Seventy-nine (79) short essays on design

Contents......Page 5
Preface......Page 9
Warning: May Contain Non-Design Content......Page 11
Why Designers Can’t Think......Page 14
Waiting for Permission......Page 18
How to Become Famous......Page 23
In Search of the Perfect Client......Page 28
Histories in the Making......Page 32
Playing by Mr. Rand’s Rules......Page 35
David Carson and the End of Print......Page 39
Rob Roy Kelly’s Old, Weird America......Page 42
My Phone Call to Arnold Newman......Page 44
Howard Roark Lives......Page 46
The Real and the Fake......Page 49
Ten Footnotes to a Manifesto......Page 52
The New York Times: Apocalypse Now, Page A1......Page 61
Graphic Design and the New Certainties......Page 63
Mark Lombardi and the Ecstasy of Conspiracy......Page 65
George Kennan and the Cold War Between Form and Content......Page 67
Errol Morris Blows Up Spreadsheet, Thousands Killed......Page 70
Catharsis, Salesmanship, and the Limits of Empire......Page 72
Better Nation-Building Through Design......Page 75
The T-shirt Competition Republicans Fear Most......Page 77
India Switches Brands......Page 79
Graphic Designers, Flush Left?......Page 81
Just Say Yes......Page 84
Regrets Only......Page 87
The Forgotten Design Legacy of the National Lampoon......Page 91
McSweeney’s No. 13 and the Revenge of the Nerds......Page 93
The Book (Cover) That Changed My Life......Page 96
Vladimir Nabokov: Father of Hypertext......Page 98
The Final Decline and Total Collapse of the American Magazine Cover......Page 100
Information Design and the Placebo Effect......Page 102
Stanley Kubrick and the Future of Graphic Design......Page 104
I Hear You’ve Got Script Trouble: The Designer as Auteur......Page 106
The Idealistic Corporation......Page 109
Barthes on the Ballpoint......Page 112
The Tyranny of the Tagline......Page 114
Ed Ruscha: When Art Rises to the Level of Graphic Design......Page 116
To Hell with the Simple Paper Clip......Page 118
The Man Who Saved Jackson Pollock......Page 120
Homage to the Squares......Page 123
Eero Saarinen’s Forty-Year Layover......Page 126
The Rendering and the Reality......Page 128
What We Talk About When We Talk About Architecture......Page 130
Colorama......Page 134
Mr. Vignelli’s Map......Page 136
I Hate ITC Garamond......Page 139
1989: Roots of Revolution......Page 142
The World in Two Footnotes......Page 145
Logogate in Connecticut......Page 148
The Whole Damn Bus is Cheering......Page 151
The Best Artist in the World......Page 154
The Supersized, Temporarily Impossible World of Bruce McCall......Page 157
The Unbearable Lightness of Fred Marcellino......Page 160
The Comfort of Style......Page 164
Authenticity: A User’s Guide......Page 167
Designing Under the Influence......Page 170
Me and My Pyramid......Page 173
On (Design) Bullshit......Page 175
Call Me Shithead, or, What’s in a Name?......Page 178
Avoiding Poor, Lonely Obvious......Page 181
My Favorite Book is Not About Design (or Is It?)......Page 184
Rick Valicenti: This Time It’s Personal......Page 188
Credit Line Goes Here......Page 191
Every New Yorker is a Target......Page 194
I am a Plagiarist......Page 197
Looking for Celebration, Florida......Page 200
The Great Non-Amber-Colored Hope......Page 204
The Mysterious Power of Context......Page 208
The Final Days of AT&T......Page 211
Designing Twyla Tharp’s Upper Room......Page 215
Innovation is the New Black......Page 217
Wilson Pickett, Design Theorist, 1942–2006......Page 220
Design by Committee......Page 222
The Persistence of the Exotic Menial......Page 226
The Road to Hell: Now Paved with Innovation!......Page 230
When Design is a Matter of Life or Death......Page 234
In Praise of Slow Design......Page 237
Massimo Vignelli’s Pencil......Page 241
On Falling Off a Treadmill......Page 244
Appendix......Page 247
Index......Page 262
About the Author......Page 272