Customer Reviews

Designing Pornotopia: Travels in Visual Culture

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this review is largely in answer to the previous reviewer's review - john d. i think context is important with this book. rick poynor is a design critic for eye magazine, and this book is an anthology of his essays over the last three to four years. while i agree that there is not much "depth" to each essay, i think that, taken as a collection, poynor's writing provides a great STARTING POINT for further criticism, analysis, or study. he's noting a trend within visual culture. not to be taken as anything too scholarly, he comments on the trends as concisely as possible for magazine format. so for all design students, design geeks, culture geeks, this book is by no means going to illuminate everything about pornotopia for you, but it will plant seeds which you can either nourish or ignore.

buy it, it's interesting.

I like to take chances on books, and this is one of them. I hope someone else comes along to write something really insightful and postive about this book, 'cause I'm not. "...concise, riveting prose" Maybe for lack of ideas. "truly indispensable addition" Maybe if you're a dunderhead that thinks life has changed a little since Madonna turned oour entire world upside down--uh, almost--with her shocking self-expose' of a coffee table book. Sorry, I find that many of these essays meander far from the sexy pitch. I was hoping Rem Koolhaus would fill me in on why his quirky boxes should be getting me all hot and bothered, but mostly I learned he has an elusive and dark presence in your company. And then I frittered away a few more mornings with the usual claptrap of dingy magazines that make something of sexual toys beyond their ostensible function, and designer rehash of Pop strategies. OK, there are some essays here that relate to the title. But for the most, I find the author "not on task." Appropriately, I got all excited by the titilating come-on, but in my dull straight world, the dish is a guy. I deflate.