Graphic Design and Hubris: Why it's Sometimes Merited
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2008 at 8:47 pm.
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Graphic designers (and "creative types" in general) are sometimes accused of thinking a bit too much of their profession. In design school, in reading about design, and in talking about design, we're convinced that we're learning a craft, that in our schooling, we're allowed knowledge of secrets that not just anybody can possess. We're convinced that graphic design can affect societal change, that it's an integral part of modern society. Without the talents and skills of creative professionals, the world would arguably be a much more bland place.
There are some that call this point of view hogwash, that it's just arrogance and hubris and ultimately, designers fill a niche in the capitalist world just like any other profession: we're there to feed ourselves and maybe make a buck or two in the process, so don't attach any undue nobility or respect to a service and skill that isn't too vastly different from anything less cerebral or artistic.
Normally, my inclination is to agree; I'm not designing for higher ideals, I'm designing to pay the rent and to add to my savings account. I certainly love design, and wouldn't be doing it if that weren't the case, and while some designers actually do affect serious societal change, they are surely in the minority.
That is, until I read this presentation (PDF link) over at Netdiver.
When I think of graphic design in the context of changing society, I think of propaganda posters and gigantic corporations. However, there are more, very subtle, ways in which design affects those who view it, and therefore society as a whole.
As designers, we do have power to affect change--perhaps not on an individual basis (at least in most cases), but collectively, as a community. The presentation, written by Nick Bell, discusses several ways in which design (not necessarily graphic design) has the power to slowly change the world.
For instance, he cites the fact that portions of food are slowly, surely growing, even as the developed world's collective waistband expands to unhealthy measurements. Without a subtle, psychological push in that direction, people would stop eating when they were full. But using the psychological tools available to us as designers, design makes it much harder to resist food on the shelf, and make it more difficult to stop eating once we feel full. The result has been a gradual expanding of the American gut--and a corresponding increase in disease associated with obesity. Design can't necessarily be solely credited with changes such as these, but the changes would be nonexistent without design.
The presentation mentions several examples of negative change in society affected by design. But, the message of the presentation is that incredible positive change can be made by us, collectively, as designers. He goes on to cite several positive examples of how design helps society.
Ultimately, it helped me to realize that, while many of us are just here to pay the bills while doing something we love, we don't necessarily have to take on projects that conflict with our beliefs and ideals. Package designers don't have to make the fattiest foods the most visually appealing, or take on projects that require them to do so; landscape architects don't necessarily have to serve clients whose corporate practices infringe on their personal morality; print designers don't have to listen to a client who demands pre-consumer paper products; we web designers don't have to take on projects for companies whose messages rub us wrong. There are plenty of clients out there, and we have every right to turn the wrong ones down.
Perhaps it's a bit idealistic, and I'm buying into the hubris that I once denounced. But I'd much rather do something, believing it's the right thing and will affect the world in a positive way, than do a project and not care either way because I'm just here for the paycheck. It's much easier to do work that you believe in.
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