By Michael Rock
Published by Rizzoli, New York 2013. (To order your copy visit amazon.com)
Multiple Signatures explores the diverse voices and disciplines that comprise the process of graphic design through the lens of authorship, criticism, projects, and collaborations. The book includes essay, interviews, diagrams, annotations, illustrated lectures and case studies from Rock and contributors such as Susan Sellers, Georgie Stout, Rem Koolhaas, Mark Wigley, Paul Elliman, Enrique Walker, Rick Poynor and Lucia Allais among many others. Multiple Signatures examines all aspects of contemporary visual culture from branding and authorship to urban screens, conspiracy theory and t-shirt design.
About Multiple Signatures
In the tradition of John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, Michael Rock explores the history and development of twenty-first-century visual and design culture. A thoughtful and witty exploration of graphic design today, Multiple Signatures examines all aspects of modern design, from typography to the evolution of screens in advertising to trusting one’s own creative instincts, through a series of smart and often irreverent essays and images. Using 2x4’s own collaborations and projects as examples, and drawing on the experience of the contributing authors, the result is not a clinical textbook, but a fantastic and thought-provoking work about the limitless applications of design. Multiple Signatures challenges standard ways of understanding design and inspires readers to think of graphic design as a building block for all creative disciplines.
About the author
Michael Rock is a founding partner and Creative Director at 2x4 and Director of the Graphic Architecture Project at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. At 2x4, he leads a wide range of projects for Prada, Nike, Kanye West, Barneys New York, Harvard and CCTV. Since 1991 he has been a member of the design faculty at the Yale School of Art where he holds the rank of Professor (Adjunct). In addition, he was a fellow at the Jan Van Eyck Akademie in Maastricht, The Netherlands, and a contributing editor and graphic design journalist at I.D. Magazine in New York. His writing on design has appeared in publications worldwide. He holds an A.B. in Humanities from Union College and a M.F.A from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is the recipient of the 1999/2000 Rome Prize in Design from the American Academy in Rome and currently serves on the board of the Academy.
