Authorship in the Design World
As mentioned earlier in a previous blog post, the meaning of graphic design is changing over the course of time. The first instance that comes to mind is indeed the visual aspect of it, however, designers these days are looking more into the process as well as the content of their work.
This week we will be looking at the authorship aspect of the design world. The lecture was a presentation by Craig Oldham, a graphic design based in London. He starts of by presenting graphic design as a means of communication. “The overall role of a Graphic Designer is communication”. Indeed graphic designer is not just a means of self-expression. Whilst graphic designers indeed apply their creative skills when working on a project, the end-product has some specific purpose. He continues by saying “graphic design is for others to others”. I could not agree more, graphic designers are making things for their clients which will be used to attract a specific target market. It was a very interesting lecture indeed. I liked the way Oldham iterates that most works out there are derivatives for one another. Although that is not necessarily a bad thing. Originality comes in the way things are combined together. Also, people are more likely to respond positively to things they are familiar with. It is common knowledge that people fear what they do not understand.
On a completely different note, Oldham then talks about ones design principles when it come to ones work and also whether the work is designed for a client, an audience and oneself. This makes a big difference in the direction a typical graphic designer would take, particularly should one decide to start a business. That being said, true authorship comes with the content of the work. Designing for the sake of design will get you so far. If there is no message behind it, people are very unlikely to actively respond to it. To better explain this notion, Oldham presents one of his recent projects, where he published a series of books inspired by fictitious book titles used in movies. It was a very interesting project and it was something that people related to, as they were familiar with the films, yet they also had something to take away from each book, as the book tackled different topics according to what inspired the film in the first place.
From Michael Rock’s essay ‘Designer as Author’…
In addition to the lecture, I thought of looking at Michael Rock’s essay titled Designer as Author, which was published in 1996. It is a very compelling essay and explores various aspects of this topic, from historical to legal and social. It was very interesting how also the meaning of the term ‘author’ changed dramatically over the course of time. In ancient times, anonymity in a document implied that the document is authentic, however in the Renaissance, an author’s name in a literary work, particularly scientific ones, deemed its validation.
It can be said that even today, authorship does give a sense of ownership as well as validation. Taking essays as examples, one would definitely rely on the one that bear an author’s name over to an anonymous one. For one thing, one can look up who wrote the essay in the first place. I am saying that anonymity is a bad thing, however it should be used wisely. Are you using anonymity to make a statement, or using it as camouflage? Signing off on anything, makes you accountable, however it would show that you belief in what you are saying and the statements you are making.
