Writing for the Design Mind

I receive a shout-out in the introduction to and have an essay serve as an example in Natalia Ilyin’s Writing for the Design Mind (Bloomsbury Visual Arts). The new book “offers clear, concise, and humorous writing tips, techniques and strategies to people who have spent their lives mastering design rather than learning to write.”

In her introduction, Ilyin writes, “I shall never understand why people assume that they should be able to write like Michael Bierut or Gail Anderson or Kenneth FitzGerald the first time they write anything. These well-known writers have practiced their writing for a long, long time. Their first efforts were probably stiff, wordy, and dull. But they kept practicing, kept going, and became wonderful writers.”

In the book’s seventh chapter, “Writing Is Argument,” my 2004 essay from Emigre #66, “I Come to Bury Graphic Design, Not To Praise It,” (published in Volume under its original title, “Professional Suicide,”) is used to demonstrate a “house diagram” that illustrates an article’s argument.

My thanks to Natalia for the mentions!