Why Graphic Culture Matters gathers 46 essays by leading design critic Rick Poynor about graphic design and visual communication, written in the past two decades. Poynor writes as a non-designer deeply immersed in the practice of graphic communication. Many of the essays were first published in the renowned American magazine Print, where he was a columnist for 17 years. These incisive pieces – speculative, polemical and questioning – focus on key tendencies and trends, prevailing ideas and new departures.

The collection is divided into three thematic sections, offering alternative critical perspectives on the field. Topics include the commercial takeover of design, design criticism and history, the interplay of word and image, design celebrity, the canon, graphic authorship, critical forms of practice, the enduring intimacy between art and design, and whether graphic design is still an apt term for what graphic communicators do.