Blurbs & Reviews
“Essays that are sometimes about design but always laugh-out-loud hilarious by design’s greatest contemporary wit, David Barringer.”—Alissa Walker, Gelatobaby
“David Barringer is surely one of our best and funniest writers on design.”—Rich Fisher, Public Radio Tulsa, KWGS
“Here’s my latest read that had me miss subway stops: There’s Nothing Funny About Design by David Barringer.”—Tina Roth Eisenberg, Swiss Miss
“I highly recommend this to anyone who considers themselves creative.”—Design Milk
“This collection of new and revised essays presents the graphic design world with a kick in the literary pants. Barringer’s writing is bluntly personal yet rarely narcissistic; his prose often bristles with the excitement of an angry porcupine, yet it’s always grounded in rigorous thinking. No one else in our field is producing writing quite like this. He makes sense of what designers do and then takes us apart with his needle-sharp verbal tools.”—Ellen Lupton, Design Observer
“Fresh and funny essays from the winner of the 2008 AIGA Winterhouse Award for design writing.”—How Magazine
And here are some customer reviews:
“I put this in the same category as Miranda July’s Learning to Love You More and Matt Madden’s 99 Ways to Tell a Story.”
“One of the best design books out there. His prose is well crafted and elegant.”
“David Barringer is a Renaissance man. He challenges the reader to stretch his or her mind but never condescends to his audience. We could use more barrier-busting books like this.”
More Blurbs for Barringer Books
“No one has ever written about graphic design in quite this way. I found myself reading it as though it were a fictional exploration of a designer’s consciousness. When I did, its energy, relentlessness, emotion, and abundance of detail made sense, as did its literary style.”
—Rick Poynor, I.D. Magazine
“Sets a new qualitative standard for critical discourse.”
—Steven Heller, Print Magazine
“An amazing triumph for an amazing writer. These stories will wiggle their way into your heart and not let up until you’re pacing around the room wondering what beautiful things you can make.”
—Scott Neumyer
“Barringer surpasses so many other writers in his ability to consistently reach the reader on multiple levels.”
—Wisconsin Review
“A tour de force! Amazing.”
—M.M.M. Hayes, Storyquarterly
“Eloquent and sharp. A pleasure to read.”
—Laura J. Williams, The Ann Arbor Paper
“Edgy, funny, heartfelt, with a smidgen of George Saunders and a touch of Aimee Bender, Barringer’s American Home Life is an original American confection: bittersweet, satisfying, and true.”
—Dave Housley, Barrelhouse
“Engaging and original.”
—Tracy Grandstaff, Comedy Central
“A remarkable voice, sophisticated, associative, humane.”
“A literary force to be reckoned with. Barringer’s work reminds me of the offspring of Larry Brown and George Saunders.”
—Nathan Leslie, The Pedestal Magazine
“The carnival is already in full tilt when you step into one of his stories, but Barringer has a funny way of making you feel right at home among the freaks in his deliciously weird worlds.”
—Adam Pieroni, Quick Fiction
“Barringer’s stories will, at first, seem safe and friendly. Then, before you know it, they’ll have wrapped themselves around you and sunk their teeth deep into your neck. And you’ll love every last minute of it.”
—Steven Seighman, Monkeybicycle
“We all have our lists of writers we love, those writers not everyone in the world knows about but should. Sometimes we keep these writers close to us and don’t tell anyone. But the hell with all that. A great, talented writer deserves to be known to everyone, which is one reason why you should read the work of David Barringer.”
—Bob Sassone, Professor Barnhardt’s Journal
“A good alert from experts (a mix of heads of law from corporations, law firm leaders, professors of law and innovative startups) who converge significantly in telling us that the future will be very different from business as usual.”
—Antonio Vasconcelos
“The legal industry is becoming unbound from its limitations, opening up to business demands and creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs, according to David Galbenski and David Barringer in this book. Creative thinking and the design of new models will lead to better, faster and cheaper delivery of services.”
—John Gibbs
“No two pieces are the same, yet all his work pokes our funny bone and tickles our conscience.”—Adrian Zuniga, Opium Magazine
“Barringer knows all our secrets, and invents a few we wish we had.”—Matt Herlihy, Sweet Fancy Moses
“A wry view of life, a quirky wit, an ability to wring the irony from just beneath the surface of events.”—Blue Planet
