A Response to: http://www.designobserver.com/archives/027882.html#more
(blog originally for my type III class)
I've noticed something about my fellow students at Kendall, whether we are at the school until close, discussing projects over a cigarette, or merely chatting about design websites on aim. We take design very seriously. So do our professors. Yet they not only urge us to take the aesthetic seriously they insist on the growth of our ever expanding spongy undergraduate brains; be alert and observant to the world in which we live, and others for that matter. Good design is good, but smart design is better. Right?
Now perhaps we haven't been in the graphic design industry long enough to shake our fists in the air demanding respect from the heavens and so forth. Nevertheless I do find my face going red with the furry of a Viking in the heat of battle when someone asks: "Dur, graphic design? So like, you make stuff looks good?" Or at least that's what it sounds like when it makes it past my ears and into my brain. We find this sort of attitude toward our profession not only frustrating, but down right infuriating. These feelings are warranted, but they also provide a dangerous opportunity: the trap of complacency.
Yes, for me there is a pride in being a graphic designer. It seems it is a lifestyle choice more often than a profession. It is rewarding and has a hint of glamor. But it's easy to get wrapped up in our little microcosm of a world. Rex's blog had mentioned in his blog certain issues revolving around trend. Trend is a strange area for designers. We are also not only ahead of the curve when it comes to trend but in many cases the creators of them. We like everything before it is cool, and when its available and acceptable to the general public we toss it out like a dime store hooker. There is a song by a band called Say Anything that comes to mind "Despite your pseudo-bohemian appearance and vaguely leftist doctrine of beliefs, you know nothing ABOUT art or sex that you couldn't read in any trendy new york underground fashion magazine...Proto-typical non-conformist. You are a vacuous soldier of the thrift store gastapo."
It's a difficult crossroad. Jason and I were discussing the celebration of ignorance in today's culture. Where as 100 years ago the wealthy spent their leisure educating themselves and reading all the time, we have Paris Hilton. She goes to parties. Now in a culture that seemingly adores the abolition of the intellectual, should we not be concerned? At the same time, in order to be taken seriously maybe we should take ourselves a little less seriously.
Like I said before, I feel fortunate to say that I don't see much of that at our school. Mostly I just see a passion for our craft, and an eagerness for information. We take design seriously because we do, and what were doing it for. Thats a good thing i think. And as a side note i personally think that design should be smart and sexified. i.e. Ms. South Carolina would have been much more attractive if she would have talked about the design of maps and information systems to better educate our youth, or "U.S. Americans."
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2 comments:
""Dur, graphic design? So like, you make stuff looks good?" Or at least that's what it sounds like when it makes it past my ears and into my brain. We find this sort of attitude toward our profession not only frustrating, but down right infuriating."
I wish I could tell you your future will be void of these comments. However, from someone 20 years into your suture, I still hear these words. I like comparing it to someone going to a doctor.
They seek out the best doctor possible. The doctor tells them they need some rather serious surgery, a heart transplant and it will cost a considerable amount of money. Do they consider negotiating the price with the doctor? Do they say their neighbor has played the game operation and knows where the heart is. I do not think so.
Yet I still hear people talking my price down, even when they have come to me based on seeing my work, another's recommendation and WANTING to work with me. Or they even have the nerve to say, as if this will get me quaking in my shoes, "Joe has a computer and does this all the time and really fast too." To which I kindly say they should talk to Joe.
Unfortunately we have to continute to fight for the respect we are entitled to. We have to hold to our values and not undersell each other. We have the schooling, the education, and if everyone could do what we do they would be doing it. What we do is a whole lot more fun than accounting, no one dies if we mess up, and more times than not we can fix it in the next round of revisions!
I am so very pleased that you posted this as it is something that I think about all the time.
As far as the designers in our school go, I totally agree. I am friends with a few industrial designers and they are the same way. We cant be around eachother without talking design. We breathe, sleep and live it. As far as the amount of people that fall under the category of "geeky, i squeal like a girl in excitement when i kern type and look at forms" is another story.
I feel like, well, atleast in our major there are the people who squeal, those who cough and those who dont even try.. then complain when they are expected to... It seems that it's about 60% squealers, 30% dont tryers and 10% misc. coughers. The big divide usually happens between those who are passion driven, and those who entered the field because they thought it would be easy. Hah. sucks to be those people.
Really, the "shit, thought it would be easy people" (who even have that perception about design in the first place because they were like ...sweet! i know how to use filters on photoshop! and just laying stuff out hasgottabe easy... and the general perception of graphic design, like you were saying) should just quit school now, become a desktop publisher and give the rest of us thier business cards so when we want to turn down work in the future we have somewhere to send it. I mean really, we'd just be happier in the long run.
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