The Treachery of Images: Design’s Toxic Assets, and the Foundations of a New Future
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Unbridled Capitalism (for most) is an abstraction. From the inside it’s hard to see edges—places where it does not exist. In this time when everything being for sale is normal—including the delivery of your purchases to your front door, car or screen—there is healthy competition to serve our best and worst impulses, and we would do well to know the difference.
Design has its own values. See any designer who has discovered this; Horst Rittel, Charles Eames, Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister, Terry Irwin, Sister Corita Kent and Lucienne Roberts have all authored books and various provocations on this theme. I’ve also authored my own introduction to this concern—all for the purpose of drawing out the premise that Capitalism has less (appeal) than we thought. Less values, often less concerns, leaning towards unsustainability, and certainly fewer boundaries. This episode of