Graphic Authorship
What a difficult read. But a lot of interesting ideas here. The criteria for an Auteur is what I find to be the most interesting. But I’m not sure how much that last point can be applied to graphic designers. Majority of the time, isn’t our job to please the client? To please the brief, essentially? At a certain point, wouldn’t the work look inconsistent? (not in a bad way) Why would we want one project to look like another?
Rock has an interesting category for designers; one that says they use the medium to create “functionless or self referential statements and compositions.” April Grieman is a perfect example. Essentially, this is more of a work of art that has become a statement for her. The client is taken out of the equation yet she still follows the basic principles of design.
If an author is someone who creates (as mentioned earlier in the article), then Anne Burdick hits it on the nail when she says designers need to be authors and not facilitators. it “implies responsibility, voice, and action.”
I’ve been writing this as I was reading this and the second to last sentence really sums up what he’s been trying to say (kind of don’t understand why it took him so long to say this) – “In the end authorship is a device to rethink process and expand design methods. While theories of graphic authorship may change the way work is made, critics must still question what it does and how it does it, not where it comes from.”
The Designer as Producer
I like what Ellen is saying in her article. Although designers solve problems visually, we are still reacting to problems placed before us by the clients. “The word author suggests agency, intention, and creation, as opposed to the more passive functions of consulting, styling, and formatting.”
It’s interesting how Lupton pushes for designers to take control of the production by becoming more than producers. They need to become masters at what they do. I completely agree with her when she says we have to do more than just design (photography, sculpting, etc.). The more skills we have, the better we will be. That’s exactly how I look at coding. It’s just another skill that contributes to me as a designer and makes me more employable.
Writing is a good tool for designers, something I am starting to realize. It will help us with our brainstorming process to start with.
Designers Are The New Drivers Of American Entrepreneurialism
I like the emphasis on designers collaborating with the tech guys or developers. That right there needs to be pushed more.
But I don’t agree with what he says about creatives. Yes, I agree that creativity is more widely accepted in the business world (although, I still feel like design would do a better job of that), but I still feel like they need some sort of designer there. After all, we make sure that for one, the readability is there, for whatever is that needs to be created. (hopefully I’m not going off too much on a tangent)
So, key concepts we need to know about:
- Leadership and the role of charisma
- Framing, connecting dots in unique ways (forced connections anyone?)
- Meaning, knowledge that takes us much deeper into understanding culture. We need to hone craft and skill to near perfection to enable ourselves to make and do unique things (which is what entrepreneurs do).