low inertia

Visual design double bind

Pro-design

• I enjoy creating images
• I enjoy seeing other people’s design, even if I am deeply envious of it
• I feel great when people tell me that they like my images
• I feel that good design can be seed for positive change in other people (positive being defined by myself (obviously), and generally consisting of self-reflection towards deep attitudes and beliefs)
• I feel that good design can create genuinely positive emotional experiences for people

Anti-design

• I feel our culture is far too materialistic, and design is often used as a wedge between people rather than an avenue between people
• I feel that having a positive emotional experience from purchasing a positional design good signals how alienated people are from each other.
• I feel that visual design is almost strictly commercial, and is essentially only for selling things, rather than urging exploration of things greater than the individual.

Two things become clear to me:

1. I clearly have a fascination with connecting to other people. Is that just me, or is it a trait in most people?
2. Like all things, visual design has negative and positive aspects. I choose which lens I use. Like Ghandi said: “Be the change that you want to see in the world. “

It is truly incredible how externalizing beliefs (in this case by typing out the words) sheds lights on the most excruciating of quandries. It’s all so simple!

i agree with much of anti-design. i just don’t get excited by design anymore. and the last thing it is, for me, is emotional. esp. since most design now is created through photoshop and looks completely plastic.

also, i’m not sure how design can make our world better. does that mean creating a really good poster for a really good movie that makes us all better citizens? a great book cover for a wonderful book that makes us all better citizens? or is the feeling of wanting to make a difference foolish, and we should just focus on being good to those we love, and becoming good at a craft and saying bullocks to supposedly higher aims?

How design can make the world better is a tough question. I can see how great graffiti or a street poster/sticker can get people thinking. Of course, most design is commerical, and that’s what most people see. Look at the “inspired” campaign that a few big companies are running. It’s well designed and attention getting, and may very well be exposing people to an issue they’ve never thought about, namely AIDS. I’m thinking of 14-16 year olds specifically. This is obviously apocryphal, but maybe 100 people who buy a Kanye West hawked phone actually look into the whole thing and volunteer at their hospital at some point. Fill in your own verbs and nouns.

Mainly, people like you and I face a choice about how to view the world, like you said. I can be a cynic, and say all design does it trick you in buying useless shit, or I can hopeful and think that the work I do moves me closer to the goals I deem worthy. I’ve decided to be more hopeful.