Ruben Pater

Ruben Pater is a designer from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Under the name ‘untold stories’ he creates visual narratives about geopolitical issues. He initiates projects in which research leads to new ways of visual storytelling for a wide audience, creating new relations between journalism and design. His ‘Drone Survival Guide’ (2013), received attention worldwide as an educational and activist tool against military drones. Behind the Blue Screen (2015) was a collaboration with a film director to record everyday stories in Iran using anti-surveillance technology. A research into disaster communication in times of climate change resulted in the ‘First Dutch Flood Manual’ (2011), and ‘Double Standards’ (2012) was an installation and publication about the role of global maritime trade in Somali piracy. ‘The Politics of Design’ (2016) is his first book, a collection of visual examples that proposes a more responsible role for designers in communicating to an audience that is increasingly mutlilingual and multicultural. His work has received several international awards and is featured in exhibitions around the world, and he currently teaches at the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague. http://www.untold-stories.net