ISTANBUL.- Salt’s new exhibition, Designer’s Note, is currently on view at Salt Beyoğlu. The exhibition looks into a period when cultural publishing gained momentum, foregrounding the graphic designer as a key player. It spans from the 1970s, when the book cover was the primary design element, to the 1990s, when the book was conceived as an integrated design object.
The final quarter of the 20th century was marked by a series of political, economic, and social upheavals. The economic stabilization program enacted on January 24, 1980, paved the way for Türkiye’s integration into the global economy, and the September 12 military coup d’état set the stage for a neoliberal transformation, which had a profound impact on the cultural sphere. As the private sector showed growing interest in culture during the 1980s, new expansions occurred across various fields, including media, advertising, publishing, and contemporary art. While cultural life was disrupted in many aspects, this period also witnessed a dynamism fueled by the intellectual climate that the coup d’état sought to suppress, laying the groundwork for today’s cultural publishing.
During the 1980s, publishing rallied in both qualitative and quantitative terms and gained a new dimension as banks, conglomerates, and private companies embraced it as a prestigious endeavor. While certain books were banned due to their content and cover images, becoming symbols of dissent in the political climate of the time, they were also revalued as cultural commodities. This shift, driven by new understandings and formal propositions within the burgeoning cultural industry and competition, led to new communicative pursuits, underscoring the emergence of “graphic design” and the “graphic designer.”
These changes became particularly evident in book design during the 1990s. The rise of the graphic designer sparked discussions about their role within publishing and intellectual circles. It was not only private enterprises investing in books with high design quality; publishers of all sizes also adopted similar graphic standards, creating opportunities for designers to experiment with the conventional book format. The introduction of computers into the design process reduced reliance on specialized expertise at different stages of publication and bridged the gap between designers and the printing press.
Following these transformations, Designer’s Note explores the decision-making processes of designers in the creation of books, their interactions with various actors from publishers to printing houses, and their place in the cultural sphere. Extending from the third floor of Salt Beyoğlu to the Forum, the exhibition aims to highlight the often-overlooked role of designers as key contributors to the production of books. It offers insight into a pivotal period that set the stage for the design culture of the 2000s—when books were redefined as “printed” and “electronic”—through a collection of publications, interviews, and archival documents.
Programmed by Eda Sezgin, the exhibition is on view at Salt Beyoğlu between September 11, 2024–February 2, 2025.
Designers: Yurdaer Altıntaş, Serdar Benli, Savaş Çekiç, Gülizar Çepoğlu, Yeşim Demir Pröhl, Mustafa Eren, Aydın Erkmen, Bülent Erkmen, Ulaş Eryavuz, Cem Günübek, Joelle İmamoğlu, Sadık Karamustafa, Esen Karol, Sait Maden, Hakkı Mısırlıoğlu, Cemalettin Mutver, Nazlı Ongan, Nilgün Öneş, Ersu Pekin, Tibet Sanlıman, Alper Tunga Şen, İlhami Turan, Mehmet Ulusel, Timuçin Unan, Erkal Yavi
