I was recently asked this question by a former student: "Why am I designer and what can I offer to businesses to help them grow their business?" This former student was responding to a post at http://www.greghowlett.com/blog/thoughts/030510.aspx.

This is a big question that has a big answer. In a nutshell designers offer a visual/cultural translation service between industry and society. The people who develop travel programs, for instance, or soft drinks, or laundry detergent are not always able to seamlessly present the benefits of their product to a receptive audience. Marketing specialists help by studying demographics and identifying target audiences, but it is the designers who must interpret the client’s message in the best visual way for maximum communication. For that reason, graphic designers have become almost like mediators between business and society.

For more on this topic you may want to read David Barringer's essay, “American Mutt” originally printed in Emigre, no. 68 (2005). It is reprinted in Looking Closer Five: Critical Writings on Graphic Design (edited by Michael Bierut, William Drentel, and Steven Heller).

This is one of my favorite pieces of 20th century graphic design. I am currently doing a project on a similar theme: Materiality in Graphic Design. I'm glad the Gastrotypographicassemblage is being restored.

http://www.thecenterfordesignstudy.com/about.htm

While discussing the topic of sustainability in design in class this morning it occurred to me that the Bible actually has much to say about sustainability. The "subdue the earth" clause in Genesis 1:28 seems to include an aspect of stewardship; Adam and Eve's original task was to husband the Garden of Eden, clearly a conservation role. And, while I have not studied it yet, I can see some element of sustainability in the Mosaic law. The plan of Redemption is definitely a case of sustainability.

Just a few of the day's significant thoughts.

So what does the word "print" mean to you?

I am in this course at the Savannah College of Art and Design called "Print Studio II." In this course we spent the first week discussing the apocalyptic-sounding topic, "the end of print" famously postulated by David Carson and others (see previous entry). This discussion pretty much revolved around the contrast of "electronic media" (read websites) and "print" (defined mostly as books, magazines, newspapers, and interestingly, packaging . . . which can't really be satisfactorily addressed by electronic media).

Now, five weeks into the course, a few of the students have been proposing topics and projects that are really environmental graphics by definition. However, the professor applauds their "out of the box" thinking and now says that we should think "beyond traditional print."

I don't get it. "Print" means printing, right? Ink or toner or something in some plastic state gets put onto some substrate like paper, or plastic, or cloth, or metal, or whatever. It's generally accepted to be a process of multiple reproductions and has been for more than 400 years. So why now can it mean all sorts of things?

According to this definition, Maya Lin's Vietnam War Memorial, consisting of yards and yards of black marble with soldier's names carved into it, is "print," even though the names are carved into the marble, not printed.

I just don't understand why the dictionary definition of something isn't satisfactory anymore.

16 January 2010

written for a print design course and originally posted as a facebook note

We are not at the end of print any more than we are at the end of horseback riding, rail transport, or ocean-going shipping. The automobile significantly altered the role of the horse in industrialized society, but horses would be a valuable fallback means of personal transportation if for some reason we no longer had the car. The tractor-trailer and the airplane diminished the need for railroad traffic and marine shipping, yet both modes of transportation persist in various applications and in varying importance in different parts of the world. While ephemeral media (such as newspapers and magazines) are succumbing to the competitive realities of electronic media, printed objects will persist for a number of reasons.

There is an important place for the printed object in society. Most notably, in many parts of the world the printed book will be hard to replace, even by the Kindle and Plastic Logic. The codex form is deeply implanted as a cultural legacy in nearly every society and is widely understood and appreciated. Printed objects require no electrical power to operate and are extremely simple to use, especially in certain reading conditions. Printed objects offer a materiality that functions on both an emotional and an intellectual level. The challenges of fine typography and printing techniques continue to engage designers and printers alike, to the delight of consumers.

Dimension is a particular drawback to the traditional printed object. Libraries, book stores, and bookshelves all attest to the storage needs for printed objects. Paper consumption and conservation concerns are also detractors to the printed object. Production and distribution costs are considerably higher for printed objects than for electronic media. However, the reverence that many societies feel for the printed object more than balances these considerations.

For the graphic designer, print presents a unique set of opportunities, challenges, and benefits. Collaboration, materiality, typography, and a connection with the past all contribute to the joys of print design. As designers find ways to work in both print and electronic media, they expand their skills and abilities, and interesting cross-pollination is possible from one model to the other.

As an older designer, I have had far more experience and opportunity to work with print than with screen-based projects. For me, all visual solutions stem from the same basic principles. Format is a guiding feature of the design, as is content, purpose, target, strategy, and visual elements of line, color, space, shape, texture, value, and form. Each medium requires a specific technical understanding and skills, but my design approach to each is the same.