One of the first to coin the phrase ‘Critical Practice’ and ‘Criticality’ in the design field Jan van Toorn (1932-2020) wrote numerous challenging texts that questioned the role a designers has within a society and the boundaries a creative needs to address. Van Toorn wanted “the public to measure the motives of both the client and the designer who mediates the client’s message against their own experiences of the world. He hoped in this way to stimulate a more active and skeptical view of art, communication, media ownership and society.”
