Art

Don't Sleep: The Urgent Messages of Oliver Munday

Whip-smart, and with a ripped-from-the-headlines attitude, this book is a call to arms, demonstrating the unique ability of graphic design to speak truth to power.

Part personal history, part design philosophy, and part advocacy,  this  volume  showcases  the  arresting  work  of  Oliver  Munday.  Employing  humor  and  menace  in  equal  measure,  Munday  wields  graphic  design  as  a  tool  of  empowerment,  activism,  and  resistance.  Drawing  from  the  history  and  utility  of  twentieth- century agitprop, from Russian Constructivism to the Black  Panthers,  Munday  updates  a  timeless  medium  for  the  social  media  age  with  his  stark  and  often  unsettling imagery.

Drawing  on  the  madness  of  the  24-hour  news  cycle,  Munday’s   work   has   been   featured   on   the   op-ed   pages  of  the  New  York  Times,  the  New  YorkerTime  Magazine, and the Atlantic. Munday exploits a digital platform to poke fun at the 2016 presidential election, renounces warfare in the age of drones, and examines the tragic legacies of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, offering  a  perspective  that  must  not  be  overlooked.  His  design,  reflecting  influences  from  Paul  Rand  to  Globe  Poster,  champions  a  think  more,  design  less  philosophy with the ultimate goal to provoke contem-plation and even meaningful action.

About The Author

Oliver Munday is a graphic designer whose work has been recognized by many of the major design publica-tions, including Communication Arts, TDC, STEP maga-zine’s twenty-five freshest minds in design, Young Guns 7, and AIGA 50/50. In 2010, he was named one of PRINT magazine’s 20 under 30, in the new visual artists review. Hilton Als is an American writer, theater critic, and Pulitzer Prize winner. He is an associate professor of writing at Columbia University and a staff writer and theater critic for The New Yorker magazine.

  • Publish Date: March 27, 2018
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Category: Art - Individual Artists - Monographs
  • Publisher: Rizzoli
  • Trim Size: 7 x 10
  • Pages: 224
  • US Price: $35.00
  • CDN Price: $47.00
  • ISBN: 978-0-8478-6162-0

Reviews

"The title of the insistent new monograph...is as fervently conscientious as the artist's loud, literal, and acutely compelling illustrations."
Bookforum

"This encapsulates Munday's design work: arresting juxtapositions, an engagement with the political, and above all, a deliberate, understated presence. As heavy as the visuals are, Munday's hand is light. The images speak for themselves. Deep Sleep is a powerful survey of thirty-three-year-old Munday's career thus far . . . It's rare that a monograph can be accurately described as important or necessary. Don't Sleep, however, fits the bill. Isolated from their origianl context and arranged by theme, Munday's images accumulate power—the power not just to move readers but to move them to action. Don't Sleep is the kind of book that burns through the coffee table it's left on."
The Paris Review

Author Bookshelf: Hilton Als