Provocative Graphics: The Power of the Unexpected in Graphic Design

Provocative Graphics is a unique swipe file book focused on sexy, bold, daring, innovative, playful, quirky, and thought provoking design work that pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable, taking the viewer places they do not expect to go. Famous examples of provocative graphics are Bennetton’s controversial identity campaigns and Calvin Klein’s head-turning clothing advertisements. Consumer’s are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of choices, as a result designer’s resort to the shock factor or an in your face style. Provocative graphics turn heads. The author discusses how the design firms and their clients conceived and developed these projects and focuses on why these designs work and what elements in them (both conceptual and technical) make the consumer respond.

Laurel Harper is a writer and author specializing in design topics. A former editor of HOW magazine, she now contributes regularly to IdN and Fliq magazines, published in Asia, as well as Step-by-Step Graphics, Communication Arts, Graphis and HOW. Her last book was Radical Graphics/Graphic Radicals (Chronicle Books). She lives in Bedford, Kentucky.