Magazine | Modes of Criticism

Modes of Criticism 5 – Design Systems

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.

Modes of Criticism 4 – Radical Pedagogy

Francisco Laranjo — Magazine

Volume 4 of Modes of Criticism – Radical Pedagogy, with contributions by Danah Abdulla, Anne-Marie Willis, Tanveer Ahmed, Kenneth FitzGerald, depatriarchise design, Anja Groten and Hannah Ellis.

Modes of Criticism 3 – Design and Democracy

Francisco Laranjo — Magazine

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.

The Imperial Code, Or, What if I Told You It’s the Colonial Matrix of Power?

Matthew Kiem — Articles, Magazine

Essay by Matthew Kiem challenging the tech rhetoric that proposes computer coding as an inevitable, universal literacy.

Learning Design Histories for Design Futures: Speculative Histories and Reflective Practice

Noel Waite — Articles, Magazine

Essay by Noel Waite on the use of allohistory, or alternative history, as design method towards the development of a reflective practice.

Operationalising the Means: Communication Design as Critical Practice

Jan van Toorn — Articles, Magazine

Essay by Jan van Toorn about the need to politicise method in order to work towards the development of a critical practice.

Defamiliarisation, Brecht and Criticality in Graphic Design

Peter Buwert — Articles, Magazine

Article by Peter Buwert investigating criticality in graphic design, building upon the tradition of Viktor Shklovsky and Bertolt Brecht.

Double Vision: Graphic Design Criticism and the Question of Authority

Anne Bush — Articles, Magazine

Article by Anne Bush investigating the current state of graphic design criticism, distorted conceptions of what it means to be critical, proposing alternative approaches.

Modes of Criticism 2 – Critique of Method

Francisco Laranjo — 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.

Fuck All

Kenneth FitzGerald — Articles, Magazine

In this essay, Kenneth FitzGerald debates the seminal article Fuck Content (2005) by Michael Rock, challenging the fallacious idea that the history of graphic design is a history of form, not content.

A School for Design Fiction

James Langdon — Interview, Magazine

Interview with designer James Langdon about the project and publications A School for Design Fiction (2014) and A School for Design Fiction Workbook (2014).

Design Fictions About Critical Design

Cameron Tonkinwise — Articles, Magazine

Series of fictional stories addressing several shortfalls and problems of critical speculative design and design fiction.

Futuristic Gizmos, Conservative Ideals: On (Speculative) Anachronistic Design

Luiza Prado & Pedro Oliveira — Articles, Magazine

In this essay, Luiza Prado and Pedro Oliveira argue that speculative and critical design are going through a troubled adolescence, alerting to their recurrent shortfalls but also highlighting their potential.

Precarity Pilot: Making Space for Socially- and Politically-engaged Design Practice

Brave New Alps — Articles, Magazine

Brave New Alps introduce the research project Precarity Pilot, which seeks ways to organise a financially-sustainable, socially and politically-engaged design practice.

Curation, Cataloging, and Negative Capability

Randy Nakamura — Articles, Magazine

In this essay, Randy Nakamura debates the shift from genealogy to catalog in curating graphic design using the exhibition Graphic Design: Now in Production (2011) as case-study.

Weddings

Ian Lynam — Articles, Magazine

This essay explores the concept of instant nostalgia in relation to graphic design by drawing parallels between popular culture and western and eastern design.

Avoiding the Post-critical

Francisco Laranjo — Articles, Magazine

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.

Modes of Criticism 1 – Critical, Uncritical, Post-critical

Francisco Laranjo — Magazine

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.