~hjtnw1

i read a journal about the negative things in life...there are to many and in graphic design its full of alot of donts. this is a speech i did during Computer Graphic Design History. I loved presenting this it got alot of people thinking...

Too many don’ts, not enough do’s.

Basically the way graphic designers have addressed public issues so far is by telling us what not to do. There is heaps of examples;
Don’t smoke, don’t hit your family members, don’t be fat, don’t look at porn unless your 18.

I didn’t think that graphic designers were to enforce control?

Looking at work by graphic designers like those involved with the Adbusters publication, I find that their messages come across strong, this is effective to provide emphasis,

but it seems to be overbearingly NEGATIVE.

Who wants to see such a disgusting truth? I mean your getting the message across…on what not to do? What next?
Purging is sexy?

The negative emphasis that surrounds design like this is just a truth that people find hard to face. Since when did we as humans ever listen when we were told what we should not do anyway?

Now lets see what other graphic designers have done in a positive way. However this may not be the most positive. The idea is to sell consumers the idea behind their product. A classic representation of this would be… question im thinking of a soft drink name it…


Easily…the coke side of life…

The people who designed these have set a trend through an idea. Making you believe that you want to live on the coke side of life…in theory anyways.

However, why havnt we as designers set the trend for positive things like live a good life, these ideas are obviously sold but people think that “good life” contains three kids a loving husband/ wife a big back yard and plenty of money.(however im not one to complain, that does sound pretty good ).

As graphic designers we need to band together to initiate trends to educate people so that we can create a better tomorrow. Similar to the principal of critical mass, as small groups or individuals we only have limited influence, however if we unite under a common cause, a large enough group of designers could effect the publics perception.

To achieve this, however, the most powerful and effective way would be to turn the powers and principals of advertising upon consumerism.

Through successful promotion, environmental sustainability could become a concept that the public want to buy, almost the next fad. If we could push this far enough to create a lovemark for sustainability then I believe anything would be possible.


thats it...however its not just about sustainability for our environment its all aspects in life.
these ideas have opened up my eyes a little more to what happends around us and what sort of reality we face today...i mean there was a statistic i saw that said in 2050 we will need 3x earth planet resources in order to live how we are now.(however theres too much resource that we could easily do without) but its a scary thought...

anyways ill let anyone ponder my rambles and thoughts