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(Text)
WHY I
WRITE
concieving
research
analyzing
organizing
WRITING = DESIGN
structuring
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(Text)
Why do I write? I write, therefore I am. I need the
intellectual and emotional stimulation that the act
of putting down ideas in the form of words on paper
and screen gives me. Writing is the culmination of a
process of conceiving, researching, analyzing, ordering,
and structuring. Writing is design.
So it makes sense that I write mostly about design.
As a kid, I thought I wanted to be an historian. My uncle, a former Columbia professor of American
studies, taught me the pleasure of studying history. I loved reading historical tomes (especially about the
Civil War and The New Deal), yet I had little patience for the rigors of academics. I was never a very good
student. So I compensated for my scholarly deficiencies by writing and drawing. Indeed, I once handed in
an illustrated paper on “isms,” which was entirely plagiarized from a text that was, predictably, familiar to
my teacher (at least he hadn’t written it; now that would have been embarrassing). I received an F for the
paper, but he gave me an A for the satiric artwork. It was a wash.
This act triggered an epiphany. My pictures were visualized words, and if I could conjure my own images,
I could also write my own words. Although I didn’t bother to rewrite the “isms” paper to get a better
grade as my teacher suggested, I did begin to do more original research and write more original prose for
subsequent history assignments. I wrote incessantly and took uncanny enjoyment in rereading my own
words aloud to myself. I wanted to get the rhythm right. The one thing I missed, however, was a real focus
for my writing.
Every writing teacher says to write what you know. Passion is the ticket to success. And my particular
passion was for art, but not just any art: I favored the satiric kind. But not just any satiric art either; rather,
the radically strident political commentary that shot barbs at fat cats and besotted cows, images that were
caustic and indelible, like Goya’s stern “Disasters of War.” I found my initial métier was writing about
how satire fought folly (and sometimes won).
As fate would have it, all those pictures paid off. When I was twenty-four, I was hired as art director of
the New York Times Op-Ed page. Years before I began, that valuable real estate opposite the editorial page
was already a revolution in journalism and journalistic illustration. Its visual personality was built on a
foundation of satiric art history, and in order to do a credible job, I delved into the study of the eighteenth
(Ray)
(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers
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(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers
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(Text)
WHY I
WRITE
concieving
research
analyzing
organizing
WRITING = DESIGN
structuring
(Ray)
(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers
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001-017_28858.indd 12 8/30/12 4:33 PM
(Text)
Why do I write? I write, therefore I am. I need the
intellectual and emotional stimulation that the act
of putting down ideas in the form of words on paper
and screen gives me. Writing is the culmination of a
process of conceiving, researching, analyzing, ordering,
and structuring. Writing is design.
So it makes sense that I write mostly about design.
As a kid, I thought I wanted to be an historian. My uncle, a former Columbia professor of American
studies, taught me the pleasure of studying history. I loved reading historical tomes (especially about the
Civil War and The New Deal), yet I had little patience for the rigors of academics. I was never a very good
student. So I compensated for my scholarly deficiencies by writing and drawing. Indeed, I once handed in
an illustrated paper on “isms,” which was entirely plagiarized from a text that was, predictably, familiar to
my teacher (at least he hadn’t written it; now that would have been embarrassing). I received an F for the
paper, but he gave me an A for the satiric artwork. It was a wash.
This act triggered an epiphany. My pictures were visualized words, and if I could conjure my own images,
I could also write my own words. Although I didn’t bother to rewrite the “isms” paper to get a better
grade as my teacher suggested, I did begin to do more original research and write more original prose for
subsequent history assignments. I wrote incessantly and took uncanny enjoyment in rereading my own
words aloud to myself. I wanted to get the rhythm right. The one thing I missed, however, was a real focus
for my writing.
Every writing teacher says to write what you know. Passion is the ticket to success. And my particular
passion was for art, but not just any art: I favored the satiric kind. But not just any satiric art either; rather,
the radically strident political commentary that shot barbs at fat cats and besotted cows, images that were
caustic and indelible, like Goya’s stern “Disasters of War.” I found my initial métier was writing about
how satire fought folly (and sometimes won).
As fate would have it, all those pictures paid off. When I was twenty-four, I was hired as art director of
the New York Times Op-Ed page. Years before I began, that valuable real estate opposite the editorial page
was already a revolution in journalism and journalistic illustration. Its visual personality was built on a
foundation of satiric art history, and in order to do a credible job, I delved into the study of the eighteenth
(Ray)
(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers
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(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers
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Writing & research for graphic designers
(Text)
14
century English master satiric printmakers William Hogarth,
James Gillray, and Thomas Rowlandson; the nineteenth
century French caricaturists Honoré Daumier, J.J. Grandville,
and Gustave Doré; the American Thomas Nast; and finally
the twentieth century Germans George Grosz, Otto Dix,
and John Heartfield.
My method of learning, retaining, and refining what I
learned was to curate exhibitions of work that interested
me. I’d write essays for the exhibition catalogs, which I’d
eventually expand into books. My first two full-bore exhibitions,
at Goethe House and Alliance Française, respectively, in New
York, were devoted to Simplicissimus, the acerbic late nine-
teenth century German satiric magazine, and L’Assiette au Beurre,
the startlingly graphic French equivalent. I reasoned that these
periodicals and the amazing work contained therein, attacking
the mores and morals, religions and monarchies, and society
and culture of their times, were the basis for contemporary
graphic commentary—the kind that appeared on the Op-Ed
page. Instead of simply filing away the knowledge I was gath-
ering in the back of my brain, I wrote numerous articles about
my discoveries. The artists I learned about were touchstones
for more detailed commentaries about current practitioners. I
learned as I wrote.
The old chestnut that knowledge is a tree with many
branches is true. While researching satiric art, I’d climbed
different limbs full of wonderful discoveries. The principle
satiric artists I was interested in, it turned out, were also
graphic, interior, and product designers and that led me to
write about design. Finding that Bruno Paul, for instance—
one of the sharpest graphic wits in Germany—was also a
respected advertising poster artist, furniture designer, and head
of a major design school in Berlin was a revelation. Learn-
ing that John Heartfield—the “inventor” of satiric photo-
montage—was also the art director and typographer at The
Malik-Verlag, a communist book publisher in Berlin, was
eye-opening. Discovering that Lionel Feininger—creator of
the comic strip The Kin-der-kids—was one of the founding
Bauhaus masters, was extraordinary. The connective tissue
between art and design by artists who had been passed over
by art historians became a rich mine of material for many
of my essays for many years.
Mainstream art history had been pretty well mined, but
with this new vein of historical material, I could keep pros-
pecting for years—and I have.
Nonetheless, I am not a trained historian, and chronicling
history has never been my sole interest. I have no desire to
devote years or decades to one specific individual or topic
(even though I’ve authored two professional biographies).
My curiosity is just too broad and attention span too limited.
So I turned to popular culture as my “beat” and have been
writing, among other things, about contemporary designers
and illustrators for more than a couple of decades. Focusing on
their respective influences on the zeitgeist, I find many of their
lives to be ready-made narratives, the best of which are models
for others in the field. More important, I use their individual
stories, in part, to alter the stereotype of “trade” journalism.
With notable exceptions, most design writing, from
the early to late twentieth centuries, aimed at providing a
professional audience with news, views, and tips. There was
1
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(Text)
15
2
3
4
1
Magazines then and now.
U&lc
, a
tabloid type journal, was platform
for many design writers.
3
Gebrauchsgraphik, the German
advertising and design magazine
is a valuable resource for the
contemporary design historian.
2
Rethinking Design. Mohawk Paper
Mills sponsored a critical journal,
edited by Michael Bierut.
4
Eye, Edited by JohnWalters,
is a steadfast chronicler of the
new and old in graphic design.
why i writeintroduction
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Writing & research for graphic designers
(Text)
14
century English master satiric printmakers William Hogarth,
James Gillray, and Thomas Rowlandson; the nineteenth
century French caricaturists Honoré Daumier, J.J. Grandville,
and Gustave Doré; the American Thomas Nast; and finally
the twentieth century Germans George Grosz, Otto Dix,
and John Heartfield.
My method of learning, retaining, and refining what I
learned was to curate exhibitions of work that interested
me. I’d write essays for the exhibition catalogs, which I’d
eventually expand into books. My first two full-bore exhibitions,
at Goethe House and Alliance Française, respectively, in New
York, were devoted to Simplicissimus, the acerbic late nine-
teenth century German satiric magazine, and L’Assiette au Beurre,
the startlingly graphic French equivalent. I reasoned that these
periodicals and the amazing work contained therein, attacking
the mores and morals, religions and monarchies, and society
and culture of their times, were the basis for contemporary
graphic commentary—the kind that appeared on the Op-Ed
page. Instead of simply filing away the knowledge I was gath-
ering in the back of my brain, I wrote numerous articles about
my discoveries. The artists I learned about were touchstones
for more detailed commentaries about current practitioners. I
learned as I wrote.
The old chestnut that knowledge is a tree with many
branches is true. While researching satiric art, I’d climbed
different limbs full of wonderful discoveries. The principle
satiric artists I was interested in, it turned out, were also
graphic, interior, and product designers and that led me to
write about design. Finding that Bruno Paul, for instance—
one of the sharpest graphic wits in Germany—was also a
respected advertising poster artist, furniture designer, and head
of a major design school in Berlin was a revelation. Learn-
ing that John Heartfield—the “inventor” of satiric photo-
montage—was also the art director and typographer at The
Malik-Verlag, a communist book publisher in Berlin, was
eye-opening. Discovering that Lionel Feininger—creator of
the comic strip The Kin-der-kids—was one of the founding
Bauhaus masters, was extraordinary. The connective tissue
between art and design by artists who had been passed over
by art historians became a rich mine of material for many
of my essays for many years.
Mainstream art history had been pretty well mined, but
with this new vein of historical material, I could keep pros-
pecting for years—and I have.
Nonetheless, I am not a trained historian, and chronicling
history has never been my sole interest. I have no desire to
devote years or decades to one specific individual or topic
(even though I’ve authored two professional biographies).
My curiosity is just too broad and attention span too limited.
So I turned to popular culture as my “beat” and have been
writing, among other things, about contemporary designers
and illustrators for more than a couple of decades. Focusing on
their respective influences on the zeitgeist, I find many of their
lives to be ready-made narratives, the best of which are models
for others in the field. More important, I use their individual
stories, in part, to alter the stereotype of “trade” journalism.
With notable exceptions, most design writing, from
the early to late twentieth centuries, aimed at providing a
professional audience with news, views, and tips. There was
1
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(Text)
15
2
3
4
1
Magazines then and now.
U&lc
, a
tabloid type journal, was platform
for many design writers.
3
Gebrauchsgraphik, the German
advertising and design magazine
is a valuable resource for the
contemporary design historian.
2
Rethinking Design. Mohawk Paper
Mills sponsored a critical journal,
edited by Michael Bierut.
4
Eye, Edited by JohnWalters,
is a steadfast chronicler of the
new and old in graphic design.
why i writeintroduction
(Ray)
(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers
09-C67944 #175 Dtp:225 Page:15
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16
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17
little criticism in the form of serious analysis. It may have
been thought that shinning a bright light on contemporary
work would diminish or harm it (unless, of course, it was
unquestioning praise). Yet other arts had a long tradition of
critique—if only as consumer “reviews”—so why shouldn’t de-
sign in general, and particularly graphic design, have a critical
language? The real challenge was determining what vocabulary
was appropriate—and accessible. Many of the arts have been
insulated from public discourse through self-referential jargon
(architecture is a prime example). I felt that following the
theoretical convolutions could relegate graphic design writing
to an arcane footnote.
Yet rather than ignore theory, I simply chose to refrain from
spouting excessive academic newspeak (I even curtailed the use
of words like modality, taxonomy, and paradigm). I decided
the best approach was a transparent writing style that is acces-
sible and entertaining.
I employ various methods, but the one I most enjoy (and
if I enjoy it, maybe the reader will too) is building narratives
directly from the voices of my varied subjects. The key is
linking quotations together through the glue of descriptive
and discursive prose. Making sure there is a narrative arc at
all times; starting out strong, settling down, building up, and
ultimately packing the finale with solid idea, making for a
satisfying read. I’m pretty good with segues from paragraph to
paragraph, but always have trouble with endings. I’m grateful
when, at times, the stories actually write themselves from start
to finish.
My biography of Paul Rand (titled Paul Rand) was such a
book. Written as a series of essays, the book features chapters
that are held together through commonalities in ways that
surprised even me. Rand’s story was so compelling, the quotes
I used directly from him and others who knew him were so
evocative, and the anecdotal material was so illuminating,
I couldn’t fail as long as I didn’t mistakenly erase the entire
manuscript.
In 2010, I completed a professional biography of Alvin
Lustig (Born Modern: The Life and Design of Alvin Lustig), a
designer from the same period as Rand, who left behind a
wealth of letters and notes. Sadly, he passed away in 1955 at
age forty, so unlike Rand, I never met nor interviewed him.
His detailed letters, however, chronicled the professional and
personal aspects of his life almost as well as, if not better than,
face-to-face encounters. The letters allowed me to engage his
voice; then I filled in the gaps with reporting and commentary.
I don’t always enjoy being the neutral narrator, but in this case
it was appropriate—and pleasurable.
All writers have an insatiable need for gratification, so
pleasure is the supreme perk of writing. The process of writ-
ing, the act of editing and being edited, and then the ultimate
climax—the publication, the rereading and reflection—this is
Why I Write.
U&lc. edited by Margaret Richardson, encouraged its writers to
write about new phenomena and old trends.
Emigre magazine, opened the door to the most inventive experi-
mental typography of the digital age. Here is the premiere of
First Things First, a controversial manifesto from 1999.
why i writeintroduction
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