This third issue of Back Office is devoted to various experiences of reading on screens. Over the course of the last decades, this change has introduced deep shifts, the effects of which are still being assessed.

Following the possible end of linear writing—predicted by the “communicologist” Vilém Flusser as early as the 1970s—the philosopher Jacques Derrida reflected on the “end of paper” as the primary medium for inscription. The proliferation of screens and the dawn of the internet paved the way for expressive forms falling under the category of an enlarged “graphosphere,” presumably still dominated by the norms and figures of paper (consider the concepts of lines, the sheet, the page, paragraphs, margins, etc.).

Could the task of the designer be to accompany, as smoothly as possible, this transition from one technical era to the next, or could it be, on the contrary, to postpone the passage from paper to screen?

Back Office is an annual review, encompassing graphic design and digital activities. It explores the creative processes at work in the diverse fields of contemporary media and digital practices. By dealing with themes such as the code/form relation, the challenges of creative tools, and the permeable nature of media, it represents a unique French-speaking think tank and a worldwide vehicle to raise the visibility of the French design scholarship.

Designed by Élise Gay & Kévin Donnot

Published by Éditions B42 and Fork Éditions, 2019
Bilingual, in French and English

144 pages, color and b&w images, 7.75 × 11 inches

ISBN: 978-2-49-007712-0