“The most interesting graphic design is never purely on its own.” (Vinca Kurk and Daniel Vander Velde??) In an interview by Kyle Chayka, 2/15/13
http://hyperallergic.com/65281/graphic-design-as-political-practice-a-conversation-with-metahaven-part-2/
This is a two part interview published online on 2/14 and 2/15 2013, published on the occasion of Metahaven’s show at PS1, Islands in the Cloud.
Part 1:
http://hyperallergic.com/65187/graphic-design-as-political-practice-a-conversation-with-metahaven-part-1/

Excellent example of graphic design working with politics and social activism.
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“DV: So graphic design can change things, but it also plays a very strong role in sustaining things as they are. So for every single thing that changes, there are a thousand more that want everything to remain the same, especially now with the predominance of Apple and the “Apple aesthetic.” It’s difficult, but important, to challenge the notion of design as it is embodied in Apple products — where increasingly complex architectures are increasingly hidden from view. So the system is incredibly complex, but you don’t get to worry about that because all has been solved for you, like with the Cloud where you store your files wherever. You basically get this Fischer Price interface culture with one or two buttons that do everything. And that’s really great. But Apple has evolved from leading an innovative and important fight against deliberately bad, bureaucratic design culture (Windows and the PC) into representing a deliberate oversimplification of the world. That’s where we are critical.

There’s this fight between Google, which combines being a corporate giant with providing tools which work with the shared internet, or an operating system like Android, versus Apple and Facebook, which are completely walled gardens, theme parks in a sense, malls. These architectures affect a great deal how we experience, and thus make graphic design. A 15-year-old is no longer experiencing the mediated world through printed matter, like through Wolfgang Weingart Swiss posters and the like; he or she is experiencing the world through an iPad. In a way it ensures that graphic design will survive because it is a very strong container for historical practice — Helvetica is in, and all over the iPad and the iPhone.” (Daniel Vander Velde??)