Ed Roach over at SmallBusinessBranding.com has recently written and article entitled Why Graphic Design is the Worst Brand Ever where he details the current problem of graphic design as a commodity from a business owner’s perspective. It’s always great to get an outside perspective. This is a problem that needs a solution. If anyone has any ideas please leave a comment … or better yet, start solving it.
Ed Roach is guilty of two things (Firstly) Nostalgia. That age old argument that computers killed good design is fallacy.(Secondly) Snobbery. Many good designers skipped college going on to influence thousands of designers after them with a more inventive and less conservative approach: David Carson, Tibor Kalman, Anthon Beeke spring to mind.
What really kills design has more to do with an unwillingness on the behalf of the designer to engage with the business world. What I mean by this is that the hostility often vented towards things such as marketing gets us no where. In the end, if GD is seen as commodity it is GD’s that are responsible not computerisation or autodidacts.
Even in Richard Hollis’s excellent book on Swiss Design, he writes about grumbling modernist designers hungry for more recognition, more pay. This is not by any means a new phenomenon.
Regarding bad design, Eric Spiekermann has said the following in an interview with Ping magazine.
“There is a market for fast food – I don’t eat it but, there is nothing wrong with it. There are lots of people who are probably well served with it. In fact, the more of that cheap stuff is out there, the higher we get pushed.”
I believe Ed said, “Graphic design to be fair to businesses is the most at fault for this loss of brand professionalism.” I never got the impression he was blaming computers for the commoditization of graphic design.
Carson, Kalman and Beeke, though great “designers”, are by far not the only designers. Many designers have graduated from a university AND gone on influence thousands of designers. Also, many artists, movements, and technologies have unintentionally influenced thousands of designers to pursue new and inventive approaches to design. The point Roach seems to be making is that you can’t simply rely on purchased material (software) to make you a designer. If you read interviews with Beeke he can articulate very well what he was trying to communicate in a given work. I DO believe you can be an accomplished graphic designer without ever going to school. I DON’T believe you can be an accomplished designer by being lazy.
The commoditization of graphic design is a fact and will not be changed. It’s now time for graphic designers to adjust. I agree with Spiekermann in that we SHOULD be pushed higher. However, in a recent interview Steven Heller was asked, “Where is the most innovative and creative graphic design work occurring right now?” His answer, “I don’t think there is any. We’re in this interregnum. We’re waiting for things to happen.” Though we should be pushed higher I don’t think graphic designers are responding.
The main point of the article, which is addressed to small business owners, is you should not settle for a hack designer, but rather someone who has devoted some time to understanding visual communication. If you don’t think someone needs an understanding of visual communication to be a designer then you don’t understand what a graphic designer is. To quote Spiekermann, “Design is first and foremost an intellectual process. Contrary to popular belief, designers are not artists. They employ artistic methods to visualize thinking and process, but, unlike artists, they work to solve a client’s problem, not present their own view of the world.”
The problem is greed and lack of education. The frugality of businesses is one thing, farming out design work to the secretarial pool is done by only those uneducated enough not to recognize the value of good design and too greedy to invest in themselves.
This is the environment that fosters kids like the one who knew all the “tricks” (read: “filters”). Too dumb to realize how dumb he is, and probably has half a million Facebook friends (some w/ small businesses) willing to support him on the cheap.
Cut the Geography budget, and fifty years later (now) we have Congressmen who can’t find Afghanistan on a globe. Cut the art program (and everything else that requires critical thinking) and now there are few designers with anything meaningful to say or to cause us to think.
Good points Marshall but Roach does quote this:
“One person wrote in that her nephew in his quest to be a graphic designer, decided that he needn’t attend a sanctioned secondary education on the subject as he read several articles on graphic design off the web and now “knows everything there is to know on the subject”. He’s got the software, knows all the “tricks” and is now set to conquer the world.”
And he also wrote this
“Today anyone with a computer and a few hundred dollars in software believe themselves to be proficient in the execution of graphic design”
Can he substantiate this?
“The industry has done nothing to encourage professionalism in schools who churn out young “designers” who by all rights should not have even passed the course, let alone put out their shingle”
And does he really know what he’s talking about when he rants about this?
“I would love to ask that young man who knows everything to explain kerning to me. Can he explain what a widow is or where he might see a river in a body of text? Would he even care what trap and choke are? What they do know is every filter in Photoshop.”
Ed Roach’s article, although noble, is jaded. It’s a poor attempt. I’ve worked in both high end and low end agencies. I’ve worked with both passionate and disinterested designers and there are no hard and fast rules. The lower the scale the more of a service industry it becomes.
In relation to good designers coming out of universities, I’m not disputing this at all but what is so beautiful about technology today is that anyone CAN get hold of the software and design. That’s exactly what I did starting off.
I agree with you that design may need to be pushed to the next level but although I agree with a lot of what comes out of Spiekermann’s mouth not all designers are intellects; none of the ones I’ve worked with. It tends to be quite a shallow profession. Perhaps that’s what’s at fault.
Lastly, I agree that you can’t be an accomplished designer by being lazy but by the same token nor can you write an informative blog by being lazy. I tried to comment on Roach’s blog but seemingly he’s not allowing any comments that voice decent. Now that’s lazy!
WithoutThought,
If Roach (or SmallBusinessBranding.com) is rejecting your comments because you disagree I find that appalling and ignorant.
I agree with you, Roach’s comments are generalities. I’m sure not everyone who just buys a computer and Photoshop thinks they’re proficient at graphic design. About the design schools pushing out non-prepared students, that also is a generality. I have found both of these statements true in instances, however my experience is limited to the Midwest United States so I can’t speak for elsewhere.
I agree the lower the scale the more of a service industry it becomes. Are we to accept that Graphic Design IS losing it’s value? … maybe not to the extent of typesetters in the 80’s, but that it definitely isn’t worth as much as it was a decade ago? If we accept this then maybe places like LogoNerds.com, TheLogoLoft.com, and software like Logo Maker are valid incarnations of the new graphic design business model. This may also signal a decline in average salary of graphic designers and a societal lack of respect for the profession. My personal opinion here is that graphic design, unlike architecture, IS losing it’s value as an industry. I know the AIGA is currently trying to address this issue with their Designer of 2015 project. I’m not sure how the industry as a whole or organizations like ICOGRADA are addressing this issue, but I hope they are. I don’t think we need a great marketing campaign to convince people that graphic design is important. I think graphic designers need to think at a higher level of problem solving to prevent THEM from being a commodity. They need to be more intellectual if they want to be taken more seriously.
I also learned graphic design software on my own and had a fairly successful freelance graphic design business years before going to school for visual communication. I hadn’t read any books on graphic design. I had only looked at a few annuals. The school program I’m in now somewhat relies on students already knowing the software or at least learning it from tutorial books. So I can say at least one design school is working to adapt to this change in software availability.
All that said, I agree with you on many points and I think Roach hits the nail on the head in respect to the graphic design profession losing its shine among small business owners. This is his attempt at helping graphic designers and hopefully convincing some small business owners to take graphic design more seriously. Flawed article, yes and noble.
Marshall
You’ve changed my mind on a few things. To start with we are literally thousands of miles away from each other as I write this response from the South West of England. However, I am Dublin (Ireland) born to begin with and have moved over here for the year to study Brand Development. Perhaps like you, I have done everything in reverse and for various reasons.
The last agency that I worked in was frustrating for me. I worked with a lot of other designers who, whilst all nice people, were only interested in toeing the line and practicing the Managing Director’s philosophy of ‘give them what they want and they’ll go away’. I spent 2 and a half years working in opposition to this, going to great lengths to research projects properly, challenging clients with thought out concepts and on the whole I tried to encourage the younger designers, pushing their interests and drawing their attention to any events that were coming up. In the meantime, the job gave me the space and time needed to explore and develop my own skills as a designer. As a part of studio life, I feel that it is important not only to educate yourself but to share information with others but it’s disheartening when you discover that the other designers you work with aren’t all that interested. You would have gained a more positive response with a tutorial on how to get smooth skin in photoshop than to forward on an interview on typeradio.org
It was a bit of a passion killer.
Most of the clients we were dealing with were property developers who generally have no interest in quality design and only a very surface interest in what designers actually do. In that regard, some of the other designers in the studio worked better with these sorts of client, and became adept in speaking their language. The kind of client that I speak of was never ever ever going to be educated in design and its value. They understood that it was work worth giving to a professional team but they had no understanding of what else we could offer them in terms of communication (that said neither did our management at times). It was often depressing. Most jobs were reduced to mere production work.
I will never work at that level again, if I can help it. I would much rather work in a team who have adopted design as part of a lifestyle choice and not just a vocation.
But I think it’s very possible that the sites you speak of like TheLogoLoft etc will hoover up all of the low end of our business. As Spiekermann says, there is always going to be fast food. One site that I think has started to do this quite well is John Look
http://www.johnlook.com/en/
John Look has re-adapted the business model for graphic design, offering an alternative that may suit certain clients (including property developers and small business!). It’s pretty much a one stop shop that models itself on the fashion industry and here on the David report you can see how Look has extended this idea, using imaginative application
http://davidreport.com/blog/200708/diane-von-furstenberg-designing-business-cards/
I think there’s a real future for this style of business model and I’m quite prepared to work along side it. In terms of ‘give the client what they want’ it provides a perfectly suitable alternative. You can imagine this concept working with brochures too. The client goes in, is offered various sizes of brochure, is told how much text fits on each page (so they can figure their baldy written copy around it) is offered a series of lifestyle shots…I needn’t go on.
Point is that I agree Roach may have a point but the real solution may lie in looking at how design functions as a business. It may need an overhaul. I’m not saying John Look necessarily provides the answer but I’d much rather see underpaying clients shop here than come and waste my time. The designs are very passable.
I think the design industry may well be in decline but comparing it to architecture…
I know very little about how Architecture works as a an industry. But architecture isn’t a better ‘brand’ than Graphic Design. I find that premise to be quite ridiculous. I can only presume that (like you said) society places more importance on shelter than it does on printed communication.
It’s a moot point. Does Graphic Design have to move into the realms of fine art in order to gain respect? As I think aloud to myself I suppose Graphic Design isn’t seen as adding to culture in quite the same way as Architecture is. Would you think that right Marshall? I of course know the answer to this but on a general level, in terms of how it is perceived by the public, do you feel that Graphic Design is understood to be an indispensable cultural asset or just a kitsch method of communication?
WithoutThought,
I’m humbled that I may have changed your mind about something. I have also worked for a design firm that simply aims to appease the client by giving them what they ask for. However, more often than not, I have been very guilty of that myself. I too have tried to get designers I work with to think deeper about the decisions they make and the work they do. I want them to see the big picture when they only seem to want to see the paycheck.
John Look is very interesting. I’ve yet to see this type of graphic design service handled at this level. This has sparked some ideas in my mind about the structure of the graphic design industry. Typically, graphic designers have been a fairly pretentious crowd that try to hide their industry “secrets” so they will be more valued. After telling an art director that I described how to kern type to a secretary who put together a weekly bulletin I was told, in a serious manner, that I shouldn’t give away our secrets. This had led to many a graphic designer to either badmouth these DIY graphic design software programs, internet applications, and logo factories or completely ignore their existence. This is most likely out of fear. It is the belief of many graphic designers that their profession and work should be respected alongside architects. However, I’m starting to see how the entire industry could be tiered much like the fashion industry or architecture. What I’m saying is that I think LogoLoft and Sagmeister can coexist, The local community college that teaches graphic design and the Royal College of Art can coexist, have their own roles, and … get ready … respect one another. Like fashion where there are the Giorgio Armani’s, the George’s (clothing sold at Wal-Mart), and of course the mother who bought a sowing machine and makes dresses to sell at the local flee market. In architecture you have the Rem Koolhaus’s, the Champion Homes (mobile home manufacturer), and people who construct their own dwelling. This model makes much more sense to me than relegating small design-as-service companies to the status of “not a true designer” when, in fact, the idea of providing affordable graphic communication services to small companies with small budgets it is a well-designed solution. This also opens more opportunities for those disinterested designers who simply want to offer simple solutions to clients. Though I myself want to be involved in design that is more strategic and complex I don’t discount the need for small businesses to have access to this service.
I don’t think graphic design needs to move into the realms of fine art. If it does I think it will lose the title of design and just become art (not that art is an inferior thing, I just walked out of a Karl Wirsum exhibit and loved it). Some design is considered art but only after it has done the job it was intended for. Charles Eames, when asked if design was an expression of art, replied, “I would rather say it’s an expression of purpose. It may, if it is good enough, later be judged as art”.
I don’t know if graphic design is not adding to culture in quite the same way or scale as architecture. It is adding to culture, at least in the US, in the form of mass broadcasting, retail graphics, and branding. Whether it is contributing to culture in a positive manner is a matter of opinion … and in my opinion it hasn’t been that positive lately. The current graphic design that most permeates and influences our culture is graphic design used to promote corporate messages and agendas. This is only from my observation not from any facts or studies.
Looking at the visual communication that evolved from the confusing type placement of early American printers where they would place text in gutters and defined almost no hierarchy I think modern society has progressed and does see the importance communicating something well. However, I don’t think society as a whole understands at more than a basic level what graphic design is. We have a popular cliché that goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words” but I don’t think the majority of society understands how to articulate what those thousand words in and image are (decoding) or how to show a thousand words in an image (encoding). Furthermore, I don’t think society sees the importance of images or how these coded messages are affecting their daily lives. I have often thought there needs to be education of visual language in middle school and/or high school (or as you might call it, primary and secondary school). This lack of understanding coupled with the advent of easily available graphic design software has lead to confusing flyers, bulletins, logos, etc. designed by company secretaries. To answer your question, I don’t think graphic design is understood to be an indispensable cultural (or communicative) asset by the public, but rather, as I heard a student say recently, “As a sophomore in the program, I’ll admit that the entire design cosmos was completely unknown to me until about six months ago… Graphic design does kind of seem like the man behind the curtain in a way.” Since the American public (and from what I’ve read, the British public) does not seem take well to pretension (perceived or real), graphic design is not met with much respect or, more importantly, understanding.
Again, much of this is from my own observations not statistics.
Keeping kerning a secret is a bit of a joke. Even designers who know what it is either over use it, don’t use it at all or plain don’t know what is meant by it.
There’s many segments to any market. Not all of it can be high end and not all designers should necessarily aspire to being so either. In terms of annual pay, I would love to be payed more as a designer but c’est la vie. I love my job. If I wanted to do something that was higher pay I might have wound up on the other side of the counter as a property agent shouting ‘make the logo bigger’. I do believe though that designers have a habit of believing in their own press. There is quite a history behind this trade, many names, many lives. I’m not sure what needs to be done in terms of making this trade a more respected profession but it seems to have always been a problem, right back as far as the 20’s and 30’s and the advent of the Swiss designers. Who knows. Perhaps all the tools will change in the next 30 years and it’ll all be turned on its head. Maybe it’s destined to get worse. But the main thing is for each designer to develop more skills and expand those skills to include other disciplines whether that be film making, creating installations, writing, sound art what ever but the future of Graphic Design may lie beyond the page.
Withoutthought,
First off I am not aware that you or anyone else wrote opinion that challenged me on Small Business Branding. I DO NOT screen comments.
This goes for my own blog as well. If you have tried to post opinion on SBB and had not seen it posted, please contact myself or Rob and we will get to the bottom of it. One way opinion isn’t valuable to anyone.
I understand that you want my opinion substantiated with data, but I if you continue to read the comments here and at SBB, I think you will agree that I have hit a nerve. I can only say that I have been in the industry for over 25 years and have colleagues in the States (I’m in Canada) and overseas. We discuss these issues all the time, and there is always a common thread when it comes to the brand.
Where did you get the idea that I feel computers killed design? Never said it. I’m only saying the brand of graphic design is broken.
I’m curious with your quote from Eric Spiekermann – granted there may be a place for bad food, but where is the place for bad design?
Marshall, Who was comparing architecture and graphic design? I read my post again in case I was having a senior moment and couldn’t find that reference. It IS nice to see that passionate designers feel the need to take me to task on my opinions on graphic design’s brand. Even in the criticism you can see some of what I speak of. We all experience the business world’s lack of respect in our industry. I suppose withoutthought is correct about my nostalgia, but I see nothing wrong with my desire to return to the days when the magic was admirable. Listen to people today when they speak of programmers, you’d think they were describing wizards.
My opinion is just that – my opinion. I am not a professional writer but I, like you are passionate for my industry. I believe it will one day find it’s path back to greatness. That is not to say I think there is no great design today, that would be silly. But the brand itself is not great. It is a commodity on any level, (not just small business). No I can’t back that up with data , only suffice to say – from posts and comments, and forums I’ve read over many years from designers from every size of company from several different countries, the sentiment appears to be the same with respect to how business views what we do.
I thank you for contributing to the discussion here at Lucid and hope you drop by Small Business Branding and my own blog, TheBrandCorral.com.
Ed, I understand your opinion and also believe you’re entitled to it. I wasn’t completely disagreeing with your article. However, I do disagree with your recent comment.
About the comparison of graphic design to architecture, that was my own. I didn’t say anyone else had made that comparison, though I have heard it in discussions of this nature. If you look back to the writings of Richard Neutra you’ll see a consideration, depth, and understanding about architecture design and its relation to the very survival of the human race that is not commonly present in the field of graphic design.
I do think it is unreasonable for graphic designers to expect the public to think highly of their profession simply because they used to or because graphic designers think it’s that important. If graphic design, in reality, is not critical to the well being of humankind why should we expect that reverence? When you consider the cultural and societal contributions of the health and educational professions graphic design pales by comparison. Graphic Designers do not exist in a bubble. Instead, they coexist is the huge, complex world with much more important problems than whether Company A will sell enough widgets this quarter. As far as “the magic” of graphic design goes, I think that is bullshit, arrogance, and ignorance. It gives the impression that graphic designers have no substance so they have to put up a façade to seem important. What purpose beyond entertainment do magicians have in the world? In my opinion the majority of graphic designers ARE nothing more than magicians who are losing respect because the public has figured out their secrets.
If you want respect you have to do something deserving of it. What do graphic designers do, as a whole, which is deserving of respect on such a grand scale as the corporate world or even more grand, society? Before you answer that question please read it from the perspective of the majority of the world’s population who are NOT graphic designers.
In conclusion, I think graphic designers need to drop their current habits of bitching and convincing. We shouldn’t take the role of a salesman talking up an average, unnecessary product to the status essential. Instead, graphic designers should take the nobler route of contributing to society and culture in a manner deserving of the level of respect they wish for.
Marshall,
I guess magic was a poor choice of words. You make a great point.
Thanks for clarifying the architectural reference, I went back on my comments and posts – I thought I was losing it. Graphic design has a great history, too bad the general public are generally unaware of it. Its greatest contributions I suppose are those bits of communications that we take for granted, but communicate so effectively of danger, caution etc: pictograms. See:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictogram
I suppose this my answer to your last question, as it saves lives, and communicates a message as a universal language. The world’s population would probably be unaware that they are the result of a graphic deigner’s skills with communication.
I don’t know if designers can stop the bitching and convincing, without first defeating the inferiority complex that I think is a direct result of the bad brand. We are not part of a greater body.
Architects, engineers, programmers and the like have organizations that have a public respect. Graphic design organizations (I think) are more narcissistic, a stronger brand would be the result of a greater public respect.
Your last statement regarding the greater good is a noble goal. An excellent brand value to strive for.
Ed
Firstly of course I need to apologise. It would appear that somewhere in cyber space hangs my comment on your post which is obviously irrelevant now. I’m interested by your last line here.
“Graphic design organizations (I think) are more narcissistic, a stronger brand would be the result of a greater public respect.”
As I’m currently studying a masters in Brand Development this really interests me. I’m inclined to agree, Designers tend to be quite inward looking and are very good at believing in their own hype. It’s interesting however that the problem with GDs brand appear to be global rather than local and on both sides of the pond we experience the same problem.
If you would care to expand further on this: It would be very interesting to conduct some form of focus groups (if you believe in them!) where we could gain a better understanding of what the public perception is regarding Graphic Design, who it serves and what kind of people populate the profession. This sort of thing is made a lot easier by the web. If we have a problem that needs solving, we may consider the web an invaluable tool for solving that problem.
I confess that I arrived after the water shed of computers. I have had many conversations with veterans who all seem to agree on one thing; typography suffered.
All that aside, I think there is a market for affordable design(as is the case with John Look) and I believe what Spiekermann is getting at is segmentation of that market. However, given your reply, I am starting to think that there is no reason why Graphic Design as a craft need suffer.
Withoutthought, no harm done,
I absolutely agree with you, GD’s do believe their own hype. At the core perhaps, is that many are artists also. As such, we tend to be very sensitive to criticism. Business has taught me to get over it. Nothing offends me. I will post a question on my blog and at marketingprofs.com on the public perception of graphic design.
I don’t mind focus groups from a gut level. It is too easy at times to skew the answers for a pre-determined result. But, for first impression analysis – it has value. I’m mostly speaking of live focus groups.
eMail me and I will forward any results I get from the question.
I don’t have a problem with the John Looks of the world. I believe they are the result of a graphic design’s bad brand. The industry has sunk to such a level that it is absolutely a commodity item. John Look is a capitalist and more power to him. I am addressing the brand itself – not what it’s deteriorization has bred in the marketplace. I suppose I could use Looks as proof of the brand’s position.
Your last line made me snicker. It could lead to a new argument, (and an age old one) – is GD a craft or a skill? Is there even a right or wrong answer.
Oh,oh,oh! Not so fast Mr.Roach! If you’re willing to open up the argument on Craft vs Skill may I, by the same token, open up the argument on whether or not Pictograms can be Universal! I just sat through a very entertaining lecture given by British designer Jonathan Barnbrooke who argued their not.
Seems as though it’s hot on the agenda for Dutch designer Gert Dumbar who has redesigned a series of pictograms with his son Gert which deal with world disaster.
http://www.utrechtmanifest.nl/en/?p=17
I’ll drop you a mail and I’d like to hear those results and I can also forward on a link to an Irish Design community website
creativeireland.com
Give me credit for trying…
Do you think that pictograms couldn’t be universal? The sample shown at the link you provided is a poor example. I thought it was “custody” with the woamn touching the child’s shoulder and the guy on his own. “safe place” is a stretch. But I think that a picture of some sort could cross all cultures. Not in every case of course. Sport pictograms work very well.
Nice work that Barnbrooke. I’ll bet the presentation was terrific.
As a prospective Designer looking to start out, I have been in search of information regarding the industry. I would dearly like to ask some questions and receive answers from ‘real’ Graphic Designers. I have put some questions below;
* I always thought that a Graphic Designer was just someone who played around with existing graphics in software such as Adobe CS3 (for example). I always thought the REAL deal was a Graphic Artist – who creates the graphics from scratch. (Would overhauling the industry and separating the wheat (GA’s) from the chaff (GD’s) be sufficient to show up the educated professional from the non-educated professional???)
* Does a GD/GA require tertiary education to be a professional?
IE. You can’t be a solicitor unless you go to law school, therefore you can’t be a GD/GA unless you go to University.
*What level of education is sufficient to become part of the elite? In Australia, a Certificate IV at TAFE is sufficient to prepare you for starting your own business. A Diploma seems only applicable to a Middle Management (not freelancer). Sadly, a university degree is not what it used to be now. Whereby previously, a degree set you apart from the rest, now it sets you apart as the person who just spent 3-6 years reading books and getting drunk and partying as opposed to the non-degree holder who has years of experience and learnt on the job.
* Where should a prospective GD/GA start?
Thanks for reading this, (and hopefully answering my questions).
Helen
Hellen, I read somewhere once in an article in Print magazine that featured top uneducated Graphic Designers ‘There are many roads to a career in Art and Art School is just one of them’.
There is no division that I am aware of concerning a Graphic Artist vs a Graphic Designer; these are merely different titles for the same job.
What will always separate the wheat from the chaff is talent and it’s as simple as that in most cases (whether it reads books and gets drunk or not). However, recently I found this article by Matt Soar that’s definitely worth reading.
Personally, having gone into industry self taught, I would advise anyone to consider an education first. Recently, I was privy to a discussion group that featured Pentagram founder Mervyn Kurlansky. For Kurlansky, design education is about discovery and he feels as though over time (Kurlansky would have started out in the 60s) as industry developed, there became more pressure on education to develop workers to feed the system. He put forward the idea that education that serves industry is dangerous and that students should be encouraged to use their time in university as a period of experimentation.
College affords you the time to decide whether Graphic Design is the road you want to travel or whether you would rather take the methods of thinking Design has given you and apply them else where. It’s not simply about gaining a qualification, it’s about gaining an education and a unique set of experiences that are incomparable to the work place.
The Matt Soar article is at
http://remixtheory.net/?p=259