No More Rules

"The past twenty years have seen profound changes in the field of graphic communication. One by one, old certainties about the techniques and purposes of graphic design have been questioned and collapsed. No More Rules is the first critical survey to offer a complete overview of the graphic revolution during the postmodern period." "According to design critic Rick Poynor, changes in graphic work were already well underway by the early 1980s, even before the computer became a ubiquitous tool. With the international embrace of new electronic technologies in the 1990s, these developments began to accelerate. An explosion of creativity in graphic design took place as designers and typographers reassessed their roles, jettisoned existing rules, and forged experimental new approaches. Graphic work became more self-expressive, idiosyncratic, and occasionally extreme." "Poynor tells this story in detail, breaking down a broad, multifaceted, and sometimes confusing field of graphic design activity into key developments and themes: the origins of postmodern design; deconstructionist design and theory; issues of appropriation; the revolution in digital type; questions of authorship; and critiques of postmodern graphic design. Each theme is illustrated by spectacular and significant examples of work produced between 1980 and 2000 that have changed the way in which designers and their audiences think about graphic communication. This generously illustrated book is a vital reference for design professionals and educators as well as for students of graphic design, image-making, advertising, and the visual arts."--Jacket.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.