Week 4 Power and Politics In Design

Design within the Political Spectrum 

For as long as individual's have practiced such a profession, design has always been, and alway will be, produced as a form of communication, of conveying a message, issue, or concept, perhaps even an emotion, through visual means, whether it is a literal image, such a photograph, that represents a significant even, or a symbolic reference to a related issue. If the perception of design is taking into consideration then it is fair to suggest that design has the ability to reflect world views, particularly within a political frame. 
As designer's, responsible for creating and communicating a message through visual composition that is strong, believable for the viewer, and easy for the viewer to relate to, it is important to keep in mind that design as visual communication decides, ultimately what the consumer wants, or what the viewer wants, or what the viewer should believe, it is ultimately about skewing the mind of the audience to accept the message conveyed, or the product advertised. Very rarely does design directly follow what the consumer wants, or what the viewer wants to see, as then there would be no need for intuitive, or innovative design with a creative purpose, whatsoever, because the individual has already made the decision about what is appealing, and a believable statement, and what is not. Therefore, contemporary design, especially that with intentions for propaganda, is aimed at  imposing the responsible designer's world view upon the viewer and, through effective design elements and principles, get them to believe what they see. This arguably effective and indeed successful approach has found it's way into most design practices, including architecture, arts and crafts, fashion design and product design, in addition to a vast range of other fields, and is the notion, of imposing the world view of the designer rather than the world view of the consumer or viewer, that separates successful design from the not successful. 


Baldwin and Roberts provide their own view of communicative design, "Seen this way it's clear that design serves to communicate the world view of the initiator… in other words, all design is political". 


Marxist Theory of Ideology- 

The theory of ideology, so dependent upon by design and the process of visual communication, derive's from Marxism, serving as a theoretical framework, in which designer's can analyse the way people interact and live. Marx argues that ideology, being central to visual communication, is the process through which ideas and world views of sub cultures and social groups, are transformed into what is seemingly believable and more or less true for the mass. Further Marx claims that it is in fact the target audience, working within economical and social roles, that fuel the means to communicate within all forms of communication, including that of visual design, and maintains the dominance of the creative minds behind all form of communication. Marx final point regarding idealism is that the conscious image that humanity preserves of our identity and the manner in which we perceive and relate to the our surrounding circumstances is unnatural, or a 'false consciousness', as it ultimately shaped by  low culture, combined with the manufactured reality that design has created and assembled around us, rather that natural or psychology. 


The Connection between Semiotics and the Process of Communication 

A particular design which is artificially manipulated into something idealised, it stops operating within the semantic level of communication and progress to the next level, of communicating within the conceptual frame, meaning that it speaks to the masses, from the perspective of the designer, communicating a particular world view. 

A classic example of an idealised concept that design has manipulated and visually communicated in such a way that viewers believe in the concept without even being reassured of what the concept means, is that of St Valentines day. Such a superficial event is idealised through romantic visuals of indulging love, and enticed pleasurable moments, that consumer cannot help being drawn to, sucked into this sweetly, sugar glazed, artificial event. 



In addition to the consumer market of low, popular culture, idealism also finds it way into visual propaganda as well as sensitive, confronting material that communicates a serious issue, that is heart felt to the designer. Issues   such as street crime, and gender dissemblance are concepts generally projected the medium of still, black and white, or dim coloured photography, which provides the viewer with a confronting image of grief, chaos and horror, that due to being a photograph tends to be believable and seemingly realistic, as the designer intends. 
Artists such 'Weeger', the alias of photographer Arthur Felig, and Robert Frank, are professional photographers who have stepped outside the boundaries of the norm and innocent, to bring across a message which is confrontational, and emotional, as well as a departure from censorship.  


The Photography of Arthur Felig (Weegee)

Photography of Robert Frank