All Messed Up: Unpredictable Graphics

All Messed Up: Unpredictable Graphics explores the important role that mistakes and accidents play in the creative process.In striving for perfection, we often make mistakes. In aiming for flawless work, things often go wrong. Sometimes these mistakes and accidents end up working to the designer's advantage. To realize this is to override long-standing preconceptions that define such occurrences as fundamentally wrong. All Messed Up creates a space for work in which mistakes, accidents and the unpredictable are celebrated. Featuring work by established and emerging graphic designers from around the world, the book illustrates how embracing and even seeking out accidents can create ground-breaking work. The book is divided into three sections: Mistakes (where something has gone wrong, such as a printer error); Chance (where chance occurrences or found objects are incorporated into a piece of work); and System (where a system is created to actively encourage unpredictability). It ends with a series of interviews with five leading figures: Ian Anderson, Stefan Sagmeister, Paul Elliman, Stuart Bailey and April Greiman.

Anna Gerber is a designer and writer based in London. She has a background in philosophy and communication design. She writes for magazines including Eye, Dot Dot Dot and Frieze, and is an instructor of Communication Design at London's prestigious Central Saint Martin's College of Art & Design.