by Sean Harrod
IS TECHNOLOGY MAKING IT EASIER FOR GRAPHIC DESIGNERS TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL CAREER WITHOUT NEEDING TO HAVE A QUALIFICATION IN THE SUBJECT?
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CONTENTS INTRODUCTION
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DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGY
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UNQUALIFIED DESIGN
13-15
TECHNOLOGY CHANGING TRENDS OF DESIGN
17-18
BACK TO BASICS
21-22
DESIGNER RESEARCH
25-28
MY OPINION
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TRANSFERRING SKILLS
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OTHER DESIGNERS’ OPINIONS
35-38
CONCLUSION
41-42
REFERENCE
45-48
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INTRODUCTION Technology seems to have been a part of graphic design since its beginning, but have designers now shot themselves in the foot? Do designers now use so much software and hardware to make their lives easier, that they have created an industry where anyone with a copy of Photoshop can be a designer? The untrained designer isn’t often discussed in graphic design; I would like to find out if it really matters whether designers have a qualification. There are so many other factors an employer must take into account before they employ someone for their studio. Their portfolio and type of work they like to do may be more important, or their personality and if they will get on with the rest of the staff. However is it now easy to create a good portfolio of work without actually ever training in the subject? Or are skills transferable from other subjects such as business, advertising or even psychology? How can we tell who hasn’t been taught graphic design, and does it really matter if they have? Key subjects of research for my essay will be the history of graphic design and how technology and techniques were introduced, the role of the graphic designer and how the job itself has changed. I will also look into the role of graphic designers without a qualification in the subject.
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DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGY “Visual Communication in its widest sense has a long history. When early man hunted for food, and spotted the imprint of an animal in the mud, he was looking at a graphic sign.” (Hollis, 2002, p. 7) People have been designing for thousands of years, from the Roman roads to Stone Age spears; in one way or another, this is design. However innovation seems to lead on to more invention. As graphic designers experiment with their work, new processes are developed. The term ‘graphic design’ has only been in existence for the last hundred years; however similar practices have existed much longer than that. The composition in paintings and composition of words in early newspapers are similar to processes modern graphic designers use in their work today. Graphic design is a term coined by William Addison Dwiggins in 1922. It really became a job with the advent of modern inventions and techniques. These allowed artists and people who wanted to spread a message, to do so with great ease. They could produce copies of their imagery or text many times through printing. These messages had to be shown as clearly as possible; this is where the graphic design came into play. Other early terms for the subject have been ‘super-printing’ or ‘mechanized art’. “Modernity has brought mass production, and graphic design is mass REproduction.” (Newark, 2007, p. 13) Copying and photocopying or reprographics has had a huge impact on the graphic design industry. The introduction of the printing press made it easy to reproduce thousands of identical books. Movable type gave more freedom to the designer of the book, creating the option for grids and placing a different structure of text into different books. 7
“A wide range of reprographic equipment is an essential feature of any modern design studio, for, without it, it would be impossible for graphic artists to produce work to the high standards expected today.” (Dalley, 2004, p. 120) Photography was an invention that began to interest designers and artists around the 1920s. It is widely used in graphics nowadays; however at that time it was a very difficult process. Today cameras can be easily accessed by anyone and the price of high end models is falling all the time. Designers use photos through which to communicate an idea, “-cropping and juxtaposing photographs, reorganizing them in photomontages and arranging them on pages in a dramatic narrative.” (Hollis, 2002, p. 20) The Bauhaus movement started to experiment with photography, by actually editing into the photo, using exposure and aperture to create abstract imagery. Now it seems that the majority of the time the designer doesn’t actually take the photographs and is rarely present when the images are being taken. With many stock photo websites now available online, a design company may not even need to hire a photographer. However I find that you often need a specific image and it’s not always easy to find one similar. As I have a DSLR I can usually create the photograph myself, which I assume an untrained designer could do. The quality of the photography then depends on the idea he or she is trying to communicate. Eric Martin said “Since its introduction in 1984, the Macintosh computer has rapidly become an essential tool for designers, not only for familiar tasks but also for its ability to suggest entirely new solutions.” (Greiman & Martin, 1990, p. 55) There is no doubt that the computer has dramatically changed design. Older technology is becoming obsolete in the wake of computers and the World Wide Web. Designers used to 8
use tools such as T-squares, adjustable drawing boards, French curves, drafting machines, transfer tapes and paper and visualizers. Now a computer, with certain software, could replace all of these things - even the telephone! Social networking is now creating online communities of designers so it’s much easier to get your work and views seen by others. This is a good way for us, as graphic designers, to promote ourselves, regardless of our backgrounds or qualifications. Another way for graphic designers to promote their work is through entering competitions online. There are now several sites with daily competitions. There are additional ways of making money via blogs such as Tumblr, Wordpress and Blogger or selling work on websites, such as Big Cartel or Etsy. This means you can design whatever you want, whether it is posters, t-shirts or website layouts. If people like your work you can make some money. Other recent hardware and software developments have changed the face of graphic design. In fact there are so many different techniques graphic designers can now use digitally that it seems quite difficult to keep up with them all. “Designers entering the field today must master an astonishing range of technologies and prepare themselves for a career whose terms and demands will constantly change� (Lupton, 2009, p. 7) If you do think you have finally learnt all you need to know, there is always more hardware and software being developed. This seems to be an issue for a lot of new students, who either turn to the computer too soon, or know little about using the software that could really help them. In university we have been told many times that using the computer too soon in the development of a project can force the outcome to suffer. 9
Many designers resist using technology until the very end of a project. I received this advice during a workshop by Tim Sharp, a Design Director at Uniform design agency based in Liverpool. Some, like John McConnell, don’t use technology at all, although he explains it’s due to him being dyslexic. However this raises the question of whether there are any designers who have kept to traditional methods, or have returned to creating design without the use of modern aids. There is an array of up and coming technology. Software is being developed today that can use lighting and shading to fit an image of an object, into an existing object with ease. Hardware is available which can take photographs while creating many different focus points within it. Phone cameras have also been developed which can take pictures while recording video. This, however, doesn’t mean that designers will use the technology in the course of their work. It seems designers don’t make use of all inventions created to make imagery. There is no doubt that there are positive and negative aspects of technology in design. Plagiarism is a major drawback of using the Internet for design. You can have problems sharing your work on your website as it could be stolen and recycled in someone else’s designs. You can also have trouble using found images in your own work. It is almost impossible to find out for certain the origin of some images. There have been many instances of companies and designers using the same vector or photographic image, neither being sure who should have the rights to use it. For years people have been downloading music and film from the Internet and this type of plagiarism is commonplace. In fact, companies are getting even more concerned, with emerging technologies such as 3d printing becoming cheaper, that people can potentially share CAD files of existing products. It is possible that someone could download and 10
print these practically for free. One huge positive of modern technology is the time taken to create and edit work, “…you can do things that once would have taken weeks, such as: ‘I fancy that in Baskerville.’” John McConnell, Interviewed in (Walters, 2011, p. 20) Future developments in software could make the graphic design process even faster.
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UNQUALIFIED DESIGN The role of the graphic designer and the boundaries of graphic design have blurred in recent times, from comprising mainly print-based work to using animation and web design. For obvious reasons you are seen as a more accomplished designer the more skills you have. However is this taking the thunder from people who like to specialise in one subject? For example before the introduction of the Apple Mac to designers, typography was something that could only really be created by a typographer, who was familiar with a letterpress. Others are now taking graphic design jobs; the same way that we were able to do the work of typographers when the computer was introduced to the subject. People, who have studied psychology or media, could produce advertisement and branding work. This could be seen as bad for the graphic design industry as not only could it take work from designers, but the resulting work may be executed as well as that of a professional graphic designer. This comes back to the question, ‘Is graphic design now easier than ever with the technology we use?’ Could technology be making it easier for the amateur? Is the availability of cheaper technology and free software affecting the practice of graphic design? Many people are self-taught and can now take up design as a hobby, share work on a blog and get some paid jobs from it. “Personal computers in the office, the classroom and the home brought the handling of text and image within everyone’s reach. Readers became users…” (Hollis, 2002, p. 216) Should professional designers be worried about this? Should the student be concerned that you can develop skills as a graphic designer without actually ever studying the subject at a college or university? Depending on which way you view these so-called ‘amateur’ designers, they could be helping 13
or hindering the profession. It could be seen as taking work away from experienced designers who have taken time and money to practise their skills; however it could be aiding the industry, by creating more inspiration for other designers and promoting the subject. This inspiration could be created by experimentation in graphic design, by the so-called amateurs who are trying to learn their trade. Steven Heller wrote, “The value of design experiments should not of course be measured only by what succeeds, since failures are often steps towards new discoveries. Experimentation is the engine of progress...” (Heller, 1994, p. 155) So even if people may look down upon uneducated designers, at the end of the day they are helping graphic design develop. However by not going to university to study the subject, graphic design could be hindered in future as designers could be perceived as having “never had the opportunity to experiment outside the business arena” (Heller, 1994, p. 159) (This is what Steven Heller wrote about Paul Rand, a graphic designer who apparently taught himself design, mostly through magazines on the subject.) Is there an air of snobbery about graphic designers? Do they judge each other, not just on their work and views, but on their background and the way they learnt the subject? There have been many arguments in the design industry, but never anything publicly said about a person’s background. The one thing that I seem to find while reading and researching for this essay is the way some authors communicate their ideas in books and essays. A few seem to use ridiculously long and complicated words while writing and to me it seems a little pretentious and pointless. The whole idea behind graphic design is to communicate an idea or concept clearly and easily. If they can’t do this it would seem to follow that they aren’t very good at their subject. I feel that perhaps there is an element of snobbery, as it gives me the impression that they believe their ideas are very important and complicated. 14
If the industry was all elitist then there wouldn’t be much chance for the untrained designer to make a living, so there must be different levels of a designer’s way of thinking. Some, such as Massimo Vignelli, take design very seriously, at one point making his employees work in white lab coats. However people like David Carson, more emotional designers, are more playful in their work. I feel they would be more open to an amateur designer’s experimentation. There is a view that technology encourages lazy design and it is now easier to get away with doing less in design. Projects can be done so quickly, but does that mean you should spend more time, for example, on InDesign, moving text around millimetres at a time until you get it right? Many designers have become disillusioned with the use of computer software and hardware in design and have turned back to using the older techniques; this is how trends change.
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TECHNOLOGY CHANGING TRENDS OF DESIGN Design can be good and bad in many ways; quite a bit of it is subjective. What one person hates, another will love. There seem to be some basic rules of graphic design; however they could be more like trends. In a couple of years these rules might change, people may start using comic sans and others may use Photoshop to create typography. In terms of type, it is often said that the more neutral it is the better. Perhaps this is why Helvetica was, and still is, a well-loved typeface. “It’s air, you know. It’s just there. There’s no choice. You have to breathe, so you have to use Helvetica.” Spiekermann, interviewed in (Helvetica, 2007). Piet Zwart said “The more uninteresting a letter, the more useful it is to the typographer” (Newark, 2007, p. 13). I believe this quote means you don’t want to distract the reader from the words that are being written, for they are more important than the typeface. This is usually the case with large blocks of text, though fonts are more likely to express a feeling when used in titles or logos. These are small rules that you may not work out unless you study graphic design; however these are things that clients also wouldn’t usually know. Perhaps this is how the process of creating bad design goes un-checked and infiltrates public places. For graphic design, the aim of an outcome is to communicate an idea, or vision, as clearly and as simply as you can. Poor communication could be how bad design is perceived; when you can’t tell what a person is trying to communicate in his or her work. However this is not usually due to the execution of the artwork, this is due to the idea and the way it is formed. Aesthetically there might not be any bad design, as I’ve said it’s subjective. What someone might find beautiful, another person might think looks ugly. (Beauty, after all, is in the eye 17
of the beholder). With the introduction of modern technology to graphic design, it is becoming difficult to spot the designs created by a person untrained in graphics. There is a trend of recent designers creating ‘bad’ or ‘anti’ design, by breaking basic rules of design and using unpopular fonts and layouts. It’s not so much bad design as ugly design (in my opinion of course), using bright colours and abstract 3d imagery. However a lot of trends in design aren’t initially liked and as my research has told me, experimenting is how graphic design progresses. “Ugliness is valid, even refreshing, when it is key to an indigenous language representing alternative ideas and cultures.” (Heller, 1994, p. 159) I feel that this may create an issue in design; where it’s hard to tell if the work is aesthetically bad by accident or on purpose and some untrained designers may take inspiration from some of this work, thinking it’s the norm. How have the trends changed with use of new technology? The designer’s job in itself has changed, now bringing ever more varying ways to convey a message. The computer, not only the biggest invention to change graphic design, but also the world, is one of the main reasons for change in our work. “The computerization of graphic design work, with the developments of numerous, disparate, yet often overlapping, software programs has greatly increased the range of work in which they can be involved.” (Gordon & Gordon, 2002, p. 10). Now that the subject of graphic design is overlapping with motion and web design very often, people can be trained in other areas but still class themselves under the umbrella of graphic design. Can a web designer be classed as a graphic designer, and vice-versa?
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[i1] Anti Design Festival Poster Adding to trends of bad design, there was a festival created by Neville Brody and other designers, in response to The London Design Festival. Its aim to challenge contemporary stereotypes and show work that is uncommercial, dangerous and antiestablishment. Basically encouraging experimentation.
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BACK TO BASICS Some designers have now considered going back to using older, more traditional techniques in the creation of their work; maybe as they are disillusioned with the use of computers and see modern technology as an easy way out. However typesetting with cast iron fonts isn’t something everyone can do. Graphic designers might be able to create more unique prints by using older methods. Anthony Burrill is a designer who has been creating work using woodblock lettering for a while now. Talking about his technique he said, “I love the whole process of making a woodblock print – it really is a special technique... Because the lettering is made of wood, you can’t re-size it or edit it in any way, so you have to be resourceful in the way you use it... I feel the woodblock gives the words a weight and importance, something that is harder to achieve using a computer.” Burrill, Interviewed in (Hawkins, 2011) One of the discussion points in the field of design is whether handmade is better than digital. Digital can be far easier and quicker than creating handmade pieces of work, however, people who aren’t as knowledgeable in the software and tools of modern graphic design will have no idea of the time taken to create a number of digitally produced designs. It is much easier to show skill as well as time taken to finish a project if the piece is handmade, this could be a 3D model that has been photographed, or an illustration. Everyone has tried to draw and create handmade objects, but not everyone has used InDesign to create a book, or After Effects to create an animation, these are the unseen processes of design. A lot of agencies and graphic design studios have chosen to create work using these older handmade processes for their clients. Martin Pyper, the founder of Me Studio based in the Netherlands, said this about tactile design in IdN Magazine: 21
“The growth of technology has definitely increased people’s appreciation of tactile design. Computers and the web have helped propel graphic design and communication forward at an amazing speed and the number of people making high-quality work all over the planet right now amazes me. But at the same time, the computer has also become our worst enemy – we have to work quicker, the competition is tougher and the internet means that people can quickly copy or assimilate a style of design from somewhere or someone else at the touch of a button. This is perhaps the reason that we seem to be making a move away from just relying on the computer and the digital world. In my case, this is certainly so. The move away from the screen and back to using my hands more has been a liberating experience, and one that has taken my work in new directions. It slows things down, makes room for making mistakes again (which is necessary) and it often results in work that just looks and feels more original. We all have the same computers, but my hands and mind are not the same as yours. The word tactile refers to touch and feeling and these are precisely the senses that are often missing in a lot of purely digital work.” Pyper, Interviewed in (Cranfield, 2011, p. 15) Creating handmade work would be one way of preventing it from being copied by others, and untrained designers would find it difficult to re-create the work of professionals. However you are sacrificing time and also narrowing your options for designing.
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[i2] MeStudio Dutch National Ballet Poster You can see the use of handmade processes and photography that Pyper uses.
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RESEARCHING DESIGNERS During the course of my research I have looked at designers without a college education in graphic design. There are many well-known graphic designers, who have educated themselves, although the majority of them have been to a university in some way. This shows that it is difficult, but not impossible to have a successful career in graphic design without a degree. It’s incorrect to call these designers amateur in any way, as these are some of the most famous and successful graphic designers in the world.
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Adrian Shaughnessy In 1989 he co-founded Intro design agency and helped run it as a creative director for 15 years. He went on to become a writer and speaker in the subject, his most famous book being ’How to be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your
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Soul’, which has sold over 80,000 copies to date. (Observer Omnimedia LLC, 2003-2012) (Royal College of Art, n.d.) While reading about Adrian Shaughnessy I found that a lot of articles on him didn’t seem to mention the fact that he hasn’t been to university. I find it quite strange, as it seems to me that he’s done well without help from university. However it may be that people just don’t see his lack of a qualification as a disadvantage.
Ian Anderson Founder of the Designers Republic, he went to Sheffield University to study Philosophy. In an interview with Computer Arts magazine, it mentions that he has a ‘sloganeering, anticonsumerist attitude’ (Carson, 2010), which could indicate the reason for him not studying graphics at university. However I think the more likely reason is that he found success without a degree and he wouldn’t see the need for one.
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David Carson He studied Sociology at university; he went on to teach at a High School in San Diego, he was also a professional surfer. The first experience he had in graphic design was from a two week workshop course. He went on to be an Art Director for
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many music, skateboard and surf magazines. Known for his experimental typography and photography, he has been called the most famous graphic designer in the world, and has the highest selling graphic design book of all time. (Anon., 2012) (Anon., n.d.)
Paul Rand It has been said that Paul Rand was a self-taught designer and learnt about design from European magazines. However it doesn’t seem entirely true, as he did go to night school at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Apparently his father didn’t think he could create a sustainable income with just art. Before he went to college he did amass a great deal of work, which seems the likely way to end up with a career in graphics without a qualification. (Anon., n.d.)
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If you already have a network of clients and a lot of good design experience in your portfolio then for me it seems obvious to carry on with your career, rather than stop to go and study a subject in which you’ve already begun to be successful. After looking at many books and reading interviews about designers, I haven’t seen one that concentrates on the academic success of the designer. There is no mention of whether they’ve studied the subject or not. It seems the work you have created and the clients for whom you have worked give a much clearer picture of how successful you are or will be, in the industry. I have only researched a very small selection of well known graphic designers who are self-taught, so just a drop in the ocean of ‘trained’ designers. However from this small selection and from the research I’ve collected, I have noticed that you don’t see many young, self-taught designers that have made it to this level of fame. Perhaps it’s just common knowledge that it takes time to make it in the industry, or maybe in recent years the ‘do it yourself‘ attitude that formed around the punk era, has died out, and now people seem to need these qualifications to get anywhere.
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[i7] Brian Ferry Dingbat article. Probably one of the most famous pieces David Carson has produced. He turned a whole interview with Brian Ferry into Dingbat as he thought the interview was boring. Maybe this isn’t how Carson became famous, but it’s experiments like these which seem to make you more likely to become wellknown.
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MY OPINION As a student currently studying graphic design, I feel that having a degree and creating end of year degree shows will definitely give me opportunities to be noticed and get work, but only to a certain extent. There’s only so much help you can get from other people, in any walk of life. If I want to obtain opportunities to work for big clients I know I’m going to have to do it for myself. Utilising technology could be the key to becoming successful, not mainly to create the work, but to generate the clients. Social media will be a major part of my growth as a designer. It would be the best way for a freelance artist to be noticed, so in that sense university can’t help its students. I realise that the average wage for a graphic designer is quite low; especially considering a degree level qualification is often required. After browsing through a few jobs online, a degree tends to be necessary. What is worse is these aren’t the most exciting jobs creatively or financially. However I think that there is no limit to the income to be made and the job can vary enormously. As I’ve mentioned previously, the term graphic design is broadening constantly and you would have to study for much longer than three years to be skilled in each subcategory of the subject.
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TRANSFERRING SKILLS During my research I have found that a lot of people now involved in design have degrees in subjects which are not strictly relevant. For example there are people in design agencies who have to find new clients and look after existing clients. In the early days of advertising these people were called ‘accounts managers’, the accounts were usually companies or customers who had a contract with the adagency. The managers would organize meetings with the designers and look after the company’s representatives while they came in to see what the designers have produced. More recently the job has changed, now you see more business development roles in the graphic design studios. With the introduction of email and Skype I presume the role of bringing clients into the studio has died out. People are now needed to manage the online presence of the agency, as well as communicating with clients. Other subjects that may be partially involved in graphic design are business, advertising and psychology, as you need to think about the audience the work is aimed at, and how they think. These subjects aren’t easy to study, and there aren’t any shortcuts or programs that you can use. However you could argue that there are for graphic design. These psychologists or businessmen could try their hand at using programs like Illustrator or Photoshop. Even if there are shortcuts, they’d still have to learn to use them to a decent standard to communicate their ideas properly. Are these people who pursue a career in design without the help of going to university more motivated than people who do? As they wouldn’t have the guidance through the industry like graduates would. I don’t think so. There is only so much help a university course can give to a student; he or she has to have a real interest and talent in the subject to be successful. 33
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OTHER DESIGNERS’ OPINIONS To further research the role of unqualified designers and the changes technology has on graphic design, I have created a questionnaire. I will be going into local studios and hopefully ascertain the general opinion of local designers. I have chosen four studios that I want to target. Two based on the Wirral, two in Liverpool. This is to get varied feedback, as you’d expect the Liverpool studios to have graduate designers due to the university being so close. I received data from eleven questionnaires, including freelance and agency designers in product as well as graphic design. Some of these designers may have issues over discussing their qualifications, so the questionnaires did not ask for names. I will also not be mentioning specific roles and companies to preserve anonymity. For my results I will give the questions asked, the most frequent answers chosen and the difference between those old and young, trained and un-trained.
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Pie-Chart Key: S. Agree Agree Neutral Disagree S. Disagree
Technology makes designing easier. The vast majority of people agree that this is the case, and I would have thought that it is true. However as I’ve mentioned before, you need to have the knowledge of how to use the technology in order to create good design.
The more money you make as a designer, the more successful you are seen to be. This was asked to see if people thought that to be successful in graphic design, you have to be a good designer as well as make money. People seem to be either neutral or disagree with this statement. I’m guessing that people still appreciate good design, and you can be a brilliant designer without making any money at all. On the flip-side, this means you don’t necessarily have to be a good designer to make money. Another attribute that could make you seem more successful as a designer are awards. A Yellow Pencil award from D&AD won’t necessarily make you money but it shows you are succeeding in the industry.
Having a degree in graphic design will result in better work opportunities. Both people with and without a degree, seem to agree that with this statement. However some of the people in the agencies I’ve asked have said that they disagree. These were the people who hadn’t studied the subject, but had experience in the business side of the industry. 36
People who go to university have more opportunities to experiment, so have more skills. Generally people agree with this, as do I. A client who comes to a new designer, fresh out of university, or starting up without qualifications, would not be happy with you experimenting with their brief. Usually the client already has idea of what he or she wants beforehand. So with this in mind, going to university is not only good for the knowledge obtained, but to experiment and be creative with your personal ideas. “Just maybe, a small independent graduate program is precisely where such daunting research and invention in graphic design should occur,” argues (Lorraine) Wild. And one would have to agree that given the strictures of the marketplace, it is hard to break meaningful ground while serving a client’s needs and wants.” (Heller, 1994, p. 159)
The more graphic designers that create work the better. Regardless of whether they are qualified or not. This statement showed a lot of varied views. Interestingly though, this statement is backed up more by younger designers. The more established designers disagree, maybe as they see it as taking away possible clients for themselves. I think that the more design that is out there, the better for us all. “There is an old joke amongst graphic designers: ‘Bad graphic design never killed anyone’. This is meant to show that design is inconsequential, ultimately decorative, a question of merely picking one typeface or colour rather than another would work just as well.” (Newark, 2007)
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People who aren’t designers don’t appreciate the time it takes to create designs on computers. The majority of answers to this statement were either neutral or in agreement. As I’ve said before there are a lot of hidden processes of design that are used on computer. Years ago only a select few would have known certain processes used for graphic design, but as the tools designers use become cheaper and more accessible by anyone, maybe there is a chance that people know the effort that goes into digital design.
Technology makes designers lazy. This was the most controversial statement. There isn’t any correlation that suggests that modern tools make us more or less lazy. Slightly more people disagreed. Maybe it’s because of the time it takes to go through the idea creation process. It could take minutes or months.
The computer has been the biggest influence on graphic design since its introduction to the subject. Almost all designers agree with this statement, as it’s been so influential to everyone and everything. However the factor that will always make one designer better than another, are the ideas that he or she can create. “Tools come and go. There is only one tool I will always use: my mind.” (Barringer, 2011, p. 73)
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Proportion of qualified and unqualified designers who answered my questionnaire.
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CONCLUSION The percentage of designers without a degree seems to be very small. On the other hand, these people don’t seem to have suffered in any way in their career. As everyone agreed, the computer has made the biggest impact on design. Without it they would have found it a lot more difficult to teach themselves the subject. Graphic design as a subject and job was created through the evolution of technology and reproduction techniques. I feel the reason that graphic design and technology seem to go hand in hand is partially laziness, or a matter of business and profit. Time means money in any industry. Why not use a computer to help typeset a book - it’s much quicker and much cheaper to do it this way. Nevertheless I think designers are experimental and like to represent their ideas using new and exciting techniques. Matthew Butterick, talking at the 2012 Typo Conference, warns us that we have to be wary that the laziness doesn’t overcome the experimental side of design. “Technology arrives, and it wants to displace us—take over something that we were doing. That’s okay when technology removes a burden or an annoyance. But sometimes, when technology does that, it can constrict the space we have for expressing our humanity. Then, we have to look for new outlets for ourselves, or what happens? What happens is that this zone of humanity keeps getting smaller. Technology invites us to accept those smaller boundaries, because it’s convenient. It’s relaxing. But if we do that long enough, what’s going to happen is we’re going to stagnate. We’re going to forget what we’re capable of, because we’re just playing in this really tiny territory.” (Butterick, 2012) It seems like technology in the end doesn’t really make it easier or harder for anyone to create good work. In the end, it won’t really matter if you are qualified or not when designing 41
and it won’t prevent you from succeeding. The main factor that brings success in the industry seems to be the ideas you come up with. Alan Fletcher’s response to “What is the most treasured and well-used piece of equipment in your studio?” was “My Head.” (Brook & Shaughnessy, 2009, p. 7) The purpose of going to university and studying the subject is to fill your head with ideas and inspiration. You must also be taught how to use technology and techniques to convey them to the highest standard. Gerry Leonidas, a senior lecturer of typography in Reading University agrees with this and has said, “For design educators, instilling in students a healthy dose of critical attitude towards their tools, and making them ask at every opportunity ‘How is this machine translating my intentions?’ should be a priority.” (Leonidas, 2011, p. 72) I feel graphic design is heading for tough times. Clients or businesses can now get a low cost logo created in a matter of hours. They can design their own business cards, and have them printed through companies such as Vistaprint. Prospective customers can now create a free Facebook page to use as online presence. These services could be detrimental to our profession. This isn’t just bad news for the self-taught designer; it means all graphic designers have to be better than ever. Graphic designers must persuade these clients to choose us over saving costs. We must enhance our output to show we can produce superior quality branding for a company.
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This is my desk where this essay was written, designed and printed. There is no way I could have created it to this standard, without the technology developed in the last few years. 43
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Gordon, B. & Gordon, M., 2002. The Complete Guide to Digital Graphic Design. London: Thames & Hudson. Greiman, A. & Martin, E., 1990. Hybrid Imagery: The Fusion of Technology and Graphic Design. London: Architecture Design and Technology Press. Hawkins, T., 2011. Crack Magazine: Interview with Anthony Burrill. [Online] Available at: http://crackmagazine.net/art/anthony-burrill/ [Accessed 27 11 2012]. Heller, S., 1994. Cult of the Ugly. In: Looking Closer. New York: Allworth Press, pp. 155-159. Helvetica. 2007. [Film] Directed by Gary Hustwit. USA: Swiss Dots; Veer. Hollis, R., 2002. Graphic Design: A Concise History. 2nd ed. New York: Thames and Hudson Ltd. Leonidas, G., 2011. Lost in Flatlands. Eye, Issue 80, p. 72. Lupton, E., 2009. Foreword. In: H. Armstrong, ed. Graphic Design Theory: Readings From The Field. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, pp. 6-7. Newark, Q., 2007. What Is Graphic Design?. Mies, Switzerland: RotoVision SA. Observer Omnimedia LLC, 2003-2012. Design Observer. [Online] Available at: http://designobserver.com/author. html?author=817 [Accessed 10 11 2012]. Royal College of Art, n.d. Royal College of Art. [Online] 46
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