Your Visual Pollution Report for 6 March 2006

The Food Network is a strange place to hear the words “Graphic Design” especially when pared with the words “Pastry Chef” and “Information Technologies.” In fact, this may be the first time in human history that all three have appeared in the same sentence and been part of a coherent thought.

I had stumbled upon a show about rival culinary schools facing off in a stress amped competition to create pastries and chocolate showpieces in various Disney themes. These teams were charged with the task of recreating Disney’s counterfeit reality in totally edible works of spun sugar and chocolate. Throughout the show each of the 5 teams were profiled through a series of human interest vignettes that created the necessary back story for the TV audience,

One profile of a person I can’t remember from a school I can’t recall was a recent addition to the world of pastry. 9 months earlier he was working with computers. When interviewed he stated [with a healthy degree of pride] that being a successful pastry chef was a lot like fixing computer systems. And here is where all three words: graphic design, pastry chef, and information technologies, come together. He next said the “detail oriented nature of information technologies and graphic design suited him well in the creation of top notch pastry.”

Ok. Fine. I can understand the sentiment but where the hell did graphic design enter into the equation? How is IT the same as graphic design? It was added like an afterthought.

Often the design process is thought of AS an afterthought.

His statement puts a spotlight directly on the largest problem with the graphic design industry today. Over the past 10 years, graphic designers have become devalued. Before there was a computer in every home, designers where professionals with specialized training that commanded a respectable salary. Then the information revolution brought cheap technology into every house and office. Cheap and bootlegged applications allowed people to be “self taught.” Suddenly the 4 years of art school required to develop an understanding of color usage, composition, typography were being circumvented by books that offered crash course tutorials in Quark, PageMaker, and Photoshop. Somewhere within the wild and uncontrollable regions of the information revolution, graphic design became less about art and more about process. Design became less about being able to design print and web pieces originally and creatively and more about knowing the application that is used by designers.

We turned into technicians.

Design isn’t about knowing how to open a template and pressing print.

To the [above mentioned] pastry chef, graphic design and IT are both technological processes. From his statement the line defining the proper method to set up of a server to route internal email to defined user groups and the creation of a successful logo and identity system that conveys the clients wants and needs is very nebulous. In fact, I would suggest to him, and a lot of people, the two are viewed as the same thing.

Graphic design is an industry that allows people who are self taught to make a living, sometimes a decent one. Without a doubt, everyone should have the opportunity to make a living wage but the glory days of heroic designers have passed because of it. This is something the core design community should come to grips with.

Now that Pandora’s box has been opened, there is no going back. In a world that has become increasingly visual and design heavy, the border between creation and copy is more evident to people who know and less evident to people who don’t. The virus is self-replicating. The metric tons of bad and unoriginal design continue to pile up.

Relax. Have a pastry, reconfigure the server and open that template. Original thought not required.

-TVPR