Reason Speaks, Design Resonates

The design industry has always been nimble, always willing to pack, unpack, and rearrange the tools of the trade and the spirit with which it is practiced in order to adapt to its environs, whether it be political, financial, or logistical. The past twenty-five years have required a shift from print to online, with many designers working in both spaces and others preferring to focus more closely on one or the other. The thing that has not changed is the pursuit of comprehensive design, which creates and sustains an experience.

"Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated." Paul Rand

When people say, "I like to have a glass of wine and play around with Photoshop" and "Submit your spec creative and you may get exposure," our ideas and our process are dismissed as costly and unnecessary. We are watching as design is quietly euthanized.

"It's all in how you arrange the thing...the careful balance of the design is the motion." Andrew Wyeth 

 The argument that what we do has worth is of little use with people who no longer value the art of connecting disparate elements and objectives and delivering a system that appeals or challenges a broad audience. A post on Medium demonstrates the history of incredibly conceived and executed design that endures and the advent of crowd sourcing art. This crowd-sourcing is not done out of necessity, but more from a flagrant perch of "Why not?" 

"To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage." Georgia O'Keeffe

 The courageous act is not submitting spec, not devaluing the process, and, ultimately, deciding that the continued evolution of design demands that we find a way to reestablish our place in the world.

 Thank you for a thorough, rational, and passionate post Ian Lynam.