What if Design was Actually Recognized by the General Public?
What if designers were heralded as much as musicians, actors or sports figures? What if your best friend could spout off names like Paul Rand, Milton Glasner or Jonathan Ive as fast as Jordan, Will Smith or Kanye?
There’s an interesting discussion going on at A Brief Message about the importance of design and why its not featured in publications like NY Times and other big media entities. While I agreed with the article at first, part of me questioned why design needed to be brought into society’s spotlight. More importantly, what benefit does it bring to the discipline when being a designer means you can achieve fame and fortune? Would it help things at all?
Not that the design profession is a pure profession of angelic creative martyrs but on the whole, you get into design because you love it, not for the paycheck or notoriety. You get into design knowing that your own parents will not understand exactly what you do. You get into it knowing that you could make more waiting tables or working as a manger at some store. Designers aren’t driving down the road in Aston’s, top down, throwing $100’s out of the window. Most of us choose to be designers for much simpler reasons.
So if design stays transparent in society with a little fanfare here and there, that’s just fine for me. People will continue to design great things and designers will be just fine being noticed by their peers.
December 6th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
I’m not sure I think FAME for a designer in general is what he was talking about should happen. I think the bigger issue is that the majority of people aren’t educated enough on Design and the impact it has on everyones dailey life, or rather the impact it potentially can have. So I think if they had a section devoted to design, that perhaps the public can slowly become educated on our industry.
There are far too many times where Designers don’t get the respect they deserve from clients…
Nice thoughts though, I enjoyed reading them and thinking them through, it made for a great addition to the article on A Brief Message, which by the way that’s how I stumbled upon your site. I read your comment on A Brief Message and well here I am.
December 6th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
I do agree that designers do not get the respect they deserve but don’t know if being spotlighted by mainstream media outlets is the way to go.
Take music for example. Music is a pretty ubiquitous medium that has its fair share of media spotlight but do people in general understand it more or treat it with more respect? Not really. If we all learned more about music principles and all that comes with being a musician, Soulja Boy would not be the #1 song in America. The spotlight or society’s comprehension of the medium will not increase the quality of the music.
December 11th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Before I started design school, I didn’t know didly squat about graphic design…other than it meant I could be an “artist” and get paid. But I thought the only thing that paid was doing letterheads and business cards for lawyers and brochures for gas stations and other things with that same design aesthetic. In short, I was completely ignorant to anything that makes design, DESIGN.
Why would I badmouth myself like that?
Because I find myself to be a good example of how the simple education of what design really is, can give anyone an appreciation for objects, graphics, spaces, etc…that have been thoughtfully created by human beings.
I’m sure many can sympathize, that when you go to design school, and you come home and talk to your family and friends about design, they all get confused, but after time, start to understand some of the bits and pieces that you share with them. I’ve seen non-designers talk about typefaces, and page layouts, they don’t really understand the deep qualities of what they’re saying, but the important thing is that they are aware of these things existing around them
I do think the fame aspect is something that can spark this interest in the general population. If a designer is given recognition, and becomes somewhat of a celebrity, people will most likely take notice and think “they’re famous for what you say? maybe this is something I should know about.” Designers just don’t market themselves as celebrities though, with exceptions.
Why is it that designers should be in the background? To relive my former ignorance of design, I used to think bands created their own album covers, and I never even thought that someone who specializes in that would be given that job. Usually the spot of fame for someone taking a background seat is reserved for film directors, and music producers. Though music producers were never in the spotlight as much as they are after hip hop and dj culture have brought them into the public eye.
For design to be appreciated and celebrated by the public, what would need to come first? Obviously there is good design already being produced. It just gets taken for granted, outside the design and some parts of the business community. Would it take treating designers like stars? and giving them recognition on the covers of books, or next to the writers name on the spreads of magazines? Many fashion and industrial design goods are sold based on the designers name, what if graphic design was done the same way? And graphic designers were treated as important parts of a whole product, such as illustrators or photographers?
Well, that’s my 2 cents.
December 26th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Super soak that hoe…superman…whoooo! cmon guys those lyrics from a 10 year old are fire…..not. I agree with dennis, if you can dub your shit to a barney video and it matches up, I say gimme two more hands so I can give it four thumbs down. PPFFFFTTTT!!!!