no title necessary…
By megan dealOctober 20th, 2007
By: Megan Deal
So here it is, another friday night, and I’m left wondering how I’ve advanced this critical writing project over the past week, if at all. I’d attribute much of my uncertainty to a personal lack of confidence in what I’m doing, or perhaps due in part to a general feeling of invalidness. I often convince myself that my peers could care less about the issues that I’m addressing, and that by the end of the semester all that I’ll have to show for my hard work is a series of irrelevant “preachy” essays; a pitiful outcome from a fourth year student in a major studio course. My personal agenda seems to be morphing as well, as I immerse myself each week in more and more reading, writing, and research on various design issues. Perhaps this too lends itself to my frustration. The work that I’m doing does not manifest itself as a visual showpiece each week, and thus the time being devoted to this study goes unnoticed.
I’m beginning to think that certain design issues aren’t typically addressed by undergraduate students because our focus is consumed elsewhere. Our time is often spent with realistic approaches to design rather then idealistic. The end goal of our endeavors seems to be focused on producing a solid portfolio, pristine formal skills, and a cultivated conceptual ability. For many this is ideal, and I have much faith that CCS graduates will flourish as they’re released one by one into the design field. We are trained well. But for me, and a few others, design still must exist as something more. I have little interest in helping worldwide conglomerates sell more useless goods to unsuspecting consumers, regardless of how “fresh” their design sense may be. I have even less of an interest investing my time with a project that puts my morals into question, and I’d rather eat white rice 5 days a week then sacrifice my integrity, or worse, “loose my soul,” for the next big paycheck.
I suppose that my own future within the field depends upon the development of a personal set of values, and finding the appropriate realm where these principles can be put into practice. It is within that realm that my purpose as a designer will make sense. Only when graphic design is being employed to it’s full potential, when it is being utilized for the greater good, will pulling all-nighters to do “work” actually be relevant.
I don’t live in a fantasy land. I realize that getting to a certain place both professionally and personally takes time. I too, pay a landlord every month, and would undoubtedly “produce” another aimless piece of visual communication before I traded my studio for a cardboard box. I don’t intend this post to come off as presumptuous or arrogant. This, I suppose is my personal way of figuring out what the hell I’m doing as a designer…and why. It is my hope that others too will begin to examine their purpose within the realm of graphic design, or at the very least, consider how the choices we make as designers can effect the culture at large.
Personally, my end goals couldn’t have less to do with a so-called “solid portfolio” or a high paying job, however, I think that pairing formal skills and conceptual ability with a more corporate sense of design is unfair, as these things are largely not present in the corporate world of design. I also really hope that there are more than just “a few others” who hope to do something more than sell a product for a worldwide conglomerate, this is, after all, the reason that the graphic design and advertising design departments split.
I have been told at school that my work is too fine-arty, which was infuriating, because while I respect people’s knowledge of, as you said, “pristine formal skills”, I do not respect their right to tell me how I should produce or display my ideas (as long as they meet formal and conceptual criteria). We do go to an art school, right? For you design may be at its highest when it is moralistic, for me when it is self-gratifiying, and for the next person it could be any infinite number of things.
Your post isn’t arrogant, its refreshing, after all, we are all doing this because we want to do it, not because its the quickest way to make a million dollars.
trust me you are not the only one. but what if didn’t question so much and just started doing. doing for good, doing for the mundane, just doing.
why question when are the verge of an answer..
why think so much when we are the answer..
do what you do for you and it will always be Relevant with a big R.
Perhaps at a certain point we all need to “shut-up and do,” as a certain instructor would say. Yes, I agree with your point. But consider, if we just do and do and do and do, and make and make and make and make, without posing questions, then we’re devaluing our role as designers.
I was talking to a full time Ad teacher in a classroom about a year ago (their classes ended and I kind of walked into an informal discussion) and he asked what major I was. I told him, and his reply was “oh, I’m sorry” followed by “if you want to make any money you’re on the wrong side of the fence” and everyone else in the room cracked up laughing” I took it fairly personal, yet didn’t even have a rebuttal. Honestly, I can’t say I’m totally opposed to doing work that in the end, sells consumer goods, but I like the freedom that we have to do more than a story board, draw up a comp. We can play with play-doh and make a bloody ghost out of a tissue, scotch tape and crayola marker and no one questions us. There are a few studios out in the Denver area that cater to a lot of the outdoor markets such as camping, biking, dirtbikes, snowboarding, and are small enough that it _seems_ everyone plays a role in the project. Its not just split into the ad guys selling the pitch, and the graphic designers sitting in a back room like work horses. I think I am more interested in doing work that interests me…be it the industry it is for, or the actual project….but thats the environment I’d like to be a part of.
cori,
you should have asked him a.) how old are you? and b.) how many hundreds of Gs are you pulling in on that ccs paycheck?
what an incredibly inappropriate thing to say to a student.