Overview

Exploring an unjustly overlooked figure in 20th-century British visual culture This book offers a comprehensive overview to the work and legacy of David King (1943–2016), whose fascinating career bridged journalism, graphic design, photography, and collecting. King launched his career at Britain’s Sunday Times Magazine in the 1960s, starting as a designer and later branching out into image-led journalism. He developed a particular interest in revolutionary Russia and began amassing a collection of graphic art and photographs—ultimately accumulating around 250,000 images that he shared with news outlets. Throughout his life, King blended political activism with his graphic design work, creating anti-Apartheid and anti-Nazi posters, covers for books on Communist history, album artwork for The Who and Jimi Hendrix, catalogues on Russian art and society for the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, and typographic covers for the left-wing magazine City Limits. This well-researched and finely illustrated publication ties together King's accomplishments as a visual historian, artist, journalist, and activist.

Full Product Details

9780300250107

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Reviews

It transpires that there was a serious chance this book might never have been written. I'm so glad it has. Rick Poyner explores the expansive nature of David King's career through an appropriate combination of verbal and visual intelligence. It is well researched, collaborative and cross-disciplinary but never loses sight of King's acute and obsessive vision, nor his off-beat humour and generosity of spirit. It will also help ensure that King, who spent so much of his professional life re-discovering what had been airbrushed from history, will increasingly be acknowledged as a significant historian, activist and designer. -Tim Marlow, director of the Design Museum, London We live in a world of politically engaged designers who care as much about the way the work looks as the message, but David King was the original. His work was created without ego, with an understanding of the designers of whose shoulders we stand on. King's design is shocking, inspiring, original and always beautiful: a great example in these turbulent times of how to create work you believe in for subjects you care about. -Jonathan Barnbrook, designer and founder of Barnbrook A remarkable, stunning, and essential book, Rick Poynor's rich volume on David King was a revelation for me, as I imagine it will be for many readers. Although familiar with King as a visual journalist and collector-I first encountered The Commissar Vanishes while still in art school and more recently had read his work on John Heartfield-I was bowled over by his politically-focused and striking graphic design work. As Poynor thoughtfully lays out over several chapters, King was a graphic author of the highest caliber, who deserves much closer study by today's emerging designers and visual thinkers. As we are thrust into an all-encompassing onscreen reality and confronted by the daily manipulations of images and news, historical figures like David King serve as powerful examples of communication strategies that value ethics, impact, and urgency. This book shows how visual stories can affect the world. -Prem Krishnamurthy, curator, designer and director of Wkshps This is a long-needed study of a unique editorial voice. It maps David King's development from passionate young designer to authoritative archivist, and reminds us that the best editorial design is much more than just sprucing up other people's words. -Jeremy Leslie, founder of magCulture

[A] vital addition to the King collection, assembling for the first time work from across his fields. It is a link, through the artist and archivist, to a history that continues to inspire today. -Yuri Prasad, Socialist Worker [Newspaper] Rick Poynor neatly ties together King's journey from designer to activist to archivist while sharing plenty of his work. It's a unique and remarkable story, and its physical appearance in terms of design and production is the perfect homage to King. -Jeremy Leslie, MagCulture A remarkable, stunning, and essential book, Rick Poynor's rich volume was a revelation for me, as I imagine it will be for many readers. -Prem Krishnamurthy, curator, designer and director of Wkshps Rick Poynor explores the expansive nature of David King's career through an appropriate combination of verbal and visual intelligence. His study is well researched, collaborative and cross-disciplinary. -Tim Marlow, director of the Design Museum, London This is a long-needed study of a unique editorial voice, mapping David King's development from passionate young designer to authoritative archivist. Jeremy Leslie, founder of magCulture David King's design is shocking, inspiring, original and always beautiful: a great example in these turbulent times of how to create work you believe in for subjects you care about. -Jonathan Barnbrook, designer and founder of Barnbrook

Author Information

Rick Poynor is professor of design and visual culture at the University of Reading.

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