Practical Response - Authorship - Initial Research

Borris Bucan

Influential and bold designer who wasn't afraid to go against the norm and develop new ideas.
'He was able to make incursions into unchartered territory because, apart from the artist, nobody paid much attention to what was going on in the field of design.' - Poynor

Conceptual poster for Module N & Z, Student Center Gallery, silkscreen, 1969:

Instead of sourcing an image from work already displayed in the exhibition, Roth leaves the centre of the composition completely blank. The fact that Bucan created all elements of the poster himself, he can be seen to achieve graphic authorship.

Rock's alternative model for auteur - Performer 


'Performer’ supports the role of the designer as a service provider and problem solver, ‘an actor is not the author of the script, the musician not the composer of the score, but without actor or musician, the art cannot be realised.’ Perceiving the designer as a performer suggests that the designer can bring a concept or idea to life and tailor it to a target audience. 

The metaphor of the designer as a performer illustrates the role of the designer through a theatrical context. This can be adopted into the practical response to highlight and recognise the designers contribution to clients briefs whilst taking influence from theatre posters. 

Collaboration = Collective Authorship 

Each contributor of the project is credited as the creator of the work. Perhaps print the names of every single person involved in a particular design piece, from the art director to the cleaner. 

The word 'author' has historical definitions that connote the originator or creator of anything. Therefor, in order to achieve graphic authorship one must create all elements of the outcome. As a practical response:

• Let anyone become a graphic author by lending them a poster template for them to use to create a poster.
• Hand writing - Everyone has their own specific style of handwriting that they are the creators of - Unique to them - Signature

A signature authors an artwork and is used to authorise the identity of a person.

Potential Concept: Use the signature over a piece of design which claims it as their own. There is opportunity here to question authorship by perhaps juxtaposing the work with a person. 

Definition, SIGNATURE:

'A signature is a handwritten (and often stylised) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. Similar to a handwritten signature, a signature work describes the work as readily identifying its creator. A signature may be confused with an autograph, which is chiefly an artistic signature. This can lead to confusion when people have both an autograph and signature and as such some people in the public eye keep their signatures private whilst fully publishing their autograph.'

Looking at the definition of a signature, perhaps designers aren't creating a visual signature because that is private and in order for the design to be successful, one must retract themselves into a neutral position. Instead the designers aesthetic preference and subjective interpretation creates more of an visual autograph which is what's recognised.



Sarris' auteur theory relates to film, however from my research project Rock believes there is a parallel between film and design, therefor auteur theory can be applied. Each and every body involved in the film is credited at the end of the film which is what makes the autuer theory so problematic because it doesn't consider collaboration. This is where authorship is questioned because with so many contributors, how can a single voice be heard. I propose crediting all members of the team creates a collective authorship, from the director to the cleaner.

Pentagram

Pentagram is the world’s largest independent design consultancy. The firm is owned and run by 21 partners, a group of friends who are all leaders in their individual fields.

As a concept for my practical piece and in response to my research project, I created some ideas based on the collective authorship of each member of Pentagram:

Partners:

Lorenzo Apicella

Michael Bierut 

Michael Gericke

Luke Hayman

Jody Hudson-Powell

Angus Hyland

Natasha Jen

Domenic Lippa

Abbott Miller

Emily Oberman

Justus Oehler

Eddie Opara 

Harry Pearce

Luke Powell

Naresh Ramchandani

John Rushworth

William Russell

Paula Scher

DJ Stout

Daniel Weil

Marina Willer 

Associates:

Sarah Adams
Shigeto Akiyama
Don Bilodeau
Sean Chilvers
Jason Ching
Britt Cobb
Timothy Cohan
Ken Deegan
Carla Delgado
Rhian Edwards
Aron Fay
Tiffany Fenner
Barrett Fry
Courtney Gooch
Joseph Han
Brankica Harvey
Kate Heller
Kurt Koepfle
Jeremy Kunze
Ian Osborne
Jane Plüer
Julie Savasky
Leah Speakman
Joe Stephenson
Kim Walker
Andrew Walters
Julia Wyatt
Mockup of the concept in a poster format:

Paste each individuals signature over work created by Pentagram
Need to source each individuals signature as well as find out every single member of the team from art maker to cleaner. This is likely to prove very difficult.