The Politics of Design: A (not so) Global Design Manual for Visual Communication by Ruben Pater

This manual by Ruben Pater is a brief but important re-examination of creative practices within the graphic design industry. For the author, all design is political and only by diversifying the academic canon beyond Western authors and practices can the industry be truly inclusive and representative.

Pater divides the book into the 5 Elements of Western Graphic Design – Language and Typography, Color and Contrast, Image and Photography, Symbols and Icons and Graphics – and reconsiders the design principles for each from a multicultural perspective. Through the works of friends and collaborators, Pater demonstrates that creativity becomes limitless once we decolonize it and incorporate new representations of reality and philosophies into the theory and practice of graphic design.