Critiqued: Inside the Minds of 23 Leaders in Design

Foreword

Ellen Lupton

What goes on inside a designer’s head? Alas, we will never know. What we see of that mental process is what’s left behind in sketches, drafts, prototypes, and the occasional post-facto press release. Digital tools allow designers to create endless iterations of an idea, and yet these ephemeral phases of life are often erased at the journey’s end. Our digital clouds would crash to Earth under the weight of every designer’s iterative load.

Christina Beard set out to record the process of creating a single poster, and she sought to make her endeavor a collaborative one, seeking out advice from leading designers in the field. Much of what happens in the making of a poster, publication, or brand campaign doesn’t take place on ...