How come most designers suck?
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- ukit0
At least you are above the fray gramme;)
To respond to your point though, I don't think that's what McLuhan was aiming at when he said that. Trite, superficial design has always existed, hasn't it - through modernity, post-modernity, or whatever people want to call it.
Postmodernism is a pretty nebulous term, and I'm probably out of my league trying to define it, but in graphic design I don't think it means that things are superficial, just that the classical ideas of good/ bad/ utilitarianism are not as applicable.
- lvl_130
the message is more important than the medium. however, the medium dictates the way a message is perceived/received. the problem is the message has gone to shit, and the medium sits prominently upon it.
flies on shit.
- gramme0
Well, I'm not a McLuhan expert, but I think one thing he was onto was the notion that truth and objectivity would dwindle in popularity, being favored instead by popular opinion, comfort, excitement, etc.
I see your point. I only gave a partial characterization of postmodernism in design—a thing that is by very definition broad and multifaceted. I'm a big supporter of the positive effects postmodernism has wrought: eclectic solutions and ways of arriving at them; cross-breeding of cultural and historical references; dynamic identities; etc.
Practically speaking, I'm thankful for postmodernism, because very few of the design gurus in the world still think everything should be set in Helvetica, or that every company's color should be PMS 485 red. As if a single stylistic approach could be one-size-fits-all (or that all vestiges of style could possibly be shed. This too is false).
- gramme0
I hear you lvl, though I'm not sure the medium actually *dictates* the way a message is perceived or received. I wouldn't go that far; I'd say the medium heavily influences, but not that it dictates.
I agree with your assessment that messages, or respect for the notion and value of meaningful messages have gone to shit.
I personally am becoming more and more interested in working only for clients who actually have something to say, as opposed to people who just have a neat gadget to sell. Anything less just seems like creating clothes with no emperor in sight.
- ukit0
I'm not sure postmodernism has even had as great of an influence on graphic design the way it has other forms of art, since a lot of forms of GD are utilitarian. It's easy for an installation to be postmodern, but not so much a street sign. When I was in college it seemed like maybe it was - some of my professors were from the Cranbrook program and very much practicing that deconstructionist approach you would associate with people like David Carson - but once that trend passed graphic design kind of rejected the overkill of that approach and more or less returned to a modernist approach. Maybe it just shows the elements of these academic concepts to describe all of what is happening in art, design, etc.
- lvl_130
very true gramme. i guess "dictates" was giving too much solidification to the overall idea and thus the final execution.
- gramme0
I agree that modernism is still much more in vogue in our world than in the art world. Maybe that's because postmodernism tends to not place as much value on function as modernism did.
I think there are good things about both sets of philosophy. They're both enormous after all, and postmodernism is still growing and developing (I don't mean just in design or art, I'm thinking broader than that). So you take the useful things from each, and make things that are practical yet human.
- gramme0
I'm exhausted... bedtime fellas. g'nite.
- cannonball19780
*skim/scroll to end of thread*
lay off the meth
- i'm assuming you are talking to the voices in your head, in which case you should abide by them.lvl_13
- Thesocialgospel0
Everyone actively participating in this thread sucks.
- I strongly agree/vehemently oppose what you you say, my friend/fag.fuckinglol_prophet
- B-)Thesocialgospel
- :DThesocialgospel
- forcetwelve0
wow. what's been happening here.
- Elwin740
Graphic design < taste