DRAWING is the expression of an idea: “Art must come from within, and not from without. This fact has led some to assert that the study of nature is not essential to the student, and that careful training in the study of the representation of the actual appearance is mechanical and harmful. Such persons forget that all art ideas and sentiments must be based upon natural objects, and that a person who cannot represent truly what he sees will be entirely unable to express the simplest ideal c...

Design Journeys through Complex Systems combines systemic design, leading thinking practices, and years of the combined authors’ experiences into a practitioner’s handbook for design thinking. By drawing upon the authors’ Systemic Design Toolkit, this book provides detailed knowledge of systems science, expanding upon essential systemic design texts in order to demonstrate the power of visual sensemaking.

No matter if you’re a design professional or have never come across design syste...

This book takes a deep dive into visual design structures, focusing on the timeless principles of movement, space, and composition. While design tools and technologies continue to change, these core principles remain just as important. Written in a clear and engaging style, it’s perfect for students looking to build their foundation in design, and also a great resource for professionals who want to revisit or sharpen their skills.

The book goes beyond the basics of design, introducing fresh...

'Time to Play' is Underware’s exploration of the dynamic relationship between typography, language, and human interaction. With their trademark experimental approach, Underware challenges readers to rethink the role of type beyond conventional boundaries. At the heart of the book is the typeface Kermit - originally developed for children and widely accessible as part of Microsoft Office - making it one of the first writable fonts available to a mass audience. Despite its playful appearance,...

This publication emerges from the 2023 London Design Biennale. It involves an international working group facilitated by Delany Boutkan and Setareh Noorani, both researchers at the Nieuwe Instituut, which confronted the intricate and often uncomfortable dynamics of collaboration. Through public sessions and intimate dialogues in London and Rotterdam, the realities of collaboration and collectivity were examined. Two transcripts from the public events are reworked in this publication, along wi...

The Failed Painter is a personal book about material anxiety in Graphic design's creative work. It speaks of fascination for singular and multiple production processes, perfectibility, and imperfectability in times of virtual surface and hunger for authenticity. Writing out of the persona ‘The Failed Painter’, this book is a collection of essays on design and art spanning culture, race, nation, and sheer vandalism from the author of The Impossibility of Silence: Writing for Designers, Art...

The anatomy of our bodies requires sitting; but do we design seats in the same way? Has our meaning of sitting been colonised by Modern design? And how is the diverse, social-cultural act of sitting itself reflected in this functional commodity? In observing and analysing social and cultural differences through chairs from eight cultures in the most populated countries, Sicilian designer Matteo Guarnaccia went on a field research to portray each country, in collaboration with selected local d...

Moving beyond the usual genres of form in graphic design’s canonical history, ‘Designing History’ proposes a model centred on bureaucratic instruments of identity, ownership, value, and permission: money, passports, certificates, property deeds, etc. It considers the implications of a design history of the document, where the designer shifts from being a practitioner of conventional design histories to become subject and agency of bureaucratic authority. The book is a revised edition of...

Providing tactical strategies and creative support to tackle the complexities of balancing intuition and taste, technical and personal capability, strategic business decisions in design work and the demands of modern brand building, this book speaks to students, educators, and seasoned professionals. Part personal memoir and part professional manual by Matt Owens, A Visible Distance, Craft, Creativity, and the Business of Design is a reality check to challenges when building a practice in gra...

Candles is a photographic essay by Tim Onderbeke. Fascinated by the sacred, ritual, and cerebral act of lighting a candle, the artist began collecting images of candles and candlesticks in an artistic or art-historical context. In Candles, Onderbeke uses his own work and that of others to research what he calls “the colour of darkness,” or negative space – a concept he borrowed from the Japanese writer and essayist Jun’ichirō Tanizaki. Tanizaki describes this intense experience he ha...