Emigre No. 67 - Graphic Design Vs.

Rudy VanderLans
Published: 2004

I'd read a lot about Emigre during the summer and became inspired by their experimental and authorial approach to graphic design. Reading their essays and interviews will give me a better understanding of authorship and the desire for designers to find an experimental space away from commercial contexts. This aims to give me a platform for deeper exploration into authorship.

'Hello Ms. Hernandez' - Michael Schmidt 

Essay focuses on the subject of Globalisation:
Companies expanding to become international corporations - McDonalds, Starbucks, Shell, etc
Feeds the rich but doesn't support the poor
'Big winners and bigger losers' - It is everywhere.

Notes:

Viewed as a threat to the world's cultural diversity. It is feared it might drown out local economies, traditions and languages and simply re-cast the whole world in the mould of the capitalist North and West.

Schmidt states that maybe graphic design has lost all cohesion due to a 'sea of influence, complicity, corporate agendas, and personal cries for creative expression above the din of brands.'

'If design today is so thinly spread we can no longer taste the butter'

Schmidt introduces Ms. Josefina Hernandez, someone who has experienced the unjust reality of globalisation. Working in the textile industry, dozens of women rebelled in a fight for fair wages and safer working and environmental conditions. (Primark, Gap, Nike - Labour costs are much cheaper in countries such as India) Rebelling against the corporations meant beatings and violence was common.

Hernandez was accompanied by Hurberto Juarez Nunez throughout her lecture circuit, who used charts and graphs to deliver the facts and figures. Together, they communicated the personal and the factual, the qualitative and the quantitative 'in a delicate balance'.

Schmidt goes on the compare this to Graphic Design:

'Graphic designers strike their own delicate balance between their personal creative needs and the public communications demands.'

Edward Fella left commercial practice altogether to follow his muse and influence a younger generation of designers. 

The postmodern era captured the enthusiasm of designers who were dissatisfied with the status quo. Students are also dissatisfied with the 'dull assembly lines' that await creative intellects. 

'Globalisation is everywhere- within and outside our skin'

'No, personal perspective is important because it brings the designer into the design - the human being into the problem.'

Comments:

Globalisation could be a topic to explore further in order to see how much it has influenced design aesthetics / typography within a specific area of design. This could help develop my essay from last year.