This essay challenges a formalist definition of ‘systems’ in graphic design—often through fiction—and many dimensions of the discipline, from Instagram to competition.
Volume 5 of Modes of Criticism –Design Systems, with contributions by Francisco Laranjo, Luiza Prado, Pedro Oliveira, ACED, Ruben Pater, Demystification Committee, Shannon Mattern, Ian Lynam, Brave New Alps and Georgina Voss.
Issue 3 of Modes of Criticism –Design and Democracy, with contributions by Els Kuijpers, Angela Mitropoulos, Laura Gordon, Decolonising Design Group, Silvio Lorusso, Luke Pendrell and James Trafford.
In 2025, designers are data managers. Design bots work for and with marketing bots. Automation was looming in 2015 but designers were too busy funding nostalgia on kickstarter. Essay published on Eye Magazine.
Issue 2 of Modes of Criticism –Critique of Method, with contributions by Anne Bush, Peter Buwert, Jan van Toorn, Noel Waite, Ahmed Ansari and Matthew Kiem.
Critical Everything was originally published on Grafik (2015), proposing critical challenges for designers and work operating under the terms critical and speculative graphic design and design fiction.
This essay, which serves as the editorial for Modes of Criticism 1, traces the heritage of the term ‘post-critical’ in graphic design discourse by connecting it to other related ‘posts’. Avoiding the Post-critical is preceded by the visual essay The Architecture of Gambling.
Issue 1 of Modes of Criticism –Critical, Uncritical, Post-critical, with contributions by Francisco Laranjo (editor), Ian Lynam, Randy Nakamura, Brave New Alps, Luiza Prado and Pedro Oliveira, Cameron Tonkinwise, James Langdon and Kenneth FitzGerald.
Review of the exhibition Freedom of Image – Visual Communication in Portugal (1974–86), held in several spaces in Porto, Portugal (2014). Originally published in Eye Magazine 89.
Review of the exhibition Staging the Message: The Open Work of Jan van Toorn (2014) at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Originally published on the Eye Magazine blog.
Visual identity of the conference Designing for Exhibitions (2014) which focused on the roles of design in exhibitions and exhibition making, held at Central Saint Martins, London, UK. The projects seeks to expose the politics of the museum and confront the role of the exhibition designer in the context of not only an evolving discipline but also of contemporary political and cultural phenomena.
This article investigates the heritage of the term ‘critical graphic design’ by highlighting its precedents and manifestations in contemporary graphic design practice and education. Originally published on Design Obsever. Republished in The Graphic Design Reader (Bloomsbury, 2015).
Cover for the ‘Occupied Times’ 24 (2014), which focuses on the politics of madness. The cover seeks to reveal connections between politics, economics and mental health by proposing multiple readings of the financial and political news provided by mainstream media.
Review of the exhibition Almanac – An History of Portuguese Graphic Design in Magazines (2013) at the gallery Espaço Quadra in Matosinhos, Portugal. Originally published in Pli 5 (ESAD, 2014).
‘Connect the Dots’ was the title of an evening of two talks on graphic design, politics and criticism at the London College of Communication on the 16 January 2014. The first explored the Conservative Party’s use of the billboard poster prior to the British General Election between 1979 and 2010. The second proposed a definition of the terms ‘critical design’ and ‘critical practice’ through a series of case studies.
Review of the visual identity of the Whitney Museum of American Art designed by the Dutch design studio Experimental Jetset. Originally published on Design Observer.
New World Parkville (EDP Foundation, 2011) is a book that critically archives the latest work by the Portuguese artist Margarida Correia. It investigates the visual legacy and cultural traditions of Portuguese immigrants in Connecticut (US), by photographically documenting objects, photos and members of the local community.
Review of the main exhibition of the ‘Anti-design Festival’ (2010), curated by the designer Neville Brody. Originally published on the London Design Festival blog.
