David Reinfurt is an independent graphic designer, writer and editor in New York City. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1993 and received an MFA from Yale University in 1999. On the first business day of 2000, David formed O-R-G inc., a flexible graphic design practice composed of a constantly shifting network of collaborators. Together with graphic designer Stuart Bailey, David established Dexter Sinister -- a workshop intended to model a Just-In-Time economy of print production, running counter to the contemporary assembly-line realities of large-scale publishing. This involves avoiding waste by working on-demand, utilizing local cheap machinery, considering alternate distribution strategies, and collapsing distinctions of editing, design, production and distribution into one efficient activity. Recent projects include on-site productions at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneve, and the 2008 Whitney Biennial. Dexter Sinister publishes the semi-annual arts magazine Dot Dot Dot. David currently teaches at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
THE FIRST RULE IS ALWAYS PRODUCTION, NEVER DOCUMENTATION. THE SECOND RULE IS THERE ARE NO RULES.
This two-sentence title forms a self-cancelling loop, which organizes a collection of recent work and some thoughts on the public staging of a design practice. Design relies as least as much on the documentation of completed work as it does on the work itself and yet, successful design practices constantly move forward -- "always production, never documentation." Following this pretzel-logic, projects become less like typical design solutions and act more as design proposals with each project feeding the next, and the next and so on. The resulting model synthesizes the speculative approach of a fine art practice with the pragmatic concerns of an applied art (design) practice. A collection of recent projects produced under a constellation of pseudonyms including Dexter Sinister, O-R-G, Dot Dot Dot, The Serving Library, David William and David Reinfurt will be presented along with a couple of precedents.
