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!

The Graphic Design Reader

My essay “Quietude” is included in the anthology The Graphic Design Reader, edited by Teal Triggs and Leslie Atzmon, and published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts. The compendium features original visual essays which provide a critical platform for understanding and interpreting graphic design practice, as well as a wealth of illustrations accompanying key historical and contemporary texts from the 1920s to the present day.” “Quietude” was originally published in Emigre #64, the “Rant” issue in 2003 and is also included in my Volume: Writings on Graphic Design, Music, Art and Culture.