Obey the Giant [Paperback]

Rick Poynor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 2007 | ISBN-10: 3764385006 | ISBN-13: 978-3764385002 | Edition: 2nd

In the 21st century, commerce and culture are ever more closely entwined. This inspirational and challenging collection of essays by design critic Rick Poynor takes a searching look at visual culture. He probes beneath the ultra-seductive surfaces to discover the reality. Poynor explores the thinking behind the emerging resistance to commercial rhetoric among designers, and offers critical insights into the changing dialogue between advertising and design.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

In Obey the Giant, acclaimed design writer Rick Poynor exposes the ambivalent reality beneath the seductive surface of contemporary visual culture. Ranging across design, advertising, photography, publishing and art, these incisive, entertaining essays challenge received wisdom, dismiss sacred cows and pose challenging questions about key issues and trends – from graphic memes and the poverty of ‘cool’ to culture jamming, designer sex and death, and the pleasure of imperfection. An inspiring call to action, Obey the Giant shows how designers and image-makers both collude with, and resist, corporate control of the image world.   ‘An articulate and poignant set of essays . . . Poynor is a sensitive, often brilliant writer on visual design in graphics, advertising and commercial visual culture.’ Art Monthly ‘So timely in its critique of global-market-driven design that it gives the sense of an alarm clock ringing anew after a self-indulgent culture pounded the snooze button.’ Eye ‘These articles are clearly the result of careful research, analysis, and contemplation, but a passionate current of outrage flows through them . . . A number of individual pieces analyse key design issues better than any I have read before.’ Print ‘A lucid analysis of the current situation . . . Poynor claims the right to a design criticism comparable to that of literature or film.’ Domus ‘A terrific book. Essential. After you’ve read it, you really can’t look at the world in the same way, which is also one definition of art.’ Douglas Coupland

About the Author

<P>Rick Poynor s books include Design Without Boundaries, No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism and Designing Pornotopia. He is a research fellow at the Royal College of Art, London, and lectures internationally on design and visual culture.</P>

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Birkhäuser Architecture; 2nd edition (September 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3764385006
• ISBN-13: 978-3764385002
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 0.6 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,526,888 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good But Not Great November 14, 2008

By margot VINE™ VOICE

I bought this as soon as it came out in 2002 (?). It had a good plug in Print magazine, which Rick Poynor sometimes wrote for. I love Rick Poynor in small doses, but this essay collection somehow did not make it. Its purpose seemed fuzzy; it discussed things of marginal interest. A couple of gossamer ideas were spun out for 200 pages.

Basically, a good book title with vague filler as contents.

More recently the title of the book has been subverted by Shepard Fairey's graphic-art house, which is called OBEY Giant. Fairey may have earlier title, as he was doing Andre the Giant stickers as early as 1989.

Fairey is the guy who did the blue and red Obama HOPE poster, which began as a parody of Bolshevik propaganda with the slogan PROGRESS. The HOPE poster supposedly was enormously popular but no one seems to have seen it except on lapel buttons and the internet.