By David Reinfurt. Preface by Adam Michaels. Foreword by Ellen Lupton.
A toolkit for visual literacy in the 21st century
A New Program for Graphic Design is the first communication-design textbook expressly of and for the 21st century. Three courses—Typography, Gestalt and Interface—provide the foundation of this book.
Through a series of in-depth historical case studies (from Benjamin Franklin to the Macintosh computer) and assignments that progressively build in complexity, A New Program for Graphic Design serves as a practical guide both for designers and for undergraduate students coming from a range of other disciplines. Synthesizing the pragmatic with the experimental, and drawing on the work of Max Bill, Beatrice Warde, Muriel Cooper and Stewart Brand (among many others), it builds upon mid- to late-20th-century pedagogical models to convey contemporary design principles in an understandable form for students of all levels—treating graphic design as a liberal art that informs the dissemination of knowledge across all disciplines. For those seeking to understand and shape our increasingly networked world of information, this guide to visual literacy is an indispensable tool.
David Reinfurt (born 1971), a graphic designer, writer and educator, reestablished the Typography Studio at Princeton University and introduced the study of graphic design. Previously, he held positions at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Rhode Island School of Design and Yale University School of Art. As a cofounder of O-R-G inc. (2000), Dexter Sinister (2006) and the Serving Library (2012), Reinfurt has been involved in several studios that have reimagined graphic design, publishing and archiving in the 21st century. He was the lead designer for the New York City MTA Metrocard vending machine interface, still in use today. His work is included in the collections of the Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. He is the co-author of Muriel Cooper (MIT Press, 2017), a book about the pioneering designer.
Featured image is reproduced from 'A New Program for Graphic Design.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Partner, Pentagram New York
Michael Bierut
At a moment of tremendous technological and cultural change, David Reinfurt makes the case that graphic design is not merely a craft, but a fundamental way to understand and engage with the world. Discursive, expansive, and inspiring, this book redefines its subject and provides an indispensable guide to how it might be practiced.
Director, Yale University Graduate Program in Graphic Design
Sheila Levrant De Bretteville
David Reinfurt‘s new book provides … in depth access to a historical analysis, exquisite close-focus portraits of multi-talented creative makers past and present, alongside his own research and examples of his class assignments. This intelligent book contains new insights regarding graphic design history, thought, and practice. This book is a reminder of Walt Whitman’s call for "a force infusion of intellect" to confront the future.
Jarret Fuller
Jarrett Fuller
...In viewing design as a liberal art — as a discipline that bridges disciplines, as skills that can help anyone, designer or not, make sense of this increasingly visual world — Reinfurt shows the value of design is not simply in the crafting of images, but in helping us see and read them."
Creative Pro
Maya P Lim
Not your typical textbook, A *New* Program for Graphic Design is a sleek, no-frills volume designed like a stack of notes from the course you never took (but should have) and written in casual, everyday language.
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Wednesday, October 6 at 11AM PST / 2PM EST, the AIGA Book Series presents graphic designer, writer and educator David Reinfurt, speaking on A New Program for Graphic Design, his twenty-first century communication-design textbook, recently published by Inventory Press and D.A.P. Lee-Sean Huang will introduce and lead a Q&A afterwards. Click here to register for this Zoom webinar followed by a Q&A and scroll down to read more about the book! continue to blog
Thursday, November 19, from 7:30–9PM EST, Harvard University's Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts presents a live Zoom conversation between designer David Reinfurt and Larissa Harris, a curator at the Queens Museum. Reinfurt will discuss the connection between designer Bruno Munari’s teaching residency at the Carpenter Center and Reinfurt’s recent publication, A *New* Program for Graphic Design. Please register here! continue to blog
Thursday, November 12, from 1–2PM EST, Type Directors Club presents David Reinfurt, author of A *New* Program for Graphic Design, speaking about an approach that brings graphic design education into the 21st century. To attend this Zoom event, register here. continue to blog
Wednesday, November 13 from 6:30–8:30 PM, SVA MA Design Research, Writing and Criticism presents David Reinfurt discussing A *New* Program for Graphic Design, his do-it-yourself textbook that synthesizes the pragmatic with the experimental and builds on mid- to late-20th-century pedagogical models to convey advanced principles of contemporary design for a general reader. Rooted in three courses (typography, gestalt, and interface) originally developed for liberal arts students at Princeton University, the book provides a broad introduction from Benjamin Franklin to Bruno Munari, Moholy-Nagy to Muriel Cooper and the Macintosh computer. After a brief introduction, Reinfurt will present eight years of class lectures randomly sampled and compressed into exactly one hour. continue to blog
Featured spreads are from graphic designer, writer, educator and CAA 'Revolution in the Classroom' panelist David Reinfurt's unconventional and galvanizing new textbook, A *New* Program for Graphic Design. "This book is a manifesto for graphic design," fellow panelist Ellen Lupton writes in her Foreword. "It takes a broad view of design's outcomes—from a pamphlet, road sign or typeface to a diagram, interface of kinetic sculpture. By putting 'graphic design' in the title of his book, Reinfurt shows love for a fuzzy, ubiquitous practice that often seems to be coming and going at the same time. The profession of graphic design is both young (just a century old) and a target for nostalgia in a technocratic culture focused on 'user experience' and 'innovation.' Graphic design joins thinking and making. It embraces craft, complexity and play. Like Reinfurt himself, many of the polymaths profiled in this book don't self-identify strictly as graphic designers. Many readers of this book won't either, but anyone interested in spreading ideas can find a way in." continue to blog
Launching Saturday, September 21, from 5:30–7 PM in David Senior's Classroom Series at the NY Art Book Fair, David Reinfurt's A *New* Program for Graphic Design is *the* communication design textbook of and for the 21st century. Featured spread—from the chapter on interface—concerns the results of Reinfurt's 2017 research project recreating Bruno Munari's 1965 Tetracono device. "It was a manufactured object of steel and aluminum, but its purpose was to produce a constantly changing image," Reinfurt writes. "Its rhetorical design was in its script: how the cones turn, the sequence, the phrasing, its temporal dimension. Munari called it both a product for exploring programming and an object for understanding forms in the process of becoming. Both of these lessons seem equally, or maybe more, important now than they did in 1965." Copies of the book will be available at the Inventory Press booth and at the Artbook Bookstore Event Space. continue to blog
Join us for David Reinfurt's lecture-slash-launch-event for A *New* Program for Graphic Design Saturday, September 21 at the NY Art Book Fair! From 5:30–7 PM in the Basement Classroom, the brilliant (if manic) Dexter Sinister / O-R-G / Serving Library co-founder will compress eight years of lectures given in the graphic design program at Princeton University into one *illuminating* hour. Free poster from Inventory Press, while supplies last! Also available throughout the fair at the Artbook Event Space at the NYABF! continue to blog
Saturday, September 21, from 5:30–7 PM, graphic designer, writer and educator David Reinfurt will compress eight years of lectures given in the graphic design program at Princeton University into exactly one (perhaps manic) hour, in celebration of his new book, A *New* Program for Graphic Design, published by Inventory Press and D.A.P. Organized by SFMOMA's head librarian and archivist David Senior, this talk will be held in The Classroom in the Basement Theater, with a brief introduction by Shannon Harvey and Adam Michaels of Inventory Press. Free poster giveaway (below), while supplies last! continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 6 x 9 in. / 256 pgs / 40 color / 180 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $25.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $34.95 GBP £22.00 ISBN: 9781941753217 PUBLISHER: Inventory Press/D.A.P. AVAILABLE: 9/17/2019 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Inventory Press/D.A.P.. By David Reinfurt. Preface by Adam Michaels. Foreword by Ellen Lupton.
A toolkit for visual literacy in the 21st century
A New Program for Graphic Design is the first communication-design textbook expressly of and for the 21st century. Three courses—Typography, Gestalt and Interface—provide the foundation of this book.
Through a series of in-depth historical case studies (from Benjamin Franklin to the Macintosh computer) and assignments that progressively build in complexity, A New Program for Graphic Design serves as a practical guide both for designers and for undergraduate students coming from a range of other disciplines. Synthesizing the pragmatic with the experimental, and drawing on the work of Max Bill, Beatrice Warde, Muriel Cooper and Stewart Brand (among many others), it builds upon mid- to late-20th-century pedagogical models to convey contemporary design principles in an understandable form for students of all levels—treating graphic design as a liberal art that informs the dissemination of knowledge across all disciplines. For those seeking to understand and shape our increasingly networked world of information, this guide to visual literacy is an indispensable tool.
David Reinfurt (born 1971), a graphic designer, writer and educator, reestablished the Typography Studio at Princeton University and introduced the study of graphic design. Previously, he held positions at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Rhode Island School of Design and Yale University School of Art. As a cofounder of O-R-G inc. (2000), Dexter Sinister (2006) and the Serving Library (2012), Reinfurt has been involved in several studios that have reimagined graphic design, publishing and archiving in the 21st century. He was the lead designer for the New York City MTA Metrocard vending machine interface, still in use today. His work is included in the collections of the Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. He is the co-author of Muriel Cooper (MIT Press, 2017), a book about the pioneering designer.
