Visual Advocacy
In professional practice, clients provide the content and designers are hired to create the form in which this content is delivered, be it book, magazine, web, advertisement, or television commercial. A designer's projects can range from the absolutely essential, such as transportation and environmental signage or drug labeling and packaging, to the downright deceitful, as in many advertising campaigns that foster want where there is no need. But in reality, most client work lies somewhere in between.
As a graphic design educator employed by a publicly funded school system, it is my job to train students how to communicate using visual language. It is my responsibility to encourage them to use training responsibly and to think beyond only serving busniess and commerce. They are citizens participating in a democratic society, and as such, they should be cognizant that their communication skills can be put to use as a powerful tool for social change for any number of issues they personally consider important to the well-beingof the society in which they live.
Introducing the Idea of Responsible Activism in the Classroom
I write project assignments that address pertinent societal issues to raise general awareness and have my students reflect on their core values to develop their own content. I show materials created by activist artists and designers who espouse public discourse. I provide online examples for them to reserach, reflect upon, and that hopefully resonate with some. When I encourage my students to express their own "voice," I empower them to think beyond design as a service to a market-driven economy.
For the past two decades, the graphic design press has been a prolific source of critical discourse, encouraging a dialogue to examine the profession's moral and ethical responsibility in light of the backlash against corporate branding and consumption excess. One such catalyst document is the "First Things First" manifesto:
In common with an increasing number of the general public, we have reached a saturation point at which the high pitched scream of sonsumer selling is no more than sheer noise. We think that there are other things more worth using our skill and expertise on. There are signs for streets and buildings, books and periodiclas, catalogues, instructional manuals … and all the other media through which we promote our trade, our education, our culture and our greater awareness of the world.
Originally written in 1964 by British graphic designer Ken Garland and signed by twenty-one of his fellow visual communicators, "First Things First" was a call to arms for graphic designers to use their talents for "more useful and lasting forms of communication." It is a bit daunting that a manifesto written five decades ago can still sound fresh, and the manifesto has emerged once more in revised form, including contemporary signatories. Published in several of the world's most respected design journals, "First Things First 2000" challenges designers to look inward ethically and morally, and if they don't like what they see, they should adjust their position in some way. Although "First Things First 2000" opened a huge floodgate of debate in arguments for and against its initial idealism, I believe it provided a great stumulus for student who were actively searching for ways to use their skills more meaningfully.
