Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Anne Burdick
do so today. They helped shape a discourse from within, in much the way architects and artists have done. CRITICAL CHALLENGE Critical reflection in graphic design is in short supply. Too many publications are merely lavish portfolios. While it is nice to view interesting new work, in such forums the work is accepted outright: no discussion, no questions asked. The profession needs challenge from within through the reflective process writing can bring to it. Long overdue, such critical introspection can help broaden our understanding of what we accept as natural. We can then choose to accept it as it is, or to change it for the better. While the world of criticism can at times be fraught with internal politics and fashions, it is at the very least a forum for discussion. Through discussion and review we are held accountable to our peers, and as a result worlds of praise carry greater weight. Constructive criticism should not be something we fear; it should be something we welcome. At the same time, self-initiated, self-authored design work can be the locus for professional growth through experimentation with language and form, as in the work of Phil Baines. With complete control over all aspects of the communication, the graphic designer as author, in the tradition of Manetti et al, has the freedom to explore more deeply the relationship between content and form, including issues which may be inappropriate to client communications but relevant to design. Autonomous works of total authorship must be considered a valuable contribution to graphic design. This is not to say that commissioned work should be devalued, but rather stimulated by the issues that only autonomous work can bring to the discussion. DUTCH INSPIRATION The situation in the Netherlands, where government and commercial organisations encourage visual exploration through subsidies and commissions, has created a fecund environment for experimentation. In Holland, the spirit, impetus and support behind autonomous production still thrives. Typ, Hard Werken, Qwerty, Affiche all magazines initiated or edited by Dutch designers as well as numerous small books and catalogues are in constant circulation. The notion of the designer as complete author, editor, and form-giver is alive. Government grants and commercial sponsorship, such as printing donations, promote design for its own sake for both professionals and students. Community support empowers the designer as a cultural contributor, with the freedoms and responsibilities that role entails. ANGLO-SAXON RETICENCE In the UK and US, the same economic support for endeavours outside the circle of commerce is hard to find, the subtext being that it is of no value unless it can turn a profit. Unfortunately, many designers have the ability to write, but dont. This reticence may result from two things: a professional identity bound too closely to the demands of industry, and
the way this constrictive self-definition is reinforced through an educational stance that thwarts the advance of visual and verbal exploration and inhibits critical reflection. The commercial concerns of the profession can overshadow critical discourse, in that public analysis and review are seen by some as endangering business, and as such as distinctly unprofessional activities. But while the over-emphasis on business concerns can be a hindrance, I would argue that the more difficult obstacle to overcome is the antiverbal bias of much education, which renders designers voiceless, opinionless, mindless. It is considered outside our role to analyse the content of our work in relation to politics, theory, economics, morals, and so on. This is a fallacy: we always lend some degree of interpretation to our work. By acknowledging this involvement and by actively increasing it through autonomous projects and analytical reflection, we strengthen our communication skills as authors and consequently as interpreters. BUILDING INTELLECTUAL MUSCLE To understand how content communicates and how it relates to visual form is mandatory for the student. Students can use writing to build intellectual muscle and to provide themselves with the mental tools to evaluate ideas, allowing them to adopt from the outset a responsible position of questioning and analysis. No longer a neutral medium through which anothers ideas flow, the student, and later the practitioner, is an active participant with a stake in the communication process. Can we resurrect the spirit of authorship that is alive in our most valued historical moments? It is the mode of exploration and evaluation in the activity of writing in many ways parallel to the design process that is significant: the practice of manipulating words and expression feeds a designers ability to communicate. Designers should write not in order to become better writers, but to become better designers. Eye is the worlds most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at theEye shop, where you can buy subscriptions and single issues.