Graphic Design in the Neo-Pop Era

Together, these two books form an "essential duo", a formidable compass to gain our bearings in the complex system of contemporary communication and forge a critical path.

This article was originally published in Domus 963 / November 2012

Sandra Rendgen, Julius Wiedemann, Information Graphics, Taschen, Cologne 2012 (pp. 480; € 49,99)

Emily King, M/M (Paris) de M à M, Éditions de La Martinière, Paris 2012; Thames & Hudson, London 2012 (pp. 528; € 65,99)

Many voices have been raised to argue that a recession generates excellence. When forced to make choices and be efficient, we better employ our resources and direct our efforts.

The opulence of recent years has made way for a sense of neediness. Even buying a book is an investment these days, but despite their size (nearly seven kilos between them), these two volumes reveal an unexpected practical quality that immediately turns the capital spent in their purchase into an investment with a sure return. The reasons for this efficacy are explained on the jacket flap of Information Graphics: "Our everyday lives are filled with a massive flow of information that we must interpret in order to understand the world we live in."

Emily King, <em>M/M (Paris) de M à M</em>, Éditions de La Martinière, Paris 2012; Thames & Hudson, London 2012 — Emily King, *M/M (Paris) de M à M*, Éditions de La Martinière, Paris 2012; Thames & Hudson, London 2012

This flow has come to dominate all activities to such an extent in today's world that it is now our main occupation, especially for those working in the creative fields of design and architecture. Unless you wish to succumb to this like a Baudelairean poet on the boulevards, this process must be coupled with an unconscious critical elaboration. This is where the thick Taschen compendium and the monograph M/M (Paris) de M à M on the first 20 years of M/M (Paris) — described by none other than Hans Ulrich Obrist as the finest graphic design practice in the world in The New Yorker — form an "essential duo". Combined, they not only constitute a huge résumé of recent graphic art/communication production, they are also a formidable compass to help us gain our bearings in the complex system of contemporary communication and forge a critical path that does not bow passively to the system, despite accepting the popularisation of artistic-creative production as a cultural sign of the times.

As we all know, pop art was born in conjunction with what the economist John Kenneth Galbright described as the affluent society. It was a sort of response to the pervasive and unprecedented extension of prosperity to entire populations of the world's richest nations. This condition meant these popular masses had to represent themselves (critically, as something different and as a factor of innovation) and gain ground on cultured art. We know what happened: the 1970s' recession (and its analogies/differences with today's require more in-depth analysis) steered them towards an "impoverished" type of art and the affirmation of attempts at ideological salvation. These reactions also prompted the need to increasingly recognise popular culture as a starting point for art, as claimed by Nicolas Bourriaud, mentor of M/M (Paris) ever since their days at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs.

These two volumes reveal an unexpected practical quality that immediately turns the capital spent in their purchase into an investment with a sure return

To those who can grasp the irony in the way they express their intimate knowledge of the decision-making procedures of those who make "pop culture", the French graphic-design practice's apparent superficiality and sober professional seriousness, which has made them famous and much sought after by fashion and music stars, reveals all the ambiguities of what appears uncritically expressed in the hefty illustrated "infographics" book.

Sandra Rendgen, Julius Wiedemann, <em>Information Graphics</em>, Taschen, Cologne 2012 — Sandra Rendgen, Julius Wiedemann, *Information Graphics*, Taschen, Cologne 2012

This is a typical Taschen manual with no explanations: files with the odd fleeting initial contextualisation and an aphoristic tone. A book that costs little to produce and sells in large numbers. As such, and without even taking into account the host of examples of the graphic treatment of information it contains, it is in itself an astute lesson on how people can still manage to produce profit-making publications today. The lesson of one book spills over into the other and vice versa: purchasing both allows you to paint a picture; taking just one of them home is making a stand. Roberto Zancan (@robertozancan)

Graphic Design in the Neo-Pop Era

Together, these two books form an "essential duo", a formidable compass to gain our bearings in the complex system of contemporary communication and forge a critical path.

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