Rick Poynor - No More Rules

p. 118 - 'AUTHORSHIP'

One of the key ideas of the postmodern period.
Critical theory would see it as 'outdated, backward looking and reactionary'.

'Experimental design drew attention to itself and the inevitable result was to throw the spotlight on its makers.'

Professional rhetoric insisted that design was essentially an anonymous activity, and in many ways it was and still is

Barthes overview:

Barthes argues that nothing is original as we are taking influences from a variety of places and organising it into new forms. - Consciously / subconsciously

'Tissue of quotations'
A text 'is not a line of words releasing a single 'theological' meaning but a multidimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash.'

However Barthes argues that if you take away the author, it is the reader/audience who can take centre stage. 'It is the reader, not the writer, who decides the meaning of the multiple quotations that compose a text, the reader who gives a text its unity, and it is consequently the reader whom the future of writing depends.'

Barthes famously concludes, 'the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.'

Relating this to design and considering the subjective nature of it, it is clear that the designer needs to consider the audiences interpretation of the message, rather than aesthetics or searching for a signature style/trend because it is ultimately the user that determines the final message.

Postmodernism encourages expression of which they aimed provide open structures that encourage the audiences participation and interpretation.


Bruce Mau

One of the earliest designers to deliberately explore authorship.
The producer as author

Argues a close engagement with content is clearly essential before authorship can be claimed.

'Zone' was a desirable object in which the graphic designer had played a significant shaping role'
'Combined serious intellectual intent with unapologetic sensual appeal'

Mau is passionate about taking control of content in order to develop and research his own ideas.

'The new approach replaces division of labour with synthesis, clients and commissions with collaborators and partners, executing tasks with negotiating terrain, maximum output with maximum feedback, and form applied to content with form and content evolving and enriching each other simultaneously. We are not sure whether this new way of working means the end of design, or whether it means designers become authors, or authors become designers, or all three.'

The book took 5 years to complete
Expanded from 264 pages to 1,344
Wouldn't be acceptable within commercial boundaries

It can be argued that the content is essentially Koolhaas' - it is his career, his body of work, his writing - but Mau's visualisation endows this daunting mass of material


Artist's Book

Some of the most significant and influential designer|authors emerged from the genre of the artist book. Their primary motivation was the expression of their own content. These artists were not designers in the professional sense so they were not inhibited by the rules and codes of disciplinary practice.

Johanna Drucker:
- The Visible Words
- The Alphabetic Labyrinth
- The Century of Artists' Books

Warren Lehrer

Believed that graphic design meant 'avant-garde research into visual literature', though soon found himself at odds with the prevailing corporate ethos.

Tape recorded conversations and translated them into expressive, layered graphic forms to challenge the readers to explore the act of reading.

'Anticipated new directions in 1990s graphic design by several years'

He showed how 'visual literature' could be used to engage broader audiences.

'Break with the usual linear pattern, vary the pace, look back at earlier passages, or skip ahead.

Represents voices using different typefaces

Collective Authorship

Tomato
Studio founded in 1991 argued that there was no essential distinction between its projects for clients and self-initiated projects by team members.
'Process' - the act of making work - was prioritised
No individual credits - Authorship is shared between all members of the studio

Pentagram = A collective identity
All projects credit Pentagram rather than the specific designer

Shared authorship has its advantages in terms of strength through numbers

FUEL pursued the path of collective authorship