My first article since 2019 has been published on the “Scratch/Stories” section of the Scratching the Surface web site. The essay answers my question, “Was the birth cry of graphic design a commercial jingle?” with a hard no, arguing that graphic design as we know it grew our of progressive, political speech.
Process Music received Second Place in the “Books/Entire Package” category in the 2023 PRINT Awards. The “standard” version was judged, however, a “customized” version is available on this website with added value concept.
My recent book Process Music is reviewed by Gabriela Matuszyk in the latest issue of Eye magazine. Matuszyk says “The book does a great job in containing core design issues, themes, figures and objects by making them accessible through humour, observational storytelling and self-referential framing. For me, Process Music was energising, a reminder that the process of reading and writing is fundamental to self-reflection, criticism and designing.”
In addition, Rick Poynor discusses the book’s cover concept in context with other self-referential art and design works, in his Critique article, “This is a column.” Of the book’s cover/interior concept, Poynor says, “It would be hard to imagine how any designer could take this concept any further. FitzGerald has succeeded in imbuing a pictureless sequence of critical texts with that all-important, value-adding ‘object quality’ demanded by contemporary buyers.”
A solo exhibition of my artworks, Trypophilia, was presented at HallSpace, a contemporary fine art gallery in Dorchester, Massachusetts, September 10–October 15, 2022. The show consisted of 36 of my hand-die-cut constructions dating from 2018. The exhibition announcement card image (shown above), is an original digital illustration and not a image of a specific work.