Thoughts on the Two Articles

Research and Destroy

“The role of the designer is in peril. Designers are increasingly threatened with becoming the proletariat of the creative industry, silently carrying out whatever the client dictates. Daniël van der Velden sees only one solution: research and development. The designer must completely throw himself into his own personal, independent production of knowledge. Today, if there is something that needs to be designed, it is the designer himself.”

This opening statement got me thinking about my future as a graphic designer.  It is somewhat concerning to me because like he says, the designers role in our society today is changing very rapidly.  After reading this a question has been stuck in my head.  How do I redesign myself?

“We no longer have any desire for design that is driven by need. Something less prestigious than a ‘designed’ object can do the same thing for less money. The Porsche Cayenne brings you home, but any car will do the same thing, certainly less expensively and probably just as quickly.”

This quote is so true.  It seems like Americans don’t look for something that will “just” get the job done anymore, we need something that will get the job done and look good while doing it.  But is that necessarily a bad thing? 

“We have already talked about need. Instead of giving the wrong answers, design should instead begin asking interesting questions.”

As graphic designers we need to take his advice and start to change how and why we design.  After reading this article, I believe graphic designers as a whole are at a crucial crossroads right now in our culture and we need to figure out which road is the best to travel down.

“With the removal of need and the commissioned assignment as an inseparable duo, the door is open to new paths. The designer must use this freedom, for once, not to design something else, but to redesign himself.”

This quote just reiterates the first quote, but I thought it does a good job of summing up the challenge we face as graphic designers at this point in time.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Republic of Fat (Excerpt)

“Much as today, the astounding productivity of American farmers proved to be their own worst enemy, as well as a threat to public health. For when yields rise, the market is flooded with grain, and its price collapses. What happens next? The excess biomass works like a vacuum in reverse: Sooner or later, clever marketers will figure out a way to induce the human omnivore to consume the surfeit of cheap calories.”

In my opinion this is the underlying cause of our obesity problems in America.  Farmer’s yields were getting bigger and bigger and they didn’t know what to do with all the extra so people in the food industry figured out what to do with all the extra grain. This led to our almost all of our food containing corn products which directly contributed to the unhealthy lifestyle of many American people. “Three of every five Americans are overweight; one of every five is obese.”  That's a major problem that the surplus of corn had a large hand in creating.