17 December 2008
DESIGN ISN'T DEAD?
Icograda is pleased to present a blog entry originally posted on the New Views 2 Blog by Laura Chessin and Alex Bitterman, with the help of Teal Triggs. The story behind the question "design isn't dead?" and the ensuing discussion that the question raised is quite a heated one.
The debate has since led to a call for submissions for the upcoming issue of MULTI. The following blog entry will help you start thinking about the question 'is design dead?' and will allow you to get your ideas flowing.
Richmond (United States) - At the recent NEW VIEWS 2 conference this past July 2008 at the London College of Communication, participants came together in specific 'clusters' or discussion groups to look at the paper topics submitted by each participant. There was a particularly heated discussion in the Interdisciplinarity Cluster.
Like all the other clusters, the Interdisciplinary Cluster met, debated, defined problems and issues and then presented their vision at the final session of the conference. However, after the group had met for several sessions, one visitor dropped in and attempted to provoke them (his admitted intention) with the declaration that 'design is dead'.
There were many in the audience who took issue with Buchanan's provocation. He admitted his intent to provoke, but many of the group just felt he was wrong. They felt it was less that design is dead and more that Buchanan's view of design is outdated. The view of the designer or designers' role as either the maker of an end product, or on the other extreme as the "expert" who comes into a project with "the answer" is one that many of the group felt was no longer operative. Current trends incorporating activism, and feminism and social justice into design curriculums reflect a shift in the focus of training the next generation of designers.
They believed that 'design' in the old school is dead. What is soon to be outdated is 'graphic design' whereby the designer enters at the end of the process and produces a material thing: an object. A poster, a website, a logo.
What we can all benefit from is a closer examination of the methods, theories, difficulties and possibilities to form a stronger framework for how to be part of the shift that re-visions the role of the graphic designer in the current and next generation. In the Interdisciplinary Cluster we explored how to expand the role of the designer in the process.
Design isn't dead, but it is at the crossroad of a new direction. Let's explore the possibilities together as designers and collaborators.
Alex Bitterman is the Assistant Professor of the School of Design, Rochester Institute of Technology, and the Editor in Chief of MULTI: the RIT Journal of Diversity & Plurality in Design.
Laura Chessin is the Associate Professor of the Department of Graphic Design / School of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University.
About New Views 2
An exhibition and series of forums, New Views 2 is a collaboration between RMIT University and the London College of Communication / University of the Arts London. The overall aim is to encourage industry public debate about current issues and changes effecting graphic design practice, the future of graphic design, how the discipline relates to business and society and how design will change in the next decade and beyond.
The debate has since led to a call for submissions for the upcoming issue of MULTI. The following blog entry will help you start thinking about the question 'is design dead?' and will allow you to get your ideas flowing.
Richmond (United States) - At the recent NEW VIEWS 2 conference this past July 2008 at the London College of Communication, participants came together in specific 'clusters' or discussion groups to look at the paper topics submitted by each participant. There was a particularly heated discussion in the Interdisciplinarity Cluster.
Like all the other clusters, the Interdisciplinary Cluster met, debated, defined problems and issues and then presented their vision at the final session of the conference. However, after the group had met for several sessions, one visitor dropped in and attempted to provoke them (his admitted intention) with the declaration that 'design is dead'.
There were many in the audience who took issue with Buchanan's provocation. He admitted his intent to provoke, but many of the group just felt he was wrong. They felt it was less that design is dead and more that Buchanan's view of design is outdated. The view of the designer or designers' role as either the maker of an end product, or on the other extreme as the "expert" who comes into a project with "the answer" is one that many of the group felt was no longer operative. Current trends incorporating activism, and feminism and social justice into design curriculums reflect a shift in the focus of training the next generation of designers.
They believed that 'design' in the old school is dead. What is soon to be outdated is 'graphic design' whereby the designer enters at the end of the process and produces a material thing: an object. A poster, a website, a logo.
What we can all benefit from is a closer examination of the methods, theories, difficulties and possibilities to form a stronger framework for how to be part of the shift that re-visions the role of the graphic designer in the current and next generation. In the Interdisciplinary Cluster we explored how to expand the role of the designer in the process.
Design isn't dead, but it is at the crossroad of a new direction. Let's explore the possibilities together as designers and collaborators.
Alex Bitterman is the Assistant Professor of the School of Design, Rochester Institute of Technology, and the Editor in Chief of MULTI: the RIT Journal of Diversity & Plurality in Design.
Laura Chessin is the Associate Professor of the Department of Graphic Design / School of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University.
About New Views 2
An exhibition and series of forums, New Views 2 is a collaboration between RMIT University and the London College of Communication / University of the Arts London. The overall aim is to encourage industry public debate about current issues and changes effecting graphic design practice, the future of graphic design, how the discipline relates to business and society and how design will change in the next decade and beyond.
Comments:
I think is true, Design is at a crossroad of not a new but more than one new direction, there so many new possibilites to explored, with videos, cinema, comics, and so on. Im in graphic designer area.
12:43 PM | December 30, 2008 PST (GMT - 8)
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