A review by frogwithlittlehammer
CAPS LOCK: How Capitalism Took Hold of Graphic Design, and How to Escape from It by Ruben Pater

informative reflective

4.75

WOW now that’s what I call design. I don’t mean that aesthetically. I just mean, I finally understand what design is, and why it has always spoken to me even though I’m a person of little taste or skills for the visual. 

Design and language are what makes the world go round, and also are, in my opinion, the two biggest industries that have transformed the world to the current mess of affairs it is today. It’s not tech, it’s not economics, not even psychology. Design and language are the most rudimentary forms of communication, that have frankensteined to unbelievably far-reaching proportions—building borders, widening wealth disparities, invoking international conflicts, swaying elections, accelerating surveillance, deepening the nature of business ontology and therefore essentializing the guys circle jerking in advertising… AND A LOT MORE (evidently they have created a breed of downright narcissists as well, if the inflated sense of self importance wasn’t clear already.) 

I deeply enjoyed the first couple parts of the book, about the history of design, and how it has always been a mode of documenting (largely in an exclusionary and classist manner) and scribing and claiming boundaries. It is a big impetus for the transition into credit, the differentiating between legal and “illegal” nationals, the creation of the creative class (and precariats), of course commodity fetishism, and basically invented the idea of tourism.  Yeah, there were other large players that contributed to all of the above listed paradigm shifts, but you really do have to admit that communication through images (design) and words (language) are at the foundation. 

As the book progressed, the editing errors amassed and the books became more tailored for designers; what they can do to combat capitalism, firms they can be inspired by, how designers can utilize hacking, how unique and difficult (haha ok) of a time that designers have as laborers. But even these sections made me reflect about man’s lot in life, so much so that I read a bit of Ecclesiastes to really get the noggin churning. 

Anyway, really great collection of images, logos, campaigns, quotes, thinkers, thoughts, etc., which made for a really digestible and digestive reading experience. I am intrigued by other design theory books, as the few I have read have my full marks. They also make me feel like a modern girl, can’t explain why!