Latest critical design writings

To the readers of design books with a seemingly perpetual optimism: sorry for any discomfort caused. It is possible for graphic design (and its writings) to do good.

It is unsurprising that Set Margins’ has a reputation for being a publisher hooked on the big struggles and gloomy disillusionment of graphic design practices. We are responsible for titles like Silvio Lorusso’s What Design Can’t Do , Afonso Matos’ Who can afford to be critical?, Kevin Yen Kit Lo’s Design Against Design. To the readers of design books with a seemingly perpetual optimism: sorry for any discomfort caused. I’ll admit though, Set Margins’ and its authors do still believe it is possible for graphic design (and its writings) to do good.

For instance, consider some of our latest works: In Ian Lynam’s beautifully presented and elaborate historical study Fracture, Japanese Graphic Design 1875-1975 he teaches about the influence of changing socio-economic contexts in relation to Japanese culture and design, it is the first overview of its kind. Alternatively, with a more contemporary focus, Nida Abdullah, Chris Lee and Xinyi Lee are fostering new futures by weaving together ideas on designing as a mechanism of maintenance and teaching against bureaucratic inertia; Through Witnessing: threading the critiquing, making and teaching of design reflects on the weight of being, and the (im)possibilities of un-doing and un-maintaining the enduring legacies of colonial powers.

At Set Margins’ we also have new titles offering more tactical strategies and creative support. For instance, Danah Abdulla’s Designerly ways of knowing, a working inventory of things a designer should know might just be the hands-on self-help reference guide designers have been needing. At a similar, practical level, A Visible Distance—Craft, Creativity and the Business of Design by Matt Ownes addresses the complexities of balancing intuition and taste, technical and personal capabilities, strategic business decisions in design work and the demands of modern brand building. Lastly, urging designers to adapt to new technologies and arguing that designers do not need to be replaced by automation, Melani De Luca offers support to designers seeking practical advice, ethical frameworks, and more in her practical guide Steve: A Framework for AI and Identity Design. And all this is to say nothing of Set Margins’ other new titles on the conspiratorial design, design writing and design history.

To give voice to the margin and stimulate the articulation of the plural, Set Margins’ aspires for inclusive access to production by creatively applying the cultural politics of content, form, and style whilst also critically dissecting them as a way to spark literacy. Through this, Set Margins’ focuses support of moral individuation from within an environment of autonomous plurality, disinclined from governing ethics and paternalistic habits. Set Margins’ acts out of a humanistic (and slightly anarchist) basis, believing freedom is exercised by questioning its conditions, imagining things otherwise and trying out new paths. See for yourself: setmargins.press.

Peace, love and regulated chaos,
Freek Lomme aka Set Margins'

P.S. ON DISTRIBUTION: Our books are available through Artbook/ D.A.P. in North America, Perimeter books for Australia, Public Knowledge Books for UK and Idea Books in continental europe and pretty much everywhere not mentioned before.