Reading #1

Designer as Author:

What does it mean to call a graphic designer an author?
Authorship may suggest new approaches to understanding design process in a profession traditionally associated more with the communication than the origination of messages.

What is an author?
This question has been scrutinized for years. The meaning of the word has shifted significantly over time.
"person who originates or gives existence to anything"
"father of all life"
"any inventor, constructor or founder"
"one who begets"
"director, commander, or ruler"
Some of the basic, institutional features of design practice have a way of getting tangled up in zealous attempts at self-expression. The idea of a decentered message does not necessarily sit well in a professional relationship in which the client is paying a designer to convey specific information or emotions. In addition, most design is done in some kind of collaborative setting, either within a client relationship or in some kind of collaborative setting, either within a client relationship or in the context of a design studio that utilizes the talents of numerous creative people. Thus the origin of any particular idea is clouded. And the ever-present pressure of technology and electronic communication only further muddies the water.

Designer as Translator
This is based on the assumption that the act of design is, in essence, the clarification of material or the remodeling of content from one form to another. Every translation reflects both the character of the original and the spirit of the contemporary as well as the individuality of the translator.

Designer as Performer
The performer metaphor is based on theater and music. The actor is not the author of the script, the musician is not the composer of the score, but without the actor or musician, the art cannot be realized. The actor is the physical expression of the work; every work has an infinite number of physical expressions. Every performance re-contextualizes the original work.
In this model, the designer transforms and expresses content through graphic devices. The score or script is enhanced and made whole by the performance. And so the designer likewise becomes the physical manifestation of the content, not author but performer, the one who gives life to, who speaks the content, contextualizing it and bringing it into the frame of the present.

Designer as Director
Meaning is manufactured by the arrangement of elements, so there must be many elements at play. In such large projects, the designer orchestrates masses of materials to shape meaning, working like a film director, overseeing a script, a series of performances, photographers, artists, and production crews. The meaning of the work results from the entire production.