curriculum vitæ
short biography

Max Bruinsma is an independent design critic, editor, curator, editorial designer and teacher. He was editor-in-chief of Eye, the international review of graphic design, in London; Items, the Dutch review of design; and Iridescent, the ICOGRADA (now: ICoD) peer-reviewed online journal of design research. He studied art-, architecture- and design history in Groningen and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Since 1984, his critical writings have featured regularly in art- and design journals world-wide (a.o. Eye, Idea, ID, Blueprint, The AIGA Journal, Étappes, Form). In 2003 his book 'Deep Sites, intelligent innovation in contemporary webdesign' was published by Thames & Hudson, in English and French editions. Bruinsma published and edited several books on graphic and new media design, and taught at numerous design schools in the Netherlands and abroad. Until 2021 he was core tutor Transmedia Storytelling at Camera Arts, Lucerne University of Art and Design, Switzerland. His latest book project is 'Design for the Good Society,' the final publication of the Utrecht Manifest Biennial for Social Design, 2015.

Max Bruinsma curated several exhibitions on visual culture and the cultural significance of communication design, a.o. 'Catalysts!', for the ExperimentaDesign biennial in Lisbon, 2005. A guest lecturer on contemporary visual culture and design, Bruinsma has presented at countless academies and congresses throughout the world, including on-line courses and workshops. Besides his work as an art- and design critic and educator, he was a music editor and program maker for VPRO, the 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".







max bruinsma