A Meaningful Order by OK-RM is a 328-page account of over 16 years of design practice, structured as an A–Z of 26 alphabetised chapters that moves between designed objects, language, and the cultures each produces and inhabits.
About This Book
This is not a monograph in any conventional sense. Born from spoken dialogue between Oliver Knight, Rory McGrath, and James Langdon across London and Berlin, then concentrated through an exhibition in Hangzhou, A Meaningful Order arrives as a designed object that enacts its own argument. It holds a new history of distributed realities in graphic design, representing the vast archive of OK-RM through a specially orchestrated lithographic process and a custom set of colours. The text is designerly writing: performative, alphabetised, unashamed in its play with language and story. With a long-form interview with Jack Self and an introduction by Lila Matsumoto, the book functions as both site of study and social arena — treating the designed object as everyday thing and work of art simultaneously.
Key Features
- 328 pages of specially orchestrated lithographic printing with a custom colour set, spanning 16-plus years of OK-RM's archive
- Contributors include James Langdon, Jack Self (long-form interview), and an introduction by Lila Matsumoto
- Published by InOtherWords, ISBN 9781739930998
What You'll Discover
- How designed objects generate meaning through the interplay of form and context — examined via the questions: what does it do, why does it do it, how does it do it
- A structural experiment in designerly writing: 26 alphabetised chapters that perform their own logic rather than simply describe a body of work
- The relationship between transparency and transcendence in design practice — how a commitment to legibility need not preclude ambition or poetics
- How a book can itself become a prototype and model, functioning as site of experimentation outside the structures of academic discourse
About the Author
OK-RM is the London-based design practice of Oliver Knight and Rory McGrath, with a body of work spanning more than 16 years. The book was made in dialogue with James Langdon, a designer and writer based in Berlin. [Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 328
- Dimensions: 22.7 x 32 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781739930998
- Publisher: InOtherWords
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Graphic designers, design writers, and practitioners interested in design theory, the semiotics of objects, and experimental publishing as a form of critical practice.