Are Not Notes
A Useless Guide to Book Design
Available Formats:
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—Paperback (265 pages)
According to Dieter Roehlstrate, “Martin Heidegger described books as ‘voluminous letters to friends.’ Anyone who has ever ‘made’ a book will immediately grasp the depth of feeling communicated in this admittedly romantic view of the book publishing business.”[1]
Most publishers understand the making of a book very differently. As Karel Martens puts it, design “commissioners are no longer professional experts with noble ideals, but cynical managers with only one desire: how to make money as soon as possible.”[2]
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All Are Not publications are available to read online. They can also be purchased as print-on-demand paperbacks at the cost of printing (without a publisher’s markup). Contact Are Not Books at: editor@arenotbooks.com
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Notes
- Roelstraete, Dieter. “Art Books Now: 7 Theses (From an Accomplice’s Point of View).” Dot Dot Dot 12, 2006.
- Karel Martens, Robin Kinross, and Jaap van Triest. Printed Matter = Drukwerk. London: Hyphen Press, 2010, pp. 194 and 196.
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Publishing as the Critical Practice of Graphic Design
Available Formats:
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—Paperback (108 pages)
This book surveys contemporary instances of critical micro- publishing. The publishing taken up by such ventures is entirely controlled by the designer along with a small group of collaborators. Design, production, and distribution roles are restricted so as to be minimally influenced by outside concerns. As a result, the form and content of each book or pamphlet can be critically and self- reflexively about the practice of design and publishing.
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All Are Not publications are available to read online. They can also be purchased as print-on-demand paperbacks at the cost of printing (without a publisher’s markup). Contact Are Not Books at: editor@arenotbooks.com
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Notes on Design Education
Available Formats:
—Coming Soon
Artists and designers in the university are not retreating from the “real world.”[1]
The university and its practices, according to Howard Singerman, are “woven into the economic, social, and signifying structures of the ‘real’ world.”[2]
The university is a site in the world.
Graphic design done in the university, in other words, is done in a real world, but one with parameters distinct from corporate, business, and other “professional” institutions.
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All Are Not publications are available to read online. They can also be purchased as print-on-demand paperbacks at the cost of printing (without a publisher’s markup). Contact Are Not Books at: editor@arenotbooks.com
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Notes
- Compare to Singerman, Howard. Art Subjects: Making Artists in the American University. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999, page 211.
- Singerman, page 211.
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