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Tibor Kalman once pointed out that the aim of much design is creating wealth. Jim Davies has second thoughts about the moral emptiness of branding
Rifling through my bookshelves the other day, I came across a copy of 'Tibor Kalman/Perverse Optimist'. It's hard to miss - the single word 'TIBOR' in brutal white caps running down the spine, and a garish Mumbai-painted pastel portrait on the cover. For those of you with short memories, Kalman was the mercurial founder of the influential New York design consultancy M&Co, who went on to edit the controversial, Benetton-sponsored Colors magazine.
Published in 1999, the year he died from cancer, the first few spreads of the book are reminiscent of his work on the magazine - arresting images, culled from all corners of the globe, overlaid with simple, yet profound, statements. Curiosities, eye-openers and juxtapositions, all guaranteed to make you think.
But the one...