Zak Kyes Working With...

Published on the occasion of his exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, this compact book presents the work of the Swiss-American graphic designer Zak Kyes. The publication brings together a range of works by Kyes, as well as works by a host of collaborators that includes architects, artists, writers, curators, editors, and graphic designers; it presents contemporary graphic design as a practice that mediates and is mediated by allied disciplines. The conceptual, visual, and economic intersections that link Kyes with his collaborators vary in form from idealistic to pragmatic, urgent and time-sensitive to abiding and long-lasting. Rather than presenting a chronological overview of Kyes’s work, this volume highlights the designer’s relations with partners, clients, and institutions, and the creative potential of these collaborations to evolve traditional understandings of graphic design, art, and architecture.  

Kyes, who lives and works in London, is known for his critical approach to graphic design, which encompasses publishing, editing, and site-specific projects for and in collaboration with cultural institutions. In 2005, Kyes founded the design studio Zak Group, and, in 2006, he became Art Director of the Architectural Association (AA), London. Under the auspices of the AA, he organized the seminal touring exhibition “Forms of Inquiry: The Architecture of Critical Graphic Design,” and later cofounded Bedford Press, an imprint that seeks to develop new models for contemporary publishing. By broadening the highly specialized role of the designer, Kyes challenges and further develops today’s graphic design practice.   

Contributors include Can Altay, Charles Arsène-Henry, Shumon Basar, Richard Birkett, Andrew Blauvelt, Edward Bottoms, Wayne Daly, Jesko Fezer, Joseph Grigely, Nikolaus Hirsch, Maria Lind, Markus Miessen, Michel Müller, Radim Peško, and exhibition curator Barbara Steiner

Designed by Wayne Daly

Published by Sternberg Press

Hardcover, 266 pages, 5 b&w and 43 color ill., 4 × 6.25 inches

ISBN 978-1-934105-92-4