WHAT IS DESIGN?

Many designers believe that graphic design has number of responsibilities toward society. Among responsibilities of concern to graphic designers is the influence and impact of visual communication on the visual environment, as well as the need to ensure that communication works toward community safety in an appropriate way. Solving a design problem is not just about visual appeal and clarity, it also needs to be effective as a communication tool, preventing and reducing socially and personally harmful outcomes. The design process should not only produce symbols but also test the effectiveness of design after delivery.

Design is a science?

Testing and predicting graphic design impact ought to be parts of the design process, making design essentially about problem solving. However, design problem solving using similar processes to those applied in the sciences could be confusing, as it suggests that design is a science. Herbert Simon points out that there is a difference between design-in-general and science. On a simplistic level it maybe argued that science is concerned with how things are, while design is concerned with how objects and ideas can be proposed and realized in respect of utility.

Design is an art?

It is popularly asserted that design and art have a long interface with each other throughout history. Unfortunately, this shared history can result in the designer’s desire to play a central role in the design process. The fine arts legacy positions the designer at the center of the artifact project, just as it does the art project. In most cases, the artist is usually the focal point of the artifact and artists are encouraged to produce art outcomes that are largely self-referential. Norman Potter in What is a Designer answers the question, is the designer an artist with an emphatic: NO! As Potter explains, the designer often works for others solving their problems, while the artist is working for himself/herself to solve his/her own problems and express his/her own visions.

Design is Design

Many voices argue that design should not be claimed as an art or science. They believe that the call for design to become an art is a reduction of both design to aesthetics and designer to egoist. Likewise, treating design as a science is a conversion of design to a purely functional tool serving restricted economy.

As one of these voices, I believe that design should be treated as design and only design.

Tactile Graphics – Designer's New Portfolio Trump Card

Tactile Graphics refer to designs involve the use of a variety of materials such as wood, glass, and paper. They may also involve the use of tools such as computer software, and techniques such as mass-produced, handmade and ready-made products. Tactile Graphics are used to create and produce two-dimensional and three-dimensional communication mediums. Primarily focus on the senses of touch and sight.

There are many practitioners keen on having tactile work in their portfolio, especially if they have a hand in making such work. The tactility is able to give the artwork greater depth and can make it more personal and original. Duchamp’s Green Box Notes is one of the historical examples that reflect the importance of the originality and the personality in the artwork. Duchamp explained the importance of making each box of his 320 box project as accurate as the original box: I wanted to reproduce them as accurately as possible. So I had all of these thoughts lithographed in the same ink, which had been used for the originals. To find paper that was exactly the same, I had to ransack the most unlikely nooks and crannies of Paris. Then we cut out three hundred copies of each lithograph with the help of zinc patterns that I had cut out on the outlines of the original papers.

Whether is created by one or a combination of handmade, readymade, mass-produced or exclusively produced processes, using one or a mixture of materials, it will reflect the unique character of both the sender and the recipient. American designer Steven Guarnaccia said it succinctly:

…. handmade work conveys a sense of personal contact between the sender and the recipient, because it is not something you just look at but also have to handle. By simply adding an element on top of the paper, for instance, the piece becomes an object. Even if it is printed in some aspects, the tactile element makes the printing seem more personal, as if it were saying, ‘This was made just for you’.

Street & Lewis in the introduction of their book Touch Graphics wrote: Still, tactility is graphic design’s trump card, and textile designs often become the most prominent pieces in a portfolio. 
One argument is that the age of the mass audience is no longer relevant and has been overtaken by the age of the selective target audience.

Today’s advertising materials should carry meaningful messages and not insult the intelligence of the audience. Rance Crain wrote in the pages of Advertising Age:

I’ve been talking to ad people who say that advertising can no longer be linear as it was in the days of Bill Bernbach and David Ogilvy. In other words, ads shouldn’t be so presumptuous as to sell the product directly and straightforwardly. Instead, advertising’s new role is to show that your products share the same value as your target consumer. One ad guy told me his son likes the Miller Time ads because they’re “weird,” and presumably he likes the ads because he likes weird things.