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Writing & research for graphic designers
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72
5
criticism
A serious design criticism and history discipline was born in
1983 at the first R.I.T. Design History Symposium. Over the
past decades, various symposia, numerous books, and diverse
articles, papers, and courses of study have emerged. The scholarship
has matured far beyond the early slide shows of classic works by
patriarchal pioneers into a broad and rich collection of genres,
forms, and individuals who directly and indirectly contribute to
the popular culture.
Criticism expands knowledge by revealing otherwise hidden
meanings. The so-called “positive” method examines a maker’s
intent and rationale; a work’s structure is scrutinized and the
factors that inform it are contextualized, providing the basis
for balanced analysis and historical categorization. Conversely,
the so-called “negative” method is a kind of fault-finding exposé
of flaws in a process or result. The purpose is ostensibly to
reinforce a set of standards used to judge success or failure. Both
methods are useful in addressing the form and function of design.
Until recently graphic design, whether a total identity
system or an individual poster, has been immune from the
kind of public scrutiny given books, films, plays, painting, and
sculpture, even advertising. Graphic design has been seen but
not heard about. Only those media that are directly marketed
to the public and play a more integral cultural role are given a
spot in the critical limelight. In the past, graphic design was
not criticizable because authorship was comparatively invis-
ible and, moreover, design routinely served a supporting role.
There was also a gentleman’s agreement within the graphic
design community that a demonstrative critical voice was
simply unnecessary.
Distinctions within the field between good and bad design
were pronounced through the results of art directors’ competi-
tions where the reasons for inclusion or exclusion were rarely
articulated. Other than the positive reinforcement of winning
a medal, designers were not held individually accountable.
Seldom, therefore, was an individual graphic designer’s body
of work critical grist. Along the way a critical language has
developed to help put these phenomena in context, suggest
values and standards, and question assumptions. Criticism is
a very positive means of illuminating—the warts and all—a
design work, genre, or phenomenon.
Rick Poynor, founding editor of Eye magazine, and one of
the pioneer graphic design critics, has long written on the
role of the critic and the impact of criticism. Here he delves
into a theme that has underscored his work of more than two
decades. Read it closely to see how he develops his argument
and attempts to convince his readers.
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section 2
surveying the diciplines
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73
CASE STUDY:
the Death of the critic
rICK pOynOr
Rick Poynor is the founding editor of Eye magazine. (Originally published in Icon, March 2006)
Does design criticism matter anymore? It’s certainly not a term you
hear bandied about by designers. Busy professionals have clients
to meet, projects to plan, studios to run. If designers were to think
about design criticism at all, they [would] probably imagine that
it is still going on somewhere—and good luck to it.
But if we aren’t actively looking for design criticism, how
do we know whether it’s flourishing or not? There is plenty of
design journalism, but criticism and journalism are different
activities. While it’s certainly possible for journalism to have a
critical intention, most design journalism simply reports on the
latest news. There is nothing wrong with that, but it isn’t criti-
cism and it tells us nothing about criticism’s state of health.
We will call design criticism in for a fitness check and take
its pulse in due course, but first it might be useful to look at
what criticism is for. These tasks aren’t specific to design criti-
cism. They also apply, in differing degrees, to the criticism of
cultural activities such as art, architecture, literature and film.
Perhaps the most basic service provided by criticism has
been to champion the new. The idea here is that without
the intervention of the critic, the public would fail to under-
stand or appreciate artistic innovations. People might ignore
or even attack them. The critic is presumed to have special
insight into the motivations and meaning of the work that
comes from a deep personal engagement. It may be necessary
to challenge earlier ways of thinking to explain why these
creations are timely and significant. The critic may become
strongly identified with particular individuals, movements or
causes, a fellow traveller with the innovators he champions,
influencing their artistic development and ideas.
If we consider this model in terms of contemporary design,
some problems emerge. Most obviously, there is no public
resistance to design today and there is no provocative design
avant-garde requiring the critic to step in as intermediary and
advocate. Twenty-five years ago, Memphis might have needed
this kind of critical support. The movement was controversial
with modernist designers, and writers trotted out various theo-
ries to explain it. Where are the contemporary equivalents?
Postmodern design caused a ruckus for a while, but this passed
and nothing as turbulent has occurred since then. Meanwhile,
adventurous design has become something that any modern
consumer appreciates. People need updates about the latest
sofas, mobile phones, bars, restaurants and hip hotels, but
they don’t need anyone to argue the case for these things or
to explain their relevance. Journalism handles the publicity—
from the glossy interior mags to reports in the daily press.
The same reservation applies to criticism’s more general
function of promoting a discipline’s cause. Fifty years ago,
design needed all the support it could get. “The role of the
serious critic is that of an educator,” wrote advertising designer
Ashley Havinden in 1952. “By searching out the many ex-
amples of good design and appraising them constructively,
pArT five : CriTiCism
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