Harriet Ferguson and her views on globalisation – Globalisation and its Effects on Design: Part 2
The second part of this week’s lecture was presented by Harriet Ferguson, a graphic designer working for Pearlfisher. In this lecture, she presents her views on how globalisation is affecting the design industry today, its pros and cons as well as the way ahead.
Her presentation is split into four major points: collaboration, inspiration, the visual culture and future. In collaboration, she discusses how through globalisation, worldwide collaboration is easier, one can source talent easier and sources are unlimited, making the sourcing more efficient. One would find the right person fitting for the right job. In her opinion, Ferguson sees that globalisation has shed light on a ‘treasure trove’ of talent. Following up on this, she also talks about how design studios can now work with international clients and brings out more the diversity of this world, which linked to her second and third points in her presentation.
Her next points were inspiration and visual culture. I really found this part particularly interesting, as she voices arguments which I agree with and have discussed them myself with peers from school and work. With unlimited access to technology and by default, to information, sources of inspiration are unlimited. However, according to Ferguson, this can be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing for it is very accessible, inexpensive and very efficient way of finding material that feed your creative juices. Nevertheless, such accessibility can be a curse as it can lead to design solutions that are aesthetically trendy, but with little meaning. This is often caused because many designers look up inspirational material from the same sources, hence ending up being inspired by the same visuals. This is because search engines often rank up the popular images first and the more these images are clicked the more they will show up. It is a vicious cycle. In Ferguson’s opinion, design should tell a story. Substance should win over aesthetics.
When it come to visual culture, she brings up the importance of cultural adaption in creating visual content on any sort and also to look at what the consumer is looking for these days. Colour plays a prominent role when it comes to designing for a worldwide audience. It can change the perception of a visual identity very easily. In addition, consumers are more design savvy, therefore they know what to look for when it comes to brand authenticity. They are seeing different visuals constantly. With all this in mind, as designers, working for an international brand can be difficult for it comes with quite a few challenges.
She concludes with what the future may hold and what are the best practices to create brands that work well in today’s world and that can last long. ‘Simplicity goes a long way’. As everyone is overflowing with information and many are leading quite a busy life, in order for a brand to stand out, it needs to be simple and to the point. According to Ferguson, the strongest brands have a unique way of speaking to their consumers plus they need to be authentic.
I have found this lecture to be incredibly informative, contemporary and condensed at the same time. Ferguson raised very valid points in her discussion and goes straight to the point. Also, I liked the way she broke down her argument into the four points mentioned above. It condenses the whole argument and makes it easy to remember all the necessary information and advice to carry it along and getting back to it whilst working on the next design project.
