Ian Lynam

The Impossibility of Silence' is a book for artists, designers and photographers interested in approaching writing about their vocation and culture. Drawing upon decades of experience as a writer, designer, artist and teacher, Ian Lynam offers up a plethora of inspirational and concrete approaches to writing about creative fields.

Writing for Designers, Artists & Photographers

The Impossibility of Silence

"This is a book about design. And culture. And complexity, notably how we, as a global civilization, deal with science fiction, taste, social media, the cities we live in, aesthetics, PowerPoint, burkas, authenticity, monuments, HIV, screens, representation, Big Tech, full-contact sports, and other thorny topics. This book is full of essays culled from the first 32 issues of Slanted, the leading international design journal, alongside a number of writings from elsewhere, all specifically chosen for this book. They include essays written by the most vital and vibrant global voices in writing on design and culture today from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Middle East. Writers like Natalia Ilyin, Randy Nakamura, Steven Heller, Piotr Rypson, Silas Munro, Gerry Leonidas, Yoon Soo Lee, Kenneth FitzGerald, Kiyonori Muroga, and a host of others. In a world that feels like it is bursting at the seams due to overpopulation, climate change, economic downturns, strife, selfies, discord, and all-out war, we need somewhere to turn. Our mobile devices tell us that the Apocalypse is just around the corner ... perhaps we just need to look the future in the face by examining the present and all of it’s designed faults, fractures, beauties, luminosity, issues, complexities, and cracked screens." --Kickstarter.

A Slanted Reader on Design

Total Armageddon

Start Somewhere is a 76-page handbook about how to become a designer who writes. Most designers grapple with generating their own content. This zine is full of writing about *how* to write and more importantly, how to get started. Start Somewhere includes 14 hybrid design/writing exercises, a number of helpful tips, and is copiously illustrated.Ian Lynam writes about exactly *why* designers have a hard time making their own content, design theory, design research, guilty pleasures, shoe fetishes, design curation, and a number of other topics.

A Handbook of Dubious Exercises, Tips and Rants about Becoming a Designer Who Writes

Start Somewhere

An examination of problematic graphic design in contemporary and historical culture.

The Opposite of Solving Design Problems

The Thing

Cannibals is a 92-page booklet by Ian Lynam comprised of a handful of new essays about design, education, hope, dread, delight, misery, and of course, sex. Lovingly printed in three offset colors, Cannibals is part-innately relatable pop narrative, part-irreverent mythology, and part-searing critical analysis of design culture today.

A Handbook of Dubious Exercises, Tips, and RantsAbout Becoming a Designer Who Teaches

Cannibals

Michael Turner

Emiko Nishiwaki

Kimi Tang

Fumiya Hoshi

Darrell Ng

Alexandra Barbour

Hikari Sakurai

Eglif Pascal

Nick Newberg

Phrasebook of Japanese and English graphic design terminology.

Design Words That Fit in Your Pocket

Doko Demo Design

W. David Marx

The print extension of the award-winning online cultural journal and blog Néojaponisme. A highly illustrated guide to Japan's Showa Era (1926 - 1989) past and present, perfect for Japanophiles and casual readers alike.

The Néojaponisme Journal

Njp 1

Christopher Duncan

Shirana Shahbazi

Renna Okubo

Patrick Tsai

Edward Fella

Scott Massey

Chris Ro

Yunim Kim

Yuko Amano

Naohiro Utagawa

Jeffery Keedy

Yuki Kameguchi

A compendium of art and design criticism, visual art and visual design featuring Ed Fella, Patrick Tsai, Shirana Shahbazi, Chris Ro, Naohiro Utagawa, Mr. Keedy, Ian Lynam, Yuko Amano, Yuki Kameguchi, Scott Massey, Yunim Kim, Renna Okubo, Shu Kuge and Chris Duncan.

Zombie Somnambulance

Corinthians Press 002

Alphonse

MFA Graphic Design (California Institute of the Arts)

California Institute of the Arts. School of Art

I Learned a Lot of Things Here

An examination of notions of authenticity via design, consumption, and history.

On Authenticity

The Letter I

A survival guide for graphic design students (and teachers). This booklet examines various forms of critique, outcomes, judgement, and essential ammo for crits such as connotation, denotation and semiotics.

The War of Design

Critique

Parallel Strokes is a collection of interviews with twenty-plus contemporary typeface designers, graffiti writers, and lettering artists around the world. The book is introduced with a comprehensive essay charting the history of graffiti, its relation to type design, and how the two practices relate in the wider context of lettering.Interviews within include conversations with pan-European type design collecitve Underware, Japanese type designer Akira Kobayashi, American graffiti writer and fine artist Barry McGee/Twist, German graffiti writers Daim and Seak, American lettering artist, graphic designer and design eductor Ed Fella, among others. Parallel Strokes is an enquiry into the history, context, and development of lettering today, both culturally approved and illicit.

Parallel Strokes

Louise Sandhaus

Michael Worthington

Sarah Gottesdiener

Collection of posters from CalArts Graphic Design program produced between 1980 and 2019. Essays and interviews and over 500 works in color.

Posters from CalArts 1980-2019

Inside Out and Upside Down

Ian Lynam

About

Books

Join the club