MADE IN PATRIARCHY
Cheryl Buckley, Bikini Books, 2025

In 1986, Cheryl Buckley argued that design history is shaped by patriarchal biases that trivialize, marginalize, or erase women’s contributions. She advocated for a feminist critique that not only challenges these patriarchal frameworks but also shifts the focus away from individual achievements to recognize women’s roles as designers, consumers, and subjects of representation. Buckley revisited the evolution of the field in 2020, reflecting critically on both its progress and persisting challenges while also addressing gaps in her earlier thinking. read more

THE POLITICS OF DESIGN
Ruben Pater, Bis Publishers, 2016

THE POLITICS OF DESIGN explores the cultural and political context of the typography, colours, photography, symbols, and information graphics that we use every day. Designers, communication specialists, and image-makers possess the power to shape visual communication, and with that power comes great responsibility. read more

SCHOOL: A RECENT HISTORY OF SELF-ORGANIZED ART EDUCATION
Sam Thorne, Sternberg Press, 2017

Sam Thorne’s SCHOOL: A RECENT HISTORY OF SELF-ORGANIZED ART EDUCATION is a chronicle of self-organized art schools and artist-run education platforms that have emerged since 2000. Comprising a series of twenty conversations conducted by Thorne with the artists, curators, and educators behind these schools, the book maps a territory at once fertile and contested. read more

TRAINING FOR EXPLOITATION?: POLITICISING EMPLOYABILITY & RECLAIMING EDUCATION
Precarious Workers Brigade, Journal of Aesthetics & Protest Press, 2017

TRAINING FOR EXPLOITATION provides a pedagogical framework that assists students and others in deconstructing dominant narratives around work, employability and careers, and explores alternative ways of engaging with work and the economy. Training for Exploitation? includes tools for critically examining the relationship between education, work and the cultural economy. read more

TEACHING FOR PEOPLE WHO PREFER NOT TO TEACH
Mirjam Bayerdoerfer, Rosalie Schweiker, AND Publishing, 2017

In the editor's words, TEACHING FOR PEOPLE WHO PREFER NOT TO TEACH is “a messy collection of ideas: contributions our friends and colleagues sent us, our own learning experiences and rumours we heard. You might ask yourself who this manual is for. Is it for teachers? Is it for students? Is it only relevant for teaching art? read more

EXTRA-CURRICULAR
Various authors, Ed. Jacob Lindgren, Onomatopee, 2018

EXTRA-CURRICULAR is a reader of texts on and around the topic of self-organized learning, curriculum, experiments, and alternatives in graphic design education. Occurring both within and separate from existing institutions, these other forms of learning and organization question how such learning takes place, for whom, and the ideologies inherent in existing models, among many other things. read more

BRIAR LEVIT: ON DESIGN, FEMINISM, AND FRIENDSHIP
Bikini Books, 2026

Briar Levit’s design journey is as rich and unexpected as a forest hike. From the bustling offices of Bitch magazine to historic trails in Kent and the best Goodwills of Portland, her practice weaves through teaching, writing, editing, archiving, and documentary making. read more

DESIGN AS LEARNING: A SCHOOL OF SCHOOLS READER
Eds. Jan Boelen, Nadine Botha, Vera Sacchetti, Valiz, 2018

Why do design? What is design for? These are forward-looking questions for a creative discipline that seems more slippery to define than ever. In a world of dwindling natural resources, exhausted social and political systems, and an overload of information there are many urgent reasons to reimagine the design discipline, and there is a growing need to look at design education. read more

A *NEW* PROGRAM FOR GRAPHIC DESIGN
David Reinfurt, Adam Michaels, 2019

A *NEW* PROGRAM FOR GRAPHIC DESIGN is a do-it-yourself textbook that synthesizes the pragmatic with the experimental and builds on mid-to late-20th-century pedagogical models to convey advanced principles of contemporary design for a general reader. read more

CAPS LOCK: HOW CAPITALISM TOOK HOLD OF GRAPHIC DESIGN, AND HOW TO ESCAPE FROM IT
Ruben Pater, Valiz, 2021

Capitalism could not exist without the coins, banknotes, documents, information graphics, interfaces, branding, and advertisements made by graphic designers. Even anti-consumerist strategies such as social design and speculative design are appropriated to serve economic growth. read more