Obey the Giant: Life in the Image World (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Design critic Rick Poynor explores the thinking behind contemporary visual culture - intriguing and fascinating appraisal.

In the twenty-first century, commerce and culture are ever more closely entwined. This new collection of essays by design critic Rick Poynor takes a searching look at visual culture to discover the reality beneath the ultra-seductive surfaces.

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. Other essays address the topics of visual journalism; brands as religion; the new solipsism; graphic memes; the pleasures of imperfect design; and the poverty of "cool".

Around the world, many are now waking up to the dominance of huge corporations - invariably expressed by visual means. This pointed and provocative counterblast arrives at a moment when critical responses are vital if this mono-culture is to be challenged. It offers inspirational evidence of alternative ways of engaging with design, and it will appeal to any reader with a questioning interest in design, advertising, cultural studies, media studies, and the visual arts.

About the Author

Rick Poynor writes about design and visual culture. He was founder editor of Eye, the international review of graphic communication. He is the author of seven previous books, including Design Without Boundaries (1998).

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Birkhauser; 1 edition (December 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 376436565X
• ISBN-13: 978-3764365653
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,490,303 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RISE AND SHINE, June 11, 2002

By	"uselessbeauty" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Rick Poyner chimes in on pop culture throughout this series of essays, which collectively produce a loud, clanging wake-up call. If you are a creative professional or student, you MUST read this book!

Mr. Poyner provides an accessible, but unflinching look at the role of our profession and it's impact on humanity. In this book, the cute, hip, self-referential "Irony" of the last decade is no longer a revelation, and Poyner questions what it means now that "respected" corporations and self-promoting advertisers and designers have co-opted it.

As an instructor of Commuication Design, I have for years preached to my students to "be responsible for every mark that you make" in order to communicate effectively. This little book has fueled that fire for me with it's view of the bigger picture and has forever altered my perception of my role not only as a designer and a consumer, but as a human.

5.0 out of 5 stars i spy the giant...., October 4, 2004

By	tfutrell (new orleans, louisiana) - See all my reviews

rick poyner has done it again. i think that if you are interested in design and cultural landscape, you will thourougly appreciate this book. you really can't find a better examination of culture meeting design. obey the giant.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	MARGOT SHEEHAN (Gotham City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Obey the Giant: Life in the Image World (Paperback)

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.