Politics of Design

Ruben Pater is a designer and researcher from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He finished the master programme of the Sandberg institute in 2012, and as 'Untold Stories' he works on self-initiated and collaborative projects between journalism and graphic design. Past projects are Double Standards (2012), the Drone Survival Guide (2013), and Behind the Blue Screen (2014). His work has received several international awards and is featured in exhibitions around the world.

"It's the kind of literature that should be handed out to all students on their first days at art school, along with all the Albers, Berger, Benjamin, and Sontag that form the backbone of the design curriculum-an up-to-date assessment of the landscape through which all modern visual practitioners must navigate." - AIGA.com "Author Ruben Pater, an Amsterdam-based designer and researcher, uses ideas from anthropology and sociology in creating a surprising and educational insight in contemporary visual communication." - New Design Magazine "The book draws attention to the fact that every design decision automatically has a political dimension, and that communication professionals need to take this on board. Design, after all, "cannot be disconnected from the values and assumptions in which it was created, from the ideologies behind it", which makes this "(not so) global manual" a valuable aid, both for creators and consumers, to understanding design in the context of its easily overlooked political meaning - and to ensuring we deal with that context more responsibly in the future." - Form Magazine Germany "Ruben Pater's unpacking of the politics that underscores most design is a 21st Century companion to Quentin Fiore and Marshall McLuhan's The Medium Is The Message and War and Peace In The Global Village." - Steven Heller "This anthropological and sociological look-covering all or many of the consequences of everyday design activity-is a philosophic-visual study that's just about everything I want in a 21st-century design text. And that it's also compact enough to fit in the pocket with my new iPhone 6s is a nice bonus." - Printmag.com "The Politics of Design should be put into the hands of everyone working in communication design. And also probably in the hands of everyone else since none of us can elude the work of designers. I can't remember the last time i had such an entertaining, witty and informative publication to review." - WeMakeMoneyNotArt.com "This little