulator of communication codes
23 Envelope: ambience and inner space
Issue 37, Autumn 2000
Operating undercover, using the enigmatic title of 23 Envelope, Nigel Grierson and his partner Vaughan Oliver created designs of exceptional power. Their work inspired the next generation of image-makers. By Rick Poynor
Surface wreckage
Issue 34, Winter 1999
Three books showing accidental collages of torn posters an other random marks revive interest in a style of image-making drawn from the city streets
Information sculpture
Issue 13, Summer 1994
Tomato are a group of friends, a physical space somewhere in Soho, a multimedia workshop, descendents of Warhol’s Factory… anything but a design group. ‘Graphic design?’ they say. ‘We don’t know what it is’
The Dictionary of Visual Language
Issue 11, Winter 1993
Philip Thompson and Peter Davenport’s visual analysis of the graphic cliche is a design classic
Typotranslation
Issue 38, Winter 2000
In a typographic tour de force, Richard Hamilton has turned Duchamp’s notes for the Large Glass into printed form
Biography of a special case
Issue 38, Winter 2000
Robin Kinross’s book about Anthony Froshaug has been anticipated in typographic circles for many years…
Look inward: graphic design in Australia
Issue 46, Winter 2002
Is Australia’s global cultural impact reflected in its graphic design?
Love of lexicons
Issue 78, Winter 2010
The dictionary framework allows readers to find random nuggets of information, forging connections that reflect the arbitrary nature of life.
Looking for clues
Issue 55, Spring 2005
Notebook in hand, Paul Davis works like a journalist, trying to figure out what makes us tick
Graphic and grotesque
Hidden Treasure, in its reflection of our bodies in all their pathos and horror, has a morbid but irresistible attraction. Critique by Rick Poynor
Regeneration X
Issue 82, Winter 2011
Laura Oldfield Ford’s grainy Savage Messiah brings new urgency to an updated punk aesthetic. Critique by Rick Poynor
Scarcity and silence: Amc2 Journal
An image-led journal marries the serendipitous collisions of image-sharing sites with the physicality of print. Critique by Rick Poynor
The list goes on
Issue 81, Autumn 2011
Umberto Eco’s book The Infinity of Lists is erudite, informative and beautifully crafted: a contemporary Wunderkammer. Critique by Rick Poynor
Love’s labour’s lost
The Guardian has given up on its clear and elegant film rental site, redirecting its users to the clunky Love Film interface. Critique by Rick Poynor
Dark Magus
Issue 80, Summer 2011
Designer John Coulthart’s daily blog on the fantastical is erudite, prescient and admirably mind-expanding. Critique by Rick Poynor
Commitment to content
Criterion’s DVD covers show that seduction by packaging remains a fiendishly irresistible (and difficult) art. Critique by Rick Poynor
Kiki in graphic detail
Issue 79, Spring 2011
Catel’s quick-fire sketches illustrate the life of the young model who became a Surrealist icon and Man Ray’s muse. Critique by Rick Poynor
French connections
Slender and serious, Back Cover is emerging as a Gallic platform for a resolutely non-American view of design
A soul drifting in neon limbo
Issue 78, Winter 2010
The stroboscopic credits of Noé’s movie suck the viewer into an immersive maelstrom of lettering. Critique by Rick Poynor
Expression of faith
Give the revered Irma Boom her head and what do you get? A catalogue like a truncated brick
California panorama
Issue 77, Autumn 2010
Emigre’s latest type catalogue uses historical sources to display wildly varied fonts with rollicking gusto. Critique by Rick Poynor
Survivor
Graphic designer Romek Marber bears witness to one of the great crimes of the past century. Critique by Rick Poynor
Left out of the frame
Issue 76, Summer 2010
This collection of short COI films is full of fascinating details, but short on context. Critique by Rick Poynor
Poundtastic bombastic
Is there is a graphic mismatch between Poundland’s presentation and its ambitions? Critique by Rick Poynor
The future is ours to see
Issue 75, Spring 2010
SpaceCollective’s innovative website, at once lucid and intoxicating, adds substance to techno-hippie optimism. Critique by Rick Poynor
Mining the graphic mother-lode
Rochester Institute of Technology opens its American design archive to the online world. Critique by Rick Poynor
All mouth and trousers?
Issue 74, Winter 2009
Challenged to design a poster celebrating London, British designers show mostly how little they care for the form. Critique by Rick Poynor
Clever chameleon
Rick Poynor examines Mono-Kultur, a smart and ‘exquisitely scaled’ independent publication. Critique by Rick Poynor
Framing the evidence of war
Issue 73, Autumn 2009
By incorporating reportage of Russia’s Afghan war, this hybrid takes the graphic novel and photojournalism to new levels. Critique by Rick Poynor
The pleasures of browsing
Rick Poynor plays ‘hotel inspector’ to find a bookshop that understands its books and readers: Sydney’s Published Art. Critique by Rick Poynor
Bad timing
Issue 72, Summer 2009
In a new Obama-led world order, Omega’s lust for luxury seems as misplaced as a licence to kill. Critique by Rick Poynor
The canon, aimed at your back
GenPrag’s T-shirts celebrate the most emblematic of twentieth-century graphic design heroes. So let’s have one for Will Burtin. Critique by Rick Poynor
Risk and ritual
Issue 71, Spring 2009
Anne Harild’s work offers a challenge to the unthreatening norms of British illustration
In passing: Obit
This American blog-mag reminds us that obituaries are about lives lived. Critique by Rick Poynor
Riches and embarrassment
Issue 70, Winter 2008
A book of Swiss competition winners makes a virtue of its cold and awkward design. Yet if the jury seeks debate, as it claims, it must be prepared to explain its decisions. Critique by Rick Poynor
Too gaudy for words
Independent’s new clothes do nothing to establish a once elegant paper as a vital force. Critique by Rick Poynor
It’s the end of graphic design as we know it
Issue 69, Autumn 2008
Rick Poynor responds to some perplexing findings at ‘New Views 2’
Revelations in style
Issue 69, Autumn 2008
Gallimard’s Découvertes series secures readers’ loyalty by showing respect for their curiosity and intelligence. Critique by Rick Poynor
A persuasive chancer
On the basis of its first issue The Happy Hypocrite is small, quietly experimental and just a bit passive aggressive. Critique by Rick Poynor
Absolutely the ‘worst’
Issue 68, Summer 2008
How does a graphic work claim its place in history? Notoriety and originality helps, but nothing beats repeated publication. Critique by Rick Poynor
Portrait of the designer as author
Issue 67, Spring 2008
Chip Kidd, designer and now novelist, is as skilled at crafting his own image as he is at creating other authors’ book covers. Critique by Rick Poynor
Dyed in the flesh (Web only)
Cuppa Coffee’s end title sequence of Russian prison tattoos adds a masterly coda to Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises
Picture a story
Issue 66, Winter 2007
Katy Homans’ daring and ambitious cover designs for New York Review Books confound expectations. Critique by Rick Poynor
Body of work (65)
Issue 65, Autumn 2007
Extraordinary content and sensitive design establishes the Wellcome Collection as one of London’s essential museum stops
My (red and) white bicycle (Web only)
Barcelona's Bicing is a triumph, but its logo seems to have been improvised with a magic marker.
Comfortably Numb (64)
Issue 64, Summer 2007
Tyler Brûlé's high-flying monthly promises a cool, global perspective, but its attitudes to consumption are grounded in the 1980s
Out of the ordinary
Issue 63, Spring 2007
Banal, amateur snapshots become almost poetic in these books by Fiona Tan
Cognitive dissonance (Web only)
Martin Firrell’s work for Curzon Cinemas places public art in a commercial space
No animals or models were harmed…
Issue 62, Winter 2006
Vogue’s fusion of high fashion with brutish behaviour besmirches readers by making abusive images acceptable. Critique by Rick Poynor
Drifters
Kapitaal renders the cityscape as a waking dream of signs and symbols. Critique by Rick Poynor
Digital self-expression
Issue 61, Autumn 2006
The MySpace phenomenon makes graphic expression as simple as swapping photos or keeping a diary. Critique by Rick Poynor
Beer: the real thing
Beer labels promise authenticity and reliability. But what about taste? Critique by Rick Poynor
Swiss kitsch
Issue 60, Summer 2006
Are installations the new billboards? Or the twinkling face of corporate propaganda? Critique by Rick Poynor
Finger on the trigger
It's designed to shock, but Amnesty's arms trade ad is weak compared to Lord of War's brilliant titles. Critique by Rick Poynor
Digital history book
Issue 59, Spring 2006
A website about Alvin Lustig pioneers the presentation of design history for the click-and-search generation. Critique by Rick Poynor
Bad language
With talk of ‘pimping brands’, the ADC’s new campaign makes design look dumber than ever. Critique by Rick Poynor
The big picture
Issue 58, Winter 2005
The Guardian’s new Eyewitness page uses single images on a central spread for maximum impact. Critique by Rick Poynor
Paste-up ladies
Collage artist Graham Rawle has created a gripping and surreal novel entirely from words and phrases cut from 1960s women’s magazines. Critique by Rick Poynor
Expert flesh creepers
Issue 57, Autumn 2005
Chris Cunningham’s new film is a stomach-churning diversion from our digitally finessed world. Critique by Rick Poynor
86 minutes of greatness
The graphic sensibility of film-maker Geoffrey Jones. Critique by Rick Poynor
In the house
Issue 56, Summer 2005
The new Vitra catalogue shows its classic furniture collection amid messy, real-life domesticity. Critique by Rick Poynor
Cakes in close-up
Can Mr Kipling’s upmarket redesign compete with own-brand cakes and tarts on the UK’s supermarket shelves? Critique by Rick Poynor
Irony is not enough
Issue 55, Spring 2005
When design’s concerns form the content of an artist’s book, does ‘good design’ matter? Critique by Rick Poynor
Hoot your trap off (Web only)
The ad campaign for a satirical TV sitcom represents a new kind of subvertising. How cool is that? Critique by Rick Poynor
Second fiddle
Issue 54, Winter 2004
Two high-profile fine art magazines treat themselves to typographic makeovers. Critique by Rick Poynor
Written all over the body
Issue 53, Autumn 2004
An ‘encyclopaedia’ of Russian prison tattoos exposes a complex graphic subculture. Critique by Rick Poynor
In the crazily abundant world of Martin Friedl
Issue 52, Summer 2004
777 pictograms conjure up a strange new graphic universe. Critique by Rick Poynor
Big fun with words
Issue 51, Spring 2004
Do Zembla’s readers need this much graphic cheer-leading? Critique by Rick Poynor
The learning brand
Issue 50, Winter 2003
Abstract covers give an identity to this ambitious book series. Critique by Rick Poynor
Evolutionary tales
Issue 49, Autumn 2003
A new novel uses the possibilities of visual prose to tackle a timely subject. Critique by Rick Poynor
A community of bloggers
Some of today’s most intelligent, entertaining and well written design commentary is being published on blogs. Critique by Rick Poynor
Luxurious frugality
Issue 48, Summer 2003
An in-flight magazine for bored bourgeois bohemians. Critique by Rick Poynor
Playground surrealism
Issue 47, Spring 2003
What does BBC3’s animated ad say about the new channel? Critique by Rick Poynor
The ‘Ernst Bettler’ problem
A ‘testament to design’s power to change things’? Or exactly the reverse? Critique by Rick Poynor
Instant content
Issue 46, Winter 2002
Design is Kinky is a graphic design website that's high on content, low on critical awareness. It's a hit! Critique by Rick Poynor
Porn?
Issue 45, Autumn 2002
Can sexual image-making escape the stigma of porn? Critique by Rick Poynor
A new ‘flag’?
Issue 44, Summer 2002
Hold the front page! Rem Koolhaas devises a ‘bar code’ for Europe. Critique by Rick Poynor
Unclassifiable book
Issue 43, Spring 2002
The New Sins consigns graphic designers to the upper levels of hell. Critique by Rick Poynor
Postcards from the edge
Issue 42, Winter 2001
The ‘unpatriotic’ Sphere caught US designers at the worst moment. Critique by Rick Poynor
Vanishing point
Issue 41, Autumn 2001
A slender idea is inflated to attention-grabbing proportions. Critique by Rick Poynor
A symbol returns to its true colours
Issue 40, Summer 2001
After 40 years of use and abuse, Alberto Korda’s picture of Che retains its symbolic power and presence. Critique by Rick Poynor
You can judge a cover by its book
Issue 39, Spring 2001
Has Penguin lost its touch? Though its original identity came from pairing strong images with a shrewd choice of fiction, the latest round of designs smells like empty marketing. Critique by Rick Poynor
Blank Generation
Issue 38, Winter 2000
The glossy enigma of digital supergirls. Critique by Rick Poynor
The future is ours to see
Issue 37, Autumn 2000
BBH’s Barnardo’s campaign communicates with a force rarely seen in charity advertising. Critique by Rick Poynor
Empire of spin
Issue 36, Summer 2000
An ‘official’ website tries to get to grips with contemporary culture. Critique by Rick Poynor
Invasion of the issue-snatchers
Issue 35, Spring 2000
A disturbing 'campaign' by a clothing manufacturer blurs the line between editorial and advertising. Critique by Rick Poynor
Anti-advertising shows its teeth
Issue 34, Winter 1999
The media became squeamish when confronted with a gory anti-burger ad. Who are they trying to protect? Critique by Rick Poynor
Erotic portfolio or ‘artcore’ porn?
Issue 33, Autumn 1999
While pornography invades the mainstream, a glossy magazine treats sexual imagery with unashamed delight. Critique by Rick Poynor
Editorial Eye 20
Issue 20, Spring 1996
Since the beginning of graphic design there have been graphic authors. Jan Tschichold, whose 192…
Editorial Eye 15
Issue 15, Winter 1994
In the three and a half years since Fuse, the interactive type magazine, was started…
Theatre of dreams
Issue 14, Autumn 1994
Andrzej Klimowski is obsessed with eyes, faces, hands, angels and devils. He is one of Britain’s most haunting image-makers
Editorial Eye 14
Issue 14, Autumn 1994
Graphic design is so deeply inscribed within the fabric of everyday life that it is…
Tokyo Salamander
Issue 10, Autumn 1993
Vaughan Oliver’s collaboration with Shinro Ohtake is an oblique diary of dreams
Reputations: Neville Brody
Issue 6, Spring 1992
‘People are using the computer in a very rigid, pseudo-religious way and we are trying to say that the technology is simply a tool of communication and should be treated as organically as any other tool.’
American Gothic
Issue 6, Spring 1992
Barry Deck’s Template Gothic is vernacular in inspiration and futuristic in effect. Is it a bizarre one-off, or the shape of typefaces to come?
Reputations: Pierre Bernard
Issue 3, Spring 1991
‘I don’t believe in revolutionary design, but I do believe that reactionary designs exist. It’s always easier to perpetuate the same forms and contents rather than to search out new ones.’
Why Grapus had to disband. Eye talks to founder Pierre Bernard
Maps and dreams
Issue 2, Winter 1990
No printing method is too basic for Jake Tilson. Created with photocopiers, his books, magazines and objects are crammed with offbeat invention.
Reputations: Alan Fletcher
Issue 2, Winter 1990
An interview with Pentagram’s ringmaster of paradox.
A grid for all occasions
Issue 2, Winter 1990
Lella and Massimo Vignelli design by the grid, but they also live and work by…
Whatever became of the content?
Issue 9, Summer 1993
Much new design is over-complex and confusing. An alternative current, sharing many of the same assumptions, aims for clarity
Editorial Eye 16
Issue 16, Spring 1995
Is the education that graphic designers receive adequate to meet the changing role of the…
Not waving but dancing
Issue 24, Spring 1997
British graphic design, like art, pop and fashion, is on a high. But does it know where it is going – or why?
Publishing by numbers
Issue 31, Spring 1999
The boom in lavish graphic design books bulging with the latest cool images cannot conceal the…
Recent blog posts about Rick Poynor
David King: Books of blood and laughter
25 May 2016
Book design, Critical path, Graphic design, Photography, Visual culture
Rick Poynor meets David King, a genuine designer-author driven by an overriding need to lock horns with meaningful subject matter
Stepping across the threshold of David King’s North London house is like plunging into a…
Mission America
3 March 2015
Design history, Graphic design, Typography
New York was Lella and Massimo Vignelli’s kind of town. They were New York’s kind of designers. A profile from the 1980s by Rick Poynor
Entering the New York offices of Massimo and Lella Vignelli is like crossing the threshold…
Graphic and grotesque
29 June 2012
Book design, Illustration, Information design, Visual culture
Hidden Treasure shows the human body in all its pathos and horror.
Hidden Treasure is a deceptively innocuous title for a book devoted to pictures of skin…
In graphic detail – Critique on Kiki
15 April 2011
Book design, Graphic design, Illustration, Reviews, Visual culture
See Rick Poynor’s latest Critique – about Catel and Bocquet’s graphic biography of Surrealist icon Kiki de Montparnasse
I had some reservations about Kiki de Montparnasse, a new graphic biography of the artists’…
Revelations in style
24 September 2008
Graphic design, Typography, Visual culture
New Critique by Rick Poynor – now published in Eye 69
In the early days of Eye, we ran an article about the New Horizons series…