Book 3 – The Brief & Philosophy

It MUST Expand project Book

03

The Brief & Philosophy R e s e a rc h & D e v e l o p m e n t

Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

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The Brief 202

Background: My thinking on this topic was first provoked when given the opportunity to choose any question for an essay in the latter part of third year. The question chosen was ‘The power of design; The influence of propaganda’.

Coming into fourth year I was very keen to continue much deeper into this area. A primary source of inspiration for the project was ‘First Things First Manifesto’ by Ken Garland: We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators. ... designers apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, butt toners and light beer. ... Many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in tur n, is how the world perceives design.

The profession’s time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.

Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

Many of us have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this view of design. ... There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills.

We propose a reversal of priorities in favour of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication – a mind shift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.

This is largely the where the project started, and where the project eventually derived it’s name, the manifesto states: “The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand.”

The discussion and analysis of visual communication must expand.

Objectives: To produce a resource to engage visual communicators; to encourage critical thought and analysis of their work.

delivering of the message. But will have to be instantly engaging and intriguing, as well as being compelling.

Details:

The resource will be designed to be delivered to primarily design agencies, but also available to anyone involved in visual communication and the creation of media.

The physical pack will have to be easily posted:

Output:

– Not be too heavy as to incur extra postage costs.

The resource will need to be both physical and digital: – A physical pack containing resources, e.g. a book explaining the thought process, some templates for workshops and promotional items.

– A website included a blog, and digital versions of the physical resources.

Summary: – Discussion and analysis m u s t e x pa n d a n d d e ve l o p.

– D e s i g n a re s o u rc e to e n c o u ra g e c r i t i c a l th o u g h t .

– Be able to fit through a letter box without danger of damage.

– Contain sufficient resources to provide a thought provoking discussion of visual communication.

– Aside from the physical pack other resources should be available: posters and other promotional material http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature. php?id=18&fid=99

Tone: Still to be decided; this will have to be researched thoroughly as it’s key to the

Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

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Introduction 404

Philosophy underpins every movement in society, if we can understand the philosophy we can understand the society.

The philosophy of ethics is where we must start, this project is more concer ned with the ‘why’ of how we design not the ‘what’. This project isn’t seeking a mere add-on of soy based inks or using recycled paper.

This is seeking a rigorous and continual examination of our practice.

So I thought it helpful to define a philosophy of ethics, the succinct book ‘50 Philosophy Ideas’ explains virtue ethics very well.

“For most of the 400 years, moral philosophers have tended to focus primarily on actions, not agents –on what sort of things we should do rather than what sort of people we should be. The main task of the philosophers has been to discover and explain the principles on which this moral obligation is based and to formulate rules that guide us to behave in accordance with these principles.

Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

Very different proposals have been made on the nature of the underlying principles themselves, from the duty-based ethics of Kant to the consequentialist utilitarianism of Bertham and Mill. Nevertheless, at root there has been a shared assumption that the core issue is the justification of actions rather than the character of agents, which has been seen as secondary or merely instrumental.

But virtue has not always played handmaiden to duty or some other good beyond itself.

Until the Renaissance and the first stirrings of the scientific revolution, the overwhelmingly important influences in philosophy and science were the great thinkers of classical Greece – Plato and, above all, his pupil Aristotle.

For them, the main concer n was the nature and cultivation of good character; the principle was not ‘What is the right thing to do (in such and such circumstances)?’ but ‘What is the best way to live?’ Given this very different set of priorities, the nature of virtue, or moral excellence, was of central interest. Aristotle’s philosophy

was eclipsed for several centuries from the time of Galileo and Newton, when attention shifted to the rules and principles of moral conduct. From the middle of the 20th century, however, some thinkers began to express their dissatisfaction with the prevailing trend in moral philosophy and to revive interest in the study of character and virtues. This recent movement in moral theorising, inspired principally

by Aristotle’s ethical philosophy, has advance d under the banner of ‘virtue ethics’.”

Here we can see the movement and I think the importance of virtue ethics, here is a helpful quote from Aristotle, “The Good of man is the active exercise of his soul’s faculties in conformity with exc ellence or virtue... Moreover this activity must occupy a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring, nor does one fine day.”

As the q uote points to, the solution here isn’t just the odd pro-bono design, or David B. Berman pledge to give 10% of your time to entirely positive

ventures. The solution is a reversal of priorities, to not just start doing some purely good things. But to stop doing all the bad and harmful things.

This project calls for designers to thoroughly examine their work and therefore themselves. More than that this project seeks to encourage designers to look beyond their work and see the potential that they have for positive influence.

As Kalle Lasn said in an interview I had with him,

Summary: – V i r t u e e th i c s i s th e a i m n o t j u s t th e a c t i o n s o f a d e s i g n e r, but our purpose and aim as designers.

– A re ve r s a l o f p r i o r i t i e s m u s t ta ke pl a c e .

– D e s i g n e r s p o s s i bl y h ave th e p owe r to ch a n g e th e wo rl d .

“But I think there are a few designers now that are waking up to the fact that designers are actually some of the most powerful people in the world! We are the people who create the ambiances; we are the people who create the code of the media. ... We are some of the most critical people who have the power to change the world!”

Ben Dupre (2007), 50 Philosophy Ideas you really need to know: Quercus Publishing Plc.

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Report 1

I felt it would be helpful to include an

has to be true it has to be real – and

abridged piece of text from why Report 1, as it includes important research that informs the direction and design of the project.

this means that the graphic image has become a much more powerful”

In Jean Buadrillard’s book Simulacra and Simulation, he opens with what he describes as the ‘hyperreal’.

“It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal” The hyperreal is the perception of reality we come to after the signs distorting our perception. Baudrillard point is that images have become more than images, because of their ubiquity and our cultures subjective understanding. They have become our reality, according to his understanding when an image is created it can actuall y change someone’s perception of reality, it can change reality. One commentator on Baudrillard, Andrew Fellows corroborates his point further, “Most of us feel instinctively that a graphic image is the truest record of reality – if you see it in an image it

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Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

Continuing on his point, Fellows again suggests that the image has now in our culture become more influential that words. That images have begun to become reality in themselves, so now images carry incredible power and influence. So as a designer’s job is to create images and marketing to influence and persuade people, a designer is incredibly influential. This is the consumer’s experience of a piece of design. Moving onto media Baudrillard cites McLuhan’s formula ‘Medium is the Message’. In brief McLuhan’s theory was that the form of the medium (the means by which something is being communicated), embeds itself in whatever the message happens to be, therefore inevitably influencing and shaping the message.

Baudrillard goes on to discuss the use of information, “We think information produces

meaning , the opposite occurs. Thus

– make the world smaller, and increase

information dissolves meaning and dissolves the social, in a sort of nebulous state dedicated not to a surplus of innovation, but, on the contrary, to total entropy.”

socialisation. Here he says the opposite happens, with the ‘total entropy’ that occurs, meaning is lost, and that socialisation loses it’s meaning.

Here Baudrillard argues that the over use of media and information is having the opposite effect – of overload, and now any meaning is being lost. So are areas of graphic design actually meaning less? Have they gained influence, but lost the ability to decide what they actually influence? Are they just generic images thrown out into the melee of media and understood in whatever way the consumer perceives it? Do designers have control?

Baudrillard continues onto media and advertising, “Thus the media are producers o f not of socialisation, but of exactly the opposite, of the implosion of the social of the masses.”

Baudrillard argues that the aim of all this information was to – in other words

“As a medium has become its own message (which makes it so that now there is a demand for advertising in and of itself, and that thus the question of “believing” in it or not is no longer even posed), advertising is completely in unison with the social.”

Baudrillard continues on even further, to say that this new socialisation, (what he refers to as ‘the social’) is now dependant on this method of communication. As he understands the cause of the social to be the overload of information, the social can’t continue in the same way without constantly being fed with more of the same information.

So even worse, are graphic designers not even serving the purpose that they think they are? Are they merely feeding and continuing the system that they were bor n into and out of?

Summary: – T h e hy p e r re a l h a s b e e n c re a te d , th ro u g h ove r u s e o f images.

– S i m i l a rl y a n ove rl oa d o f i n fo r m a t i o n h a s d i s s ol ve d meaning.

– D e s i g n e r s a re p o s s i bl y n o t s e r v i n g th e p u r p o s e th e y th o u g h t th e y a re .

http://www.thefilmjour nal.com/issue13/thematrix. html Jean Baudrillard, (1981), Simulacra and Simulation: The University of Michigan Press (1994) http://www.labri-ideas-library.org/download. asp?fileID=363

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Report 2 808

Similarly with Report 2 there was a lot

worth. In a capitalist society virtually

of significant research that directed the project.

identical products can have vastly different values due to the status or brand name. The value of a commodity isn’t directly proportional to its material worth. The situationists described that the effects of capitalism reached even further, meaning it commodifies experiences and perception.

We will begin with the Situationists, who have been a source of research and insight into culture and society, and visual communication’s relationship with it.

“We live in a spectacular society, that is, our whole life is surrounded by an immense accumulation of spectacles.

Things that were once directly lived are now lived by proxy. Once an experience is taken out of the real world it becomes a commodity. As a commodity the spectacular is developed to the detriment of the real. It becomes a substitute for experience.”

In Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, he describes what he sees as the impact of the spectacle on society. Debord argues that our experiences have become representations,

The Situationists developed and continued Marxist theories, primarily the idea of the ‘commodity’, which the Situatonists developed into the term the ‘spectacle’. The commodity was the

“The economies domination of the social life entailed an obvious downgrading of being to having that left it’s stamp on all human endeavour.

The present stage, in which social life is completely taken over by the accumulated products of the economy, entails a generalized shift from having to appearing”

term given to the effects of capitalism, that we don’t value products or services for their natural worth, rather the value can be much more than its material

Here Debord describes the downward slope of society, that our perception of reality and being has changed to

Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

having, and this experience of having

Yet some in society are aware of

He concludes with a very insightful and

developed to appearing. Meaning that society j ust appears to be certain things and this can differ and change depending on your perception. He continues onto our relationship with images,

this lack of awareness, aware of the spectacle of society and the lack of critical and analytical thought. This topic is discussed in an interview by Jeremy Paxman with Russell Brand, a comedian. The interview was scheduled primarily because Russel Brand had recently released an autobiography, as well as being a prominent figure in popular society.

inspiring comment,

“The spectacle is not a collection of images; rather it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images” Debord argues that society is relationships between people that are gover ned and maintained by images.

If this is true it vastly changes our responsibility as visual communicators.

Debord continues that this degradation of society has also caused a degradation of knowledge and critical thought.

“All com munity and critical awareness have ceased to be” Has there been a decline in critical thought? Has society stopped thinking and analysing?

It begins with JP asking about fame and RB’s view of it, RB explains that the idea of fame permeates society because it is presented as the ‘spectacle’ to distract us from of everyday lives. “It’s bread and circuses Jeremy.” Continuing this idea of the spectacle of fame, RB describes a ‘narrative’ that is fed to society, that news is presented as a dramatic story, because no one wants to think anymore or to deal with the complexity of real situations. Society is fed this fallacy continually through the media, stories are twisted to be whatever is the most attractive. That the media uses images and ideas to maintain this cultural narrative to keep society ‘dumb’.

“Try to aspire to something more beautiful, something more truthful...

Perhaps if we were in tune with more beautiful ideas we wouldn’t prioritise such peculiar ideas and notions.

And perhaps if we can popularise through the techniques of branding and consumerism a different idea, a different narrative perhaps the world can change.”

Perhaps the world can change. Is it possible to change society, culture and the world with a new idea? Can design change the world?

Joshua Blackbur n thinks it can, in an article titled ‘Design Can Save the World’ written for Provokateur he states, “The notion of design having a social role to play is far from new – and hardly a conceit. Artists and designers have long served as messengers, missionaries, revolutionaries, agitators, and propagandists. Centuries before

Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

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the holy Brand Guidelines, visual

have been made by a number of other

He argues that we need to know and

communication was being sharpened as a tool of religion, war and politics.”

commentators. Katherine McCoy echoes this in an essay,

Joshua Blackbur n argues that visual communication being used for commercial purposes is a new addition to design’s repertoire, stating that visual communication was first used to communicate religion, war and politics.

“Design education most often trains students to think of themselves as passive arbiters of the message between the client/sender and audience/receiver, rather than as advocates for the message content or the audience.”

understand culture and the industry that we would be designing for. Making the point ‘how can a designer plan an annual report without some knowledge of economics?’ Another pointis made

by Rick Poyner, he comments on a list published by Prospect magazine of the 100 top British public intellectuals.

He points out that two architects and a conceptual artist make the cut, but that is all the people involved in visual culture that make it onto the list. Why is design so poorly represented? He insightfully concludes,

The question tackled last year about the use of prop aganda led to research into grass roots movements where visual communication was being grappled with and discovered. In reaction to the Apartheid regime activists needed methods to reach millions of people to unite them. Given that the vast majority of the population were illiterate communication needed to be visual and thus a form of communication largely undiscovered grew and developed. It didn’t grow out of a necessity to sell and consume, it grew out of a necessity to visually communicate ideas.

Another point made in the same article from Joshua Blackbur n is a criticism about design schools, similar criticisms

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She also goes so far as to call designers ‘prostitutes’, selling themselves to corporations, abandoning morality to make a living. So often it seems that designers don’t think about what they’re designing they merely provide a service. As Michael Bierut comments in an essay titled ‘The Main Failing Of Design School: Kids Can’t Think For Themselves’, “What’s valued is the way graphic design looks, not what it means.

In many programs, if not most, it’s possible to study graphic design for four years without any meaningful exposure to the fine arts, literature, science, history, politics.”

Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

“The list is best taken, perhaps, as a useful reminder of the gap that continues to exist between designers’ glowing self-image as vital shapers of the contemporary visual landscape and the reality of their position, or rather their lack of position, in the social and political debates that influence matters of public policy. The overriding challenge for designers and those committed to design’s possibilities is to establish connections outside design.”

This process of research caused me

to question whether design was the

must expand. Consumerism is running

answer at all, if our visual culture can be so damaging, and has such a grip on society. That maybe abstaining is the answer, maybe instead of ‘good’ images being the counter to ‘bad’ images, maybe no images is the counter?

Loretta Staples points out a startling possibility,

uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.

“Could it be that increasingly graphic design is less the solution and more the prob lem? This is the squeamish possibility professional graphic designers are loathe to confront, because in so doing, the profession risks undoing itself. This is the threat posed by any rigorous discursive critique.”

In order for an honest look at the problem, we need to be open to any conclusion, even if that results in our own undoing. The conclusions taken from all this research is that something needs to be done. This brings us back to where this project started, First Things First manifesto, “The scope of debate is shrinking; it

The debate must expand, designers need to be challenged on an individual level, this is why this project is happening. Ultimately another idea, another narrative is needed to change society. But until that comes, we ne ed to search for it by expanding the debate and thought in society. h t t p : / / a rc h i v e . o r g / d e t a i l s / SpectacularTimesImagespdf G u y D e b o rd , ( 1 9 9 4 ) , T h e S o c i e t y o f t h e S p e c t a c l e : Z o n e B o o k s , N e w Yo r k h t t p : / / w w w. y o u t u b e . c o m / w a t c h ? v = W N C D o v AW B 8 H t t p : / / p ro v o k a t e u r. c o m / p ro v o k a t i o n s / a r t i c l e s/ S t e v e n H e l l e r & Ve ro n i q u e V i e n n e , ( 2 0 0 3 ) , C i tizen D e s i g n e r ( p e r s p e c t i v e s o n d e s i g n re s p o n s i b i l ity): A l l w o r t h P re s s , U . S .

M i c h a e l B i e r u t , ( 2 0 0 7 ) , S e v e n t y - n i n e S h o r t E ssays o n D e s i g n : P r i n c e t o n A rc h i t e c t u r a l P re s s M i c h a e l B i e r u t , W i l l i a m D re n t t e l , S t e v e n H e l l er, ( 2 0 0 2 ) , L o o k i n g C l o s e r F o u r : C r i t i c a l Wr i t i n g s on G r a p h i c D e s i g n : A l l w o r t h P re s s , N e w Yo r k H t t p : / / o b s e r v a t o r y. d e s i g n o b s e r v e r. c o m / f e a t u re/ w h e re - a re - t h e - d e s i g n - i n t e l l e c t u a l s / 2 3 4 7 / h t t p : / / w w w. e y e m a g a z i n e . c o m / f e a t u re . php?id=18&fid=99

Summary: – G u y D e b o rd ta l k s a b o u t h ow s o c i e ty b e c o m i n g a s p e c ta cl e a n d s e r i o u s l y a f fe c te d c o m m u n i c a t i o n a n d i n fo r m a t i o n .

– R u s s e l l b ra n d e ch o e s th i s s ay i n g th a t s o c i e ty i s fe d th i s fa l l a cy th ro u g h th e m e d i a .

– T h a t p o s s i bl y d e s i g n s ch o ol s a re a t fa u l t fo r te a ch i n g th e i r s t u d e n t s j u s t to s e r ve c o r p o ra t i o n s .

– An honest examination will h ave to c o n t i n u e , u l t i m a te l y a n o th e r i d e a w i l l h ave to b e p re s e n te d .

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Jan Van Toorn 12

Part of my research included Jan Van

opinions, requires beside the analysis

Toor n who is an inter nationally known graphic designer. His best known works include the calendars for printing Mart.

Spruijt in Amsterdam, posters and catalogues for the Van Abbe Museum (1965-1994) in Eindhoven, and the many covers of the annually updated standard works of Ivan Wolffers, Medicine.

of the existing production relations an unceasing reflection on that empirical experience. In this way it will be possible, amidst the shifting opposing corporate interests – and at the same time being dependant upon them – to develop politico-cultural criteria and strategies which will open new space for professional action in the media.

Action starting from a non-authoritartian attitude towards the public and not concealing it’s own mediating role.”

The following are quotes from his book Design’s Delight, which is not an easy read. Nevertheless it is a very helpful and insightful book.

“For us as designers, architects, television-makers et cetera, to escape from this entanglement with institutional interests – which wish to set priorities in such a way as to reflect their private interests – it is important to formulate a concept and strategies which once more make action for public concer n possible.

“Designers and other professional mediators have proved, unfortunately, to able to stay out of this ongoing process of colonisation of the media and have found themselves incapable of renegotiating an attitude which is related to the benefit of all. As a result, the image of reality they produce consists of no more than a myriad of individual side tracks, reduced to mere form and stereotypical content”

Communication is largely formed by unreasoned action. Therefore the formulation of a concept which strives for more independent forming of

“Individual designers and the discipline as a whole are seldom more than superficially aware of their role in the staging of the cultural environment”

Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

“Social criticism has always been

alter native is proposed, it will have to

associat ed with the notion of public opinion. After all, social and cultural mobility can only come about through the formation of political will, a process which is nourished by an in-depth and permanent critical public debate”

arise from within society of the real subsumption and demonstrate all th e contradictions at the heart of it.”

Van Toor n makes the point that design has become a slave to corporate interests, and has no freedom to redefine itself.

He also suggests that because of the overwhelming influence of the media on design that any inventive design that ties to b reak out of the mould is lost in the vast sea of stereotypical design. As well that designers often aren’t even aware of how superficial their work is.

Van Toor n states that visual communication has become subject to it’s master – capitalist production. He concludes that if any solution arises it will have to come from within the system and contradict it. Offer an entirely new alter native.

Summary: – D e s i g n h a s b e c o m e a s l ave to c o r p o ra te i n te re s t s .

– T h a t a ny wo rk p ro d u c e d c a n o n l y fa d e a m o n g s t th e my r i a d o f c o r p o ra te d e s i g n .

– An examination of visual c o m m u n i c a t i o n w i l l h ave to d e ve l o p a n d b e c o n t i n u a l l y happening.

– A s ol u t i o n w i l l h ave to c o m e f ro m w i th i n th e s y s te m , a n d o f fe r a n e w a l te r n a t ive .

The following quote is a summary of sorts which circles round the front cover, “Communication is the form of capitalist production in which capital has succeed ed in submitting society entirely and globally to it’s regime, suppressing all the alter native paths. If ever an

Jan van Toor n, (2006), Design’s Delight: 010 Publishers, Rotterdam http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_van_Toor n

Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

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Anthony Grayling 14

The main areas of Professor Grayling’s

He is a fellow of the World Economic

interest as a philosopher are the theory of knowledge, metaphysics and philosophic logic. In addition to this work, he has written widely on contemporary issues such as war crimes, the legalisation of drugs, euthanasia, secularism and human rights. Believing a philosopher should engage in public debate, Professor Grayling has written for a variety of publications, including the Guardian, the Literary Review, the Financial T imes, the Observer, Economist, T imes Literary Supplement, the Independent on Sunday, and the New Statesman.

In addition, he is frequently heard on BBC Radios 4, 3 and the World Service.

He is editor of Online Review London and contributing editor of Prospect magazine.

Forum and a member of its C-100 group on relations between the West and the Islamic world. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and in 2003 served as a Booker Prize judge.

For nearly ten years, Professor Grayling was the honorary secretary of the principal British Philosophical Association, the Aristotelian Society.

He is past chairman of June Fourth, a human rights group concer ned with China, and has been involved in a United Nations human rights initiative.

Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

Here are some quotes from Grayling taken from the book GOOD: An Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design: “To devise an ethical code for designers, one would do better to say: here are examples of what a responsible and well-intentioned designer might be like; go and do likewise. . . . which rests on individuals being conscious of their involvement in society and the impact they have on it.”

“Designers find themselves in a spider’s web of duties – contractual duties, duties to clients, to stakeholders, to colleagues, to themselves and their work, and to society at large. It’s sometimes difficult to serve everybody well while at the same time fulfilling one’s implicit duties to society.”

“Now it would seem to me that a

Grayling also makes comment on

designer who paid no attention to whether their work was striking, enchanting or interesting would be failing. So the answer to the question, ‘do designers have a responsibility to try to make the world a more beautiful place?’, is yes, whenever possible. It fits into this broad sense of the ethical, which is the nature and quality and meaning of life.”

how designers treat their work, that they should be implicitly aware about it’s impact. This was in response to the question ‘Do designers have a responsibility to try to make the world a more beautiful place?’. He answers yes, explaining that it’s part of our duty as humans to be ethical and responsible.

“Design is neutral. It ceases to be neutral in the light of its content.

Its value morally is in the content it portrays.”

The first quote here connects well with the ethics introduction about virtue ethics, Grayling talks about the conscientious duty of individuals in society. He clearly advocates that point as being important.

The interview in the book concludes with Grayling being asked about how design influences. He explains that design and visual communication is neutral in and of itself. But it’s when the content is added, that it gains it’s meaning, and therefore the ability to be ethical or not. So it’s the content that we need to be aware of in our design.

Summary: – G ray l i n g a g re e s w i th h av i n g v i r t u e e th i c s a s a s ta r t i n g point.

– T h a t d e s i g n e r s – a s w i th a l l h u m a n s – h ave a n i n h e re n t re s p o n s i b i l ty to m a ke th e wo rl d a b e a u t i f u l pl a c e .

– That design is only as e th i c a l a s i t ’s c o n te n t .

He also recognises the dilemma that many co nscientious designers are in; being caught between their ethical ideals a nd contracual agreements to clients/bosses.

http://www.giffordlectures.org/Author. asp?AuthorID=276 Lucienne Roberts, (2006), Good: An Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design: AVA Publishing

Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

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Richard Holloway

Richard Holloway was bishop of

of the most influential art forms. I think

Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church until 2000. An outspoken figure and moder niser in the Anglican Church, Holloway explores the theological, spiritual and ethical dilemmas in his many books essays and broadcasts. He was Gresham professor of Divinity in the City of London, and his appointments have included Chair of the British Medical Association Steering Group on Ethics and Genetics. He is Patron of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Youth Scotland and has been member a member of the Broadcasting Standards Commission and the Human Fertilisatio n and Embryology Authority. Holloway is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is currently Chair of the Scottish Arts Council.

the grace and beauty of public space can help to civilis people, just as ugly space can brutalise them.”

Here are some quotes from Holloway taken from the book GOOD: An Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design: “You [graphic designers] are probably more like architects than autonomous visual artists. In many ways this is one

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Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

“The market is a glorious thing, but it is also a monster that devours it’s children. Many of us, designers included, have to admit being prostitutes in that sense – selling a talent on behalf of this great monster, the most terrifyingly powerful thing on the globe. Maybe the answer is not to deal with it through your art, but to take an interest in the politics and philosophy of the market. Maybe it’s as citizens you should be asking these questions. Okay we serve this thing that is good at delivering Reebok shoes and interesting coffee and cheese, but it is also capable of despoiling the environment and flattening complete cultures, so maybe we should be critically interested in the thing we’re serving.”

“So what you need then is to be politicised and to challenge the use to which the good thing is being put, rather than thinking that somehow your

art, mystically of its own power, will

Holloway similar to others make the

somehow cleanse the thing – it won’t.”

comparison between designers selling themselves like prostitutes to ‘the market’. His main point is that if we seek to challenge the norm and want to change the system; the best strategy might be too not do that as designers but as politicians and philosophers. He recognises the position designers are in within their jobs, bound to a certain way of working and it may be hard to break that mould. So suggests involving ourselves with other areas. I entirely agree with his premise but only in part to his conclusion. I don’t think we should give up on breaking the mould that designers are in.

The whole nature of the market is to increase discontent. There’s something deeply flawed about it. On the other hand people say that it’s discontent that has made us the most creative animals on the planet. As well as despoiling the planet we also painted the Sistine Chapel... We now need to scare ourselves about the dark s ide of our discontent and respond to it. I like something the Italian political theorist said, “We should be pessimists of the intellect and optimists of the will.” The point being that yes, a lot of bad things happen: people are aggressive and greedy and avaricious; but they’re also capable of astonishing kindness and rationality” Holloway has some excellent insights into ethics and morality from a different point of view. I appreciate his understanding of graphic designers in the first quote that with our work we create spaces and decorate society as it were, much like architects.

I don’t see politicians as entirely fre e agents able to influence in any way they like; they are also bound to their jobs and responsibilities. The solution is an entire change of system, to tur n it on it’s head – and designers have the power to do that.

Summary: – Hol l oway v i e w s d e s i g n e r s m u ch l i ke a rch i te c t s i n b e i n g p e o pl e w h o c re a te s pa c e s .

– T h a t d e s i g n e r s a re b o u n d w i th i n th e s y s te m o f th e m a rke t .

– Eve r yo n e – d e s i g n e r s i n cl u d e d – n e e d to e n g a g e w i th p ol i t i c s a n d ph i l o s o phy i n o rd e r to u n d e r s ta n d a n d ch a l l e n g e th e p robl e m s i n o u r s o c i e ty.

Lucienne Roberts, (2006), Good: An Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design: AVA Publishing

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Kalle Lasn Interview

Amongst my research I contacted

full transcript and further analysis are in

various designers and organisations to gain advice, opinions and understanding of the market. I optimistically emailed the organisation Adbusters, and quickly got a reply saying my email had been forwarded to the editors. Not long after, I received another reply saying I could phone Kalle Lasn to interview him.

Book 5. Here are some quotes focusing on the theory and philosophy in response to a question about dominant ideologies in society.

Kalle Lasn is the cofounder of Adbusters magazine and author of the books Culture Jam and Design Anarchy and is the cofounder of the Adbusters Media Foundation, which owns the magazine. He reportedly started Adbusters after an epiphany that there was something profoundly wrong with consumerism. It happened in a supermarket parking lot. Frustrated that he had to insert a quarter to use a shopping cart, he jammed a bent coin in so that the machine became inoperable. This act of vandalism was his first (quite literal) “culture jam” – defined as an act designed to subvert mainstream society.

This was a great privilege for me, and I wasted no time in contacting him, the

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Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

“We in the west are the people who in the early days – the Greek days – came up with laws of logic. And for thousands of years we’ve been thinking that we can, we’ve always thought we can figure things out by using the laws of logic. In medieval times we even thought we could prove the existence of God by using the laws of logic! In the past we’ve thought we use alchemy to produce gold out of lead. The most recent example of that is that we thought we could imaginatively package derivatives and mortgages in a risk free way. ...

I think it’s got something to do with this logic freakiness of wester n culture – that we in the west are logic freaks!

I think that even a lot of designers, if you really look at the way you design, sitting there in front of your computer

with you r hand on the mouse and your

of tetris, into the perfect square and

manipulating all these little things, moving things around. You think that somehow if you move things around enough and tweak all the little factors that somehow you can come up with the magical design that does what you want it to do. I think there’s something fundamentally wrong with that logical way of thinking.”

package it to our client. Lasn says there is something fundamentally wrong with this way of thinking. That we need to be more emotional and intuitive.

“You know the whole global culture will have to move away from this logic freakiness into a much more human emotional kind of a resonance.”

A very interesting point arises here, Lasn ma kes the point that wester n culture is so obsessed with logic and reason that we over think and analyse.

We think that society and existence is just a formula – a complicated formula – that we can work out.

Other conclusions to be brought out of this are that if we connect this visual rhetoric that we’re so obsessed with, along with the conclusions of Baudrillard, The Situationists and Van toor n; that the ability to communicate meaning and information is being lost.

Then what happens when we put these two conclusions together?

Designers do this in our work, th at we’re presented with a brief and we

If in a post moder n society where increasingly information and truth is subjective. Then any attempt at communicating ideas is possibly futile?! V isual rhetoric is based on the assumption of being able to persuade, convict and convince. Bu t if post moder nity has done away with objective meaning, then how can we communicate?

start our problem solving. It’s just a puzzle of choosing the correct colours, fonts, style and imagery. To fit everything together like a game

This is precisely why this discussion must expand, a new alter native is needed a completely fresh approach.

Summary: – We s te r n e r s a re ‘ l o g i c f re a k s’.

– D e s i g n e r s n e e d to b e m u ch m o re e m o t i o n a l a n d i n t u i t ive w i th th e i r wo rk .

– V i s u a l rh e to r i c i s p o s s i bl y f u t i l e , a n d a n e w a p p roa ch n e e d s to b e p re s e n te d .

– This discussion must e x pa n d .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalle_Lasn

Book 3, Itmustexpand Project – The Brief & Philosophy Research & Development

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