“My quandary was that designers have been taught to be liars. They have been taught to use their skills–just like lawyers and accountants–to distort information.” – Tibor Kalman

If you haven’t read the book Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist by Peter Hall and Michael Bierut, you’re missing a very thought provoking and enjoyable book. Tibor Kalman is the founder of the legendary M&Co of New York and former senior editor of COLORS magazine. Several of today’s luminary graphic designers like Stephen Doyle and Stefan Sagmeister have either worked for or with Tibor. Although Tibor died several years ago, his work has been very influential in both the design community and our culture at large. Why?

His down to earth, compelling and sometimes disturbing work challenges our understanding of graphic design. Tibor openly rebelled against the professional design culture that had inadvertently become a slave of profit and corporations. He called designers to stop being lap dogs of business and “be bad, dangerous and unpredictable” in their work. He raised tough questions about design’s contribution to a hyper-consumer culture and a greed centered economy. He was also very human, and struggled with the practical application of designing with soul while still paying the bills. Sometimes he succeeded, other times he seems to have failed.

After reading this book, I honestly felt liberated to search for the soul of design. When you read the reviews of the book on Amazon.com, they sound like testimonies. This book, though not written from a Christian perspective at all, holds some clues to what God is doing in the design world and in our culture. What do you see him doing after reading this book?