Glossary of Undisciplined Design dismantles graphic design's canonical structures entry by entry, using the A-to-Z format as a vehicle for feminist critique, collective authorship, and deliberate disciplinary disobedience.
About This Book
What happens when you turn a reference format against the field it claims to document? The Glossary of Undisciplined Design does exactly that — using the familiar logic of the handbook to interrogate the dogmatic rules, discriminatory structures, and one-sided canon that have long shaped graphic design. Rather than a unified argument, the book operates through productive fragmentation: visual essays sit alongside poems, speculative fiction alongside academic writing, interviews alongside advertorials. With around 55 contributions from 20 international designers, activists, educators, and theorists, the GUD is both a critical toolkit and a living demonstration of what feminist, intersectional design practice might look like in print.
Key Features
- 312 pages of mixed-form contributions spanning visual essays, hands-on experiments, interviews, advertorials, poems, speculative tales, and academic writing
- Contributions by Clara Balaguer, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Ece Canlı, Hackers & Designers, Markus Dreßen, Sara Kaaman, Anja Kaiser, Jungmyung Lee, Vincent Schier, Rebecca Stephany, Franciska Zólyom, and others
- Edited by Anja Kaiser and Rebecca Stephany
- Published by Spector Books, thread-sewn hardcover, 110 × 175 mm
What You'll Discover
- How the glossary format can itself become a site of resistance — entries such as D for Dummy Woman, M for Monster's Tools, S for Style Defense, and U for Unstable Signs reframe canonical design concepts through feminist and critical lenses
- The productive tension between fragmentary, collective authorship and the desire for a coherent critical framework within graphic design discourse
- Role models, tools, and acts of dissent drawn from international design practice, activism, and education — including student contributions from the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe
- What undisciplinarity looks like in practice: a methodology that refuses singular authorship, fixed genre, and disciplinary boundary in equal measure
About the Author
Anja Kaiser is a designer and educator active in feminist contexts and club culture, where she pursues space for resistance through practice. Rebecca Stephany brings a polyphonic cultural practice fuelled by intersectional social critique, undisciplined research tools, and a sustained engagement with imagery. Together, Kaiser and Stephany initiated the Glossary of Undisciplined Design as a joint project.
Specifications
- Format: Thread-sewn hardcover
- Pages: 312
- Dimensions: 110 × 175 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783959054461
- Publisher: Spector Books
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Graphic designers and design educators engaging with feminist theory, students and academics in visual communication and design history, and practitioners interested in critical and intersectional approaches to the discipline.