Erik Carter

Please join us for an evening w/ Mr. Erik Carter. Friday, May 29. 5pm–8pm, w/ drinks during and after. We’re exited. You’re excited. Sign-up link in bio. Hosted by Paul Sahre & Jan Wilker. #designworkshop #nycdesign

designharder.pub is live 🔌 Read the full text of Design Harder by Erik Carter as an interactive website. Now live, designharder.pub acts as a reader and companion to the book, giving you quick access to footnotes and links from the text. After selling out our first printing, a second run of 500 copies of Design Harder is on the way for early 2026. Visit the interactive version and preorder your copy if you missed the first run.

Thank you to everyone who came out to our Design Harder book launch and helped make this event so special. We had a thought-provoking evening with our panelists @erikinternet , @arynbeitz , @veryauthentic and our wonderful moderator @erikfreer . Thanks so much to @index_space for having us, and to @aplos.world for the drinks! Photos by the great @garrettweinholtz

Tickets going fast! Join us for an evening with graphic designer and art director Erik Carter. Free and open to all. Get your free ticket now - link in bio Meet our speaker: Erik Carter! Erik's work spans cultural critique, institutional design, and sharp, witty commentary. His new book "Design Harder" is available for pre-order now. Here are some examples of past work.

DESIGN HARDER at @index_space Monday, October 27 7–9PM 📕💪 Join us to celebrate the launch of Design Harder by @erikinternet — with a panel discussing the present and future of graphic design featuring Erik Carter, @arynbeitz , and @veryauthentic (Christina Janus & Desmond Wong). Through conversation and dialogue, the panel will reflect on the ideas in Design Harder and interrogate how design might respond to cultural and ethical challenges in our moment. Moderated by designer and thinker Erik Freer, the discussion aims to generate new pathways for what design could be. Critics are calling it “The Hardest Graphic Design Event of the Year” 🔥 and “Not to be Missed!”👀 The event is Free and open to the public. RSVP at index-space.org (link in the bio)

ONE WEEK AWAY!!! Join us for an evening with graphic designer and art director Erik Carter! Link in bio Erik's work spans cultural critique, institutional design, and sharp, witty commentary. Based in San Diego, Carter has shaped visual culture as an art director at Google, MTV, and The New York Times, with clients ranging from The New Yorker to Verso Books. He currently teaches at the School of Visual Arts and writes the newsletter Design Harder on “Typography. Color. Capitalism. Chaos.” Following his lecture, Carter will be joined in conversation by designer and writer David Chathas, who describes Carter’s work as “one part institutional and cultural critique, one part clever, funny, and insightful, and one part treatment, execution, and medium.” Together they’ll explore design’s role in contemporary culture, online discourse, and beyond—followed by an audience Q&A. This event is part of Portland Design Month! The Matthias Kemeny Design Lecture Series is coordinated and managed by the Portland State Graphic Design program. This series annually brings internationally celebrated design professionals to Portland to deliver lectures for the benefit of students and faculty in the Graphic Design program and the broader design community. This series is free and open to the public, highlighting a wide range of design practices and facilitating. Creative Direction by Bijan Berahimi Poster Designed by Oskar Radon Animation by Toni Morales

Shipping soon! Get your pre-orders in — here’s a preview! PRE-SALE: Design Harder By Erik Carter Hardcover, 220 pages, 5 × 7.75 inches Published by Book Ideas, 2025 $45.00 USD As the graphic design industry faces new cultural and ethical challenges, Design Harder offers a timely and hopeful response. Written by Erik Carter, with incisive editing by Aryn Beitz and a foreword by Christina Janus and Desmond Wong of AUTHENTIC, the book explores the purpose, power, and future of graphic design through seven interwoven essays—sharp criticism fueled by a genuine love for the field. Pre-order now to be among the first to receive your copy when it ships.

Join us for an evening with graphic designer and art director Erik Carter! Link in bio Erik's work spans cultural critique, institutional design, and sharp, witty commentary. Based in San Diego, Carter has shaped visual culture as an art director at Google, MTV, and The New York Times, with clients ranging from The New Yorker to Verso Books. He currently teaches at the School of Visual Arts and writes the newsletter Design Harder on “Typography. Color. Capitalism. Chaos.” Following his lecture, Carter will be joined in conversation by designer and writer David Chathas, who describes Carter’s work as “one part institutional and cultural critique, one part clever, funny, and insightful, and one part treatment, execution, and medium.” Together they’ll explore design’s role in contemporary culture, online discourse, and beyond—followed by an audience Q&A. This event is part of Portland Design Month! The Matthias Kemeny Design Lecture Series is coordinated and managed by the Portland State Graphic Design program. This series annually brings internationally celebrated design professionals to Portland to deliver lectures for the benefit of students and faculty in the Graphic Design program and the broader design community. This series is free and open to the public, highlighting a wide range of design practices and facilitating. Creative Direction by Bijan Berahimi Animation by Toni Morales of PSU

🪨 Join us for an online conversation on October 21st at 6 pm with designer and writer Erik Carter, author of Design Harder (2025, published by Book Ideas). This event will be a live conversation between Erik Carter and Christian Solorzano, founder of the Chicago Graphic Design Club. Together, they will discuss the book’s contents, followed by a Q&A session with attendees. ℹ️ Book Description As the graphic design industry faces new cultural and ethical challenges, Design Harder offers a timely response. Written by Erik Carter, an influential voice whose work bridges commercial design and critical discourse, the book challenges readers to reconsider what graphic design can be. Through seven interconnected essays, Carter probes the purpose, power, and potential future of the field—inviting readers to imagine a more sustainable and equitable artistic practice while offering the tools to reform the industry for the better. In close collaboration with designer and editor Aryn Beitz, Carter channels his distinctive style into an incisive, illuminating, and ultimately hope-filled recontextualization of the graphic design industry at large. Building off ideas Carter has been exploring over the last decade, this new collection is steeped within not only a biting criticism, but a pure, unfiltered love for graphic design. To register, visit our website at www.chicagographicdesign.club — #DesignHarder #DesignCriticism #DesignWriting #GraphicDesign #DesignHarder

Preorder DESIGN HARDER by Erik Carter now. The upcoming book release will be accompanied by a website offering the entire text in digital format, free for everyone 👀 📕

A few spreads from DESIGN HARDER, written and illustrated by @erikinternet , @bookideasnyc first publication. Pre-order Today 👊 Design Harder will ship early Fall 2025. 220 pages Hardcover 5” × 7.75” ISBN 979-8-9994126-1-4 Edition of 500 Written and Illustrated by @erikinternet Edited by @arynbeitz Foreword by @veryauthentic , Christina Janus and Desmond Wong Featuring a custom, progressively more stroked version of Common Serif by @w__h____ (with Wei’s blessing :) Publishing Manager @brandnewbuick Designed by @noideasnyc Published by @bookideasnyc

DESIGN HARDER: A Graphic Design Dismantling in VII Acts by @erikinternet is now available for preorder (shipping early fall). 🏗️ Link in bio for more info.