Caps Lock: How Capitalism Took Hold of Graphic Design, and How to Escape from It

CAPS LOCK uses clear language and visual examples to show how graphic design and capitalism are inextricably linked. By sharing examples of radical design practices that challenge the supremacy of the market, it hopes to inspire a different kind of graphic design.

J. Paul Neeley

J. Paul is a London based designer and researcher with expertise in Speculative Design, Service Design, Design Research, and Strategy.

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Ted Hunt

Ted Hunt is an independent speculative/discursive/critical designer living and working in London and currently a resident of Somerset House Studios.

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January 21, 2022

Our current economic system could not exist without the number systems, coins, banknotes, documents, advertisements, interfaces, typefaces and information graphics that graphic designers have helped to create. Even speculative design and social design play their part in fueling the economic system. Capitalism has brought tremendous wealth, but it has not done so evenly. Extreme income inequality and environmental destruction is the price future generations have to pay for unbridled economic growth. The question is whether ethical graphic design is even possible under such conditions.

CAPS LOCK
uses clear language and visual examples to show how graphic design and capitalism are inextricably linked. By sharing examples of radical design practices that challenge the supremacy of the market, it hopes to inspire a different kind of graphic design.

Ruben Pater
(born 1977) was trained as a graphic designer and works in journalism, activism, education and graphic design under the name Untold Stories. His work has received several international prizes and he has participated in many exhibitions worldwide. His first book, The Politics of Design (2016), has been an inspirational sourcebook for design students, artists and visual communicators in many different places and contexts; Eye on Design wrote: It's the kind of literature that should be handed out to all students on their first days at art school, along with all the Albers, Berger, Benjamin and Sontag that form the backbone of the design curriculum--an up-to-date assessment of the landscape through which all modern visual practitioners must navigate.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Caps-Lock-Capitalism-Graphic-Design/dp/9492095815/

Further Reading
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
The Dawn of Everything aims to fundamentally transform our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society.
January 21, 2022
Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos
‘Deep adaptation’ refers to the personal and collective changes that might help us to prepare for – and live with – a climate-influenced breakdown or collapse of our societies. It is a framework for responding to the terrifying realization of increasing disruption by committing ourselves to reducing suffering while saving more of society and the natural world.
August 25, 2021