fda visual communication

Monday 12 April 2010

Simon Johnston (8vo) - Design writing

art center graduate program. 1990. introduction written for a booklet to announce the new art center graduate program in graphic design, initiated by ramon munoz, which later became the media design program.

See the full text and more essays here.

Words and images permeate every aspect of our daily lives and play an increasingly important role in our information-hungry society. Advances in information technology are changing the way we communicate with one another; global communication is now commonplace. We have become an image-conscious and even an image-dependent society. The written or printed word has been displaced by the flickering televisual word and image. Desktop publishing has made it possible for anyone to play at being a designer.
These and other recent developments have had a significant effect on the field of graphic design. In many ways it can be said to have come of age as a profession. The general public is much more conscious of design. The use of the words “design” and “designer” as product- or image-enhancing adjectives also testifies to the profession’s higher profile and increased prestige. Designers are now promoted as stars, and design is now perceived as a fashionable profession, and often as fashion itself. The danger is that design will become nothing more than an insular style contest, fueled by a plethora of awards, annuals and magazines, further evidence of a contemporary triumph of style and form over content: design for, of, and about itself, divorced from the realities of the world at large.
Recently, however, new political moods, coupled with increasing environmental awareness, have raised pertinent questions about graphic design practice, bringing the issue of the designer’s social responsibilities to the fore. There is a need for the profession to be less self-conscious, to involve itself with the “real world”, to recognize the designer’s potential to be not merely a service for industry and a vehicle for self-expression but also an instrument for social good, to be concerned not only with economic and aesthetic issues but with social, moral, and political ones as well. Along with the increased recognition of the power of design and advertising to change people’s lives, manipulate opinion and influence society, must come awareness of the responsibility that such empowerment brings. Design should function not merely as a vehicle for profit and persuasion but as a means of influencing the general public toward the common good. Now that it has had its fifteen minutes in the spotlight, it is time for design to become more than a passive reflection of our culture; it must take an active role in formulating and shaping it.
The graduate program in Graphic Design at Art Center offers a new curriculum designed to provide students and professionals with the opportunity to pursue original research into a particular design-related field of study. The program enables students to broaden their practical, conceptual, and analytical skills in graphic design, and provide a balance between professional and theoretical approaches to design practice. The program also recognizes that many students pursue graduate studies with a view to teaching at some point in their careers and consequently addresses issues relating to design education. The program combines a rigorous and invigorating intellectual atmosphere with the thorough pragmatic professionalism for which Art Center is known.

Friday 26 March 2010