CR Blog
Everything and Nothing
Posted by Patrick Burgoyne, 9 July 2008, 9:32 Permalink Comments (7)
“To design is to create images which communicate specific ideas in purely visual terms and utter statements whose form graphically embodies or enhances the essential nature of the notions to be communicated.” This definition of graphic design comes from John Commander, the first chairman of D&AD and a noted art director. I first heard it from the design critic Rick Poynor at a CR-organised debate (see CR Aug 04). At the time, Poynor called it about the best description he’d heard for what a graphic designer does. Some would argue that it is no longer adequate.
Commander’s words came to mind recently because of the debate that CR has been leading over the relationship between graphic designers and D&AD (see here). In her response to the debate the LCC’s Sarah Temple quotes Sir Michael Bichard, the Design Council’s new chairman, stating confidently that “design is at the epicentre of our economy and our society”. To believe that you are graduating into such a profession must be tremendously inspiring but what does Bichard actually mean when he refers to ‘design’?
The current issue of the Design Council magazine from which the quote was taken illustrates the elastic use of the term ‘design’ taking hold on both sides of the Atlantic. Led in part by the Design Council in the UK and the Design Thinking movement in the US, there is an intellectual landgrab in motion that seeks to elbow aside other professions in order to claim every aspect of innovation and problem-solving for ‘design’. Speaking at the RCA last year, Business Week’s Bruce Nussbaum declared that “I believe the field of design is best served by viewing it in the broadest of terms.” He went on to claim, perhaps with tongue in cheek, that “I think managers have to become designers, not just hire them.” Back to the Design Council magazine and Professor Gloria Laycock of the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science stating that “We are trying to get everybody to think about design, not just of products but of environments, services and legislation.” Design of legislation? I suppose legislation can be designed, although it is more often ‘drafted’, but it is surely misleading to conclude that it could it be the concern of designers as a professional body? Anyone can have a policy idea but I think I would prefer the laws of my country to be drafted (or ‘designed’) by someone with a thorough knowledge of our legal system and its application.
Design has become a prime weapon in the campaign to establish the ‘knowledge economy’. Increasingly and erroneously conflated with innovation, it has become a catch-all term that government ministers latch onto with gusto because it seems modern and cool and representative of everything we must aspire to if we are to compete in the global economy. In doing so, it is in danger of becoming just another piece of New Labour jargon, bringing the whole profession into disrepute. Here’s what financial journalists Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson have to say about design and the creative industries in Fantasy Island, their coruscating critique of what they term the UK’s ‘Bullshit Economy’: “Some of the claims made for the new knowledge economy are nothing more than hype, and nowhere is this more true than in the case of the creative industries … Bullshit Britain reaches its apotheosis in the lionization of the cultural industries.”
I’m sure I speak for you all when I say that the field of visual communications is certainly not ‘bullshit’. But if we allow ‘design’ the profession to be conflated with ‘design’ the nebulous buzzword, can we be surprised if serious commentators fail to see its worth? What Commander was describing was a unique profession requiring specialised skills: I would no more expect a lawyer to be able to practice it than I would expect an art director to defend me in court. If we allow design to mean everything, eventually it means nothing.
7 Comments
From David Kester, chief executive, Design Council:
After all the many years of following your rounded and powerful pieces on design I was saddened to read this, which sells design short.
Let’s face it John Commander, bless his yellow cotton socks, was not the inspiration behind D&AD and should not be looked to for definitions of design. For this you might like to turn to the late great Alan Fletcher who was at the forefront of the design movement that built D&AD. His book The Art of Looking Sideways sums up a life’s experience as a designer. It has humility but at no time undervalues the profound role of design and the creative professions to transform the world around us. Indeed, Alan, when writing on design quotes a ten year-old boy in a Design Council publication – “Design is important because if it were not designed it would not be made”. He goes on to quote Ettore Sottsas who said “design is debating life” and Andre Breton who said of good design that it is “the solution best adapted to necessity but very superior to it”.
During my decade as guardian of D&AD, I was proud to celebrate many great ideas that have helped shape real lives – some at a local level and others globally. I think of the profound architecture of Will Allsop and his design for Peckham Library – a worthy D&AD winner which has helped assert civic pride in troubled area of London. I think of multi-Gold winner Apple who have used design to re-invent their business and whole market sectors including music publishing and mobile telephony.
Over recent years the Design Council has proudly supported leading designers as they have placed design at the top table. I was proud of our industry when Sir Terence Conran addressed Gordon Brown as Chancellor at a breakfast at No11 Downing Street. He thanked Sir George Cox, then Chairman of the Design Council, for setting out the role of design in out-innovating global competition in a report to the Treasury. The great man of British design said, “I have waited my professional career for this moment”. He was referring to the serious role that design plays economically, culturally and socially.
It is to this that Sir Michael Bichard, our Chairman and Rector of some of our leading design schools, was referring to in his essay. We have come a long way since John Commander defined design as graphic visualisation. As a design community let’s not lose our confidence. Hubris is to be avoided at all costs. And re-defining design as management consultancy isn’t helpful, I agree. But let’s not undersell ourselves either. More than ever the world needs great ingenuity to solve its many problems. Good designers have the talent to realise ideas and bring them to the market. That is good for designers, good for business and good for us all.
Patrick Burgoyne
2008-07-09 15:48:54
design is...
...fun!
2008-07-09 15:55:25
design is...
...my job and my life!
2008-07-09 16:47:33
According to the Soul is Asia ad above this article, "Design is AIR"
That's the most apt and ruthlessly honest description of the majority of modern graphic design that we might ever hope to read. One is however tempted to drop the word 'hot' into it somewhere. I'll let you art direct... I mean choose where it goes. It works a couple of ways.
2008-07-09 17:29:23
Let’s not waste time quibbling about the definition of design – David Kester demonstrates how endless, and tiresome, the debate could become.
As Kester touches upon, design is more important now than it’s ever been due to the overwhelming environmental problems we face, which will have irrevocable consequences for future generations.
As commented on, albeit briefly, in the April issue of CR, design has a vital role to play in communicating, and promoting engagement with, issues of climate change and sustainability, both of which, despite the publicity they receive, are relatively new to the global agenda.
In order to make real change, our most innovative, gifted and successful designers need to work with organisations – including voluntary organisations who often devise the most ground breaking solutions, but who have limited or no design budget due to limited funds – who have the difficult task of influencing, and changing, people’s attitudes to acting and living more sustainably. This is, without a doubt, one of design’s greatest challenges, and one we should all have an interest in.
2008-07-10 15:46:31
Design is ... what we do for a living. And it matters. So let us be constructive.
Mike Dempsey's comments on what an awful organization the D&AD has become belittle the fact that he received many of his awards … from the D&AD.
If the D&AD’s that bad, why not have the likes of Mike Dempsey using their power and influence to improve it?
And please, if Studio Dempsey is going to publish postcards (July edition, p.32) let’s have someone at Studio Dempsey learning the difference between every day (meaning daily), and everyday (meaning common place and mundane).
2008-07-14 18:44:55
I have just stumbled on Jack Desmondson's arrogant and ill informed comments about me on 14/7/08.
Firstly re D&AD. I was on the D&AD Executive committee in the 70s and 80s. I was D&AD President in the 90s. I gave an enormous amount of my time and resources to the organization and was responsible for a number of key changes. I feel I have earned every right to criticize D&AD if I feel they are making wrong decisions. I make those criticism publicly. I am not on the committee any longer, so can only use my influence from the outside, like anyone else. I would like to ask Mr Desmondson what has done for D&AD?
On the use of word 'Everyday'. It is intended to represent the routine, commonplace and ordinary. I have never seen the word describe as 'mundane' as put forward by Desmondson - I think that's his own interpretation.
In future I would recommend that if Jack Desmondson wishes to criticize people he should take the trouble of doing a little basic research before shooting his mouth off.
Mike Dempsey
2008-10-13 14:59:44
Get the RSS Feed
Most recently commented
| Romain Gavras directs promo for M.I.A.'s Bad Girls (10) |
| Range Rover v Hadron Collider (9) |
| Fishing for customers (7) |
| Jerzy Treutler's Polish posters show (2) |
| John Whitney, Catalog, 1961 (1) |
Most read
| Farrow designs Format for PSB |
| Wordplay in Selfridges' windows |
| The £25 logo |
| VW: The Dog Strikes Back |
| BBC unveils redesigned Sport site |
Subjects
| Advertising | (1034) | |
| Art | (388) | |
| Books | (248) | |
| Digital | (407) | |
| Graphic Design | (1120) | |
| Illustration | (624) | |
| Magazine / Newspaper | (196) | |
| Music Video / Film | (706) | |
| Photography | (355) | |
| Type / Typography | (247) |
