25/05/2007

Max Bruinsma

free-lance critic, editor, lecturer, curator
independent consultant editorial design

> short biography / korte biografie

Max Bruinsma is an independent design critic, editor, curator and editorial designer. He is former editor of Eye, the international review of graphic design in London. He studied art-, architecture- and design history in Groningen and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Since 1985, his critical writings have featured regularly in major Dutch art- and design journals and in a range of international design publications (a.o. Graphis, Idea, Blueprint, The AIGA Journal, Eye, Form). Before he took over from founding editor Rick Poynor at Eye, Bruinsma was editor of the Dutch design magazine Items, published several books on (graphic and new media) design, and taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. His latest book is 'Deep Sites, intelligent innovation in contemporary webdesign', published by Thames & Hudson, in English and French editions, april 2003.

In 2005, Max Bruinsma curated a major exhibition on the cultural significance of communication design, 'Catalysts!', for the ExperimentaDesign biennale in Lisbon. He is currently a curatorial advisor for the biennale and Experimenta's general editorial consultant. Bruinsma is co-founder of a new masters course in Editorial Design at the Graduate School of Visual Art and Design, Utrecht, the Netherlands, which also started September 2005. A guest lecturer on contemporary art and design, Bruinsma has presented at numerous art academies and congresses throughout the world, including on-line courses and workshops for several design academies. Besides his work as an art- and design critic and educator, he was a music editor and program maker for VPRO, a Dutch radio and television broadcasting organisation and an advisor on cultural affairs for a great variety of institutions. In 2005, Max Bruinsma received the Pierre Bayle Prize for Design Criticism.

Max Bruinsma's shortest definition of the design profession is:
"Designers are cultural catalysts".


> positions

> publications

> lectures, presentations, panels

> miscellaneous activities

> education - received
/ given


> Steve Heller interviews Max Bruinsma
(Print, may/june 2000)