Exploring the political context of design in our time.

“Power and its politics and hierarchies live in every conversation we have, every deal we make, every face we kiss.” ? Barbara Kruger

When I hear the word 'politics', excitement and exhaustion come to mind at the same time.
The same goes for words like 'visual culture' and 'design', which tend to lead to a selective attitude on the part of the listener.
Some people are passionate about design, claiming that everything in the world—every product and material—is not imbued with design.
Some people are not even aware of the existence of design in the entire process of using, selecting, consuming, and discarding any object.


Meanwhile, what kind of environment are design workers in?
It may be the fate of designers to be politically free in design work that is given in the form of collaboration.
He may have broadened the spectrum of his identity once again, from yesterday's helplessness in the face of design work to today's fervent admiration for the reasonable progress of the right client.

"A book that should be given to every student on their first day of art school!" ? AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts)
"A fantastic book that sheds new light on the various design standards we embrace." ? Amazon Review

Dutch designer Luben Pater realized that there is no such thing as political design, and that all design work cannot be free from various ideologies, including the cultural context experienced by the client as well as the worker. After extensive research and a designer's formal visualization + book design, he published a book titled "The Politics of Design."
Although it didn't make it to the Amazon bestseller list, it spread through word of mouth among visual culture organizations and figures like Counterprint Books, AIGA, and Steven Heller. Goat, an archive of miserable mistakes promising success, began publishing in earnest on Tumblbug in the second half of 2018, introducing a diverse spectrum of titles through the hands and faces of various designers.
However, this is the first book that contains reflections, concerns, and blueprints on 'design' itself.
This book was translated into Korean not for designers or to work with designers, but as someone who cannot be free from visual communication, I wanted to learn how to read and understand this endless amount of visual materials (visual literacy).
As we follow this book's journey, bringing together visual materials—signs, maps, photographs, typography, and color—from anthropological and sociological perspectives, and unraveling the compelling cultural contexts and stereotypes that lie behind them, we find ourselves questioning the very ulterior motives of the idea that political correctness stifles creativity.
This book seems to suggest that all of us, faced with the question of what is and is not acceptable, should conduct our own research and ask questions before we refrain from speaking out of fear of making inappropriate or insensitive remarks or absorbing the common sense and empathy we receive. In fact, "Design Politics" is overwhelmingly engraved with "consequences" rather than "pros."
We will make mistakes again.
It would be fortunate if we could learn from our mistakes, but to achieve that "fortunate" option, we will inevitably need to archive our miserable mistakes without any tricks. I hope you will confront the archive of mistakes in the "field" called "Design Politics" in this way.