A (Not So) Global Design Manual for Visual Communication
Laurence King Publishing
2016
Book Blurb
Many designs that appear in today's society will circulate and encounter audiences of many different cultures and languages. With communication comes responsibility; are designers aware of the meaning and impact of their work? An image or symbol that is acceptable in one culture can be offensive or even harmful in the next. A typeface or colour in a design might appear to be neutral, but its meaning is always culturally dependent. If designers learn to be aware of global cultural contexts, we can avoid stereotyping and help improve mutual understanding between people.
Politics of Design is a collection of visual examples from around the world. Using ideas from anthropology and sociology, it creates surprising and educational insight in contemporary visual communication. The examples relate to the daily practice of both online and offline visual communication: typography, images, colour, symbols, and information.
Politics of Design shows the importance of visual literacy when communicating beyond borders and cultures. It explores the cultural meaning behind the symbols, maps, photography, typography, and colours that are used every day. It is a practical guide for design and communication professionals and students to create more effective and responsible visual communication.
-This book was so helpful and insightful into the different ways in which design can be used or edited because of political motivations or influences
-There is a section on historical motivations and methodologies including looking at early developments of letters and writing.
-The section on information and graphics and more specifically misinformation was very interesting. Looking at the tactics to change viewers interpretations of information and designing architecture of choices links in well with what I wish to achieve. I wonder if through my work I may design a piece to explain how information can be skewed or used in certain interests and how to look out for this.
-There were a lot chapters that talked about issues of race and gender which may be good to pick up on when it comes to developing subjects within my project.
-One chapter looked at language, the different forms of language and when it can go wrong in both translation and by using certain fonts etc. I think this is very important as a designer on the whole to look out our responsibilities and how that work can be perceived by different individuals.
Ruben Pater, designer and researcher works on self initiated projects under the title of "Untold Stories'
-These focus on developing a range of designed materials to highlight a certain issue or cause. A lot of the projects, I had not heard about the issues within them and I think this resonates back to what I want do do, not to talk about the big issues, but to talk about smaller problems and sometimes to educate someone on something they didn't know anything about, and then how to change or be aware of that issue,
In the talk above, held by Walker Art Institute, Ruben talks about his book then goes into further depth about a few of the projects he has been involved with as below..
Double Standards of Piracy covers issues in the shipping trade in which ghost nationalities are used to avoid taxes, and dodge labor- and environmental regulations. (2012)
Another project Drone Survival Guide, included a printed poster covering how to identify drones, which countries used them and ways to avoid detection. It was designed and printed as a discussion and propaganda piece, not to keep you safe. The project included a vinyl record detecting the different drone sounds and how these sounds were seen as a form of terror. (2013)
The project which reflected my research most was around a project focused on dutch youth aged 14-27. Individuals were asked their thoughts on politics, a lot of responses showed they were not interested in politics but did have strong thoughts towards gender, community engagement etc and did not see the relationship between the two. The participants had a low voting record but participated in a lot of protests. The project helped to develop a new language to talk about politics and create engagement.
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