In 2006, designer Ian Warner began cultivating a deeper interest in the malice he had developed towards his local supermarket. When he published an article about it, he had no idea he was embarking on a decade-long literary journey. In his talk, the self-declared “blurbanist” reflects on the relationship between writing and design, language and architecture. With case-studies and colourful digressions, he suggests that our urban environment contains intriguing phantom narratives which can only be discovered when critical reflection prioritises the personal over the theoretical.

Ian Warner
Communication Designer / Writer (Berlin)
Ian Warner is co-owner of the Berlin design consultancy State, and founder of Slab-Mag, “the heuristic journal for gonzo blurbanism”. State’s recent commissions include visual identities for the Rundfunkchor Berlin and Komische Oper Berlin, wayfinding systems for the DomQuartier Salzburg and the 2015 Deutscher Architektentag, and websites for Greenpeace Magazine, Hadi Teherani architects and…