Silvio Lorusso — What Design Can't Do: Essays on Design and Disillusion

A collection of essays on the disappointment many designers feel once the promises of their profession meet the realities of the job.

Silvio Lorusso is Italian and lives in Lisbon, where he teaches at Lusófona University; he is also a tutor in Information Design at Design Academy Eindhoven, and works as a writer, artist and designer. Here he looks at how semi-automated digital tools wear away designers' skills, at political gestures in design that mainly serve as decoration for museums and schools, and at the vague assurances given to students. Older expressions of disenchantment sit next to current memes and angry posts from social media, and Lorusso coins a set of critical terms for describing the situation. The conclusion is unsettling and also freeing: design may have less to do with creating order than with learning to live inside disorder.

The book was designed by Federico Antonini and includes 75 black-and-white images. It is printed by Balto in Vilnius; the first printing of 4,000 copies appeared in September 2023, and two further printings have followed.

Set Margins', 2023. 352 pages, sewn and glued softcover, 13 x 20 cm. In English.