Design is everywhere. Graphic design enters into everything. This is the scope of designer Steven Heller’s latest essay anthology that covers the spectrum of graphic design and related art
and culture. Looking at design as practice, language, culture, and power, each of the forty-plus essays is a self-contained story. Heller pours out his ideascriticisms and celebrationson such
topics as:
A history of our modern Hindu-Arabic numerals, and a look at the letter K
Brand design utilized by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump early in the 2016 Presidential race
The tumultuous relationship between design and sex
The Charlie Hebdo massacre and the principles of free expression
Icons revisited, including Paul Rand, Ralph Ginzburg, Frank Zachary, George Lois, andPrint magazine
Food packaging, the design of milk, and USPS stamps
The obsessive use of cuteness, and the sad and happy history of the ubiquitous happy face
From commercial advertising to government institutions to cultural revolution, from the objects that push design forward to those that seep into the everyday,Graphic Design Rants &
Raves is an exploration of how graphic design has arrived in the twenty-first century.
