Rick Poynor: Ipse Dixit'd at Speak Up

A somewhat fiery, juicy and involving post is at Speak Up on notable, eminent design writer Rick Poyner and the "shortcomings of Speak Up". I haven't have read the Print article concerned (I usually don't buy that magazine) {here it is online} – in a nutshell it relates to the supposed unpolished and unsophisticated nature of the writing on Speak Up and by extension, perhaps most design blogs in general.

So - picking up on the thread woven through that post and the comments at Speak Up, I'll add my 20 cents worth.

Poynor has a particular take on what blogs are perhaps meant to be. I must have missed the fine print when I signed up to start one:

"...blogs represent the great hope for a thriving new critical debate, a place where an ambitious upcoming generation of design writers can sharpen their critical skills and prose. I have made the same claim, or at least expressed the same hope, a few times myself."

"...a place where an ambitious upcoming generation of design writers can sharpen their critical skills and prose"? This is a prerequisite for a blog? My take on this particular design blog (my own): I'm a designer writing and collecting stuff that relates to design. I'm not a design writer writing about design. My writing may not be Writing – at times I feel something I've written vaguely approaches Writing, but that's not what I'm about. I'm not a serious essayist. What I am about is communicating something about design and it's place in the world from the perspective of someone who actively and professionally designs (and who likes to write). Hopefully readers of this blog find that interesting. I like to think of 1+1=3 as being more of a scrapbook of design-related material – with some interesting writing on board.

I enjoy reading design blogs because their content is written, or collected, or created by designers. They/we often tackle subjects from a unique perspective – one that a Writer may not have considered or even be aware of. The writing on design blogs is often conversational, informal, 'loose', sometimes fiery, sometimes 'goofy' and sometimes really damn sloppy – but it's often very interesting – and as interesting (but in other ways) as the writing of a good design essayist 

Back to the Speak Up post: I feel that David Weinberger’s comment there is an interesting and entirely accurate observation on Poynor's critique (he's hit he nail on the head):

"...it seems a bit strange to measure a new medium by the standards of an old one."

The more insightful, analytical and interesting design voices in the mix, on blogs, in print, on radio, as podcasts, in movies, wherever – the better I think. Filter them according to your own preferences. Oh, and more great, measured, thoughtful essays on design criticism too please. Many of these essayists will no doubt (still) be 'gatekeepers' of design criticism and design writing – but more and more will emerge – which I look forward to. I just don't think that "quality of thought" as stated by Poynor is exclusive to serious essayists committing 'serious words' to (published) paper.