Design of the world. Every morsel of its ingenuity is wrought through self-preservation. Self-preservation? Yeah. You know that inaudible spark that twinges within our soul to make us reach for the absolute limit of creativity? It’s all happening right now. You could also look at self-preservation as future communication. Leaving your mark. (Or at least a snippet of the culture that inhabits your day to day living.) I’ve brought it all down to the least common denominator. The communication of ideas and directions. An all-encompassing force that tends to our every whim. But what about the bare surface? Isn’t it all just a jumbled conglomeration of images, illustrations, colors, patterns, shapes, and typefaces?
What is the initial focus? What is the big picture trying to say? Let’s start from the beginning.
Milwaukee Wisconsin. That is where I live. And although it has had its share of desperate times, I consider it home. I played the social game at the local tavern with a few drinks and eventually retreated to a quiet corner where I could gather my thoughts. A million past events ran through my mind. It was like a slideshow moving at a rapid pace. I tried to slow it down, but my inner spirit kept twisting its movement. It was obviously trying to shed some light onto my already clouded brain.
And then it hit me.
Where is design headed? What more does advertising have to teach us? In all of the puzzled pieces that have wormed their way into forming a system, where does the future of regenerative thought lead us? I became scarred. Keep I mind that I had just spent the last four years completing a degree in design for advertising. Had I pissed all that loan money away for nothing? But of course, I’m only one lonely soul shrouded within a million others that are making their way, so I shouldn’t place myself in dismissal quite yet. A paycheck is a paycheck after all.
But it goes much deeper than that. I feel like I’ve found what my soul has been looking for. Never in a millions eons would I ever think that graphic communication could hold so much conventional weight. I do what I do based on the merit of what my heart speaks. I can’t stop destiny. And although I’ve tried to slow it down, it eventually catches up. This is my blood.
I feel that it all boils down to organization. Organization of all things relevant for cultural understanding Do this. Do that. Sort of a ‘follow the leader’ kind of game but played on a much larger scale. I sit here, in my quiet corner, trying to piece every bit of mass media understanding into a cohesive mold. I feel there will never be one god-like answer. No grid of placement will ever be cemented in our contrived system. And as much as Helvetica is used in so many solutions, it will never be the end. Black means this and red means that. So on and so on and so on and so on… After much deliberation I’ve put design into two categories. Clarity and Confusion.
::Clarity::
This is ideally exactly what out culture strives for. It’s clean. It’s simple. And although it may be a tad boring at times, it gets across the initial message. I personally have had a strange relationship with clarity. Never has it presented itself to me as an easy answer. I am getting on better with it at the moment due to political convictions. That’s just the nature of the beast and sometimes you have to completely immerse yourself in its rules to destroy them from the inside.
::Confusion::
I find myself more and more drawn to this dark side. It’s design played at a rate of absolute disregard for conventionalism. It’s the breaking down of structure for the sole purpose of self-discovery and experimentation. Everything is so personable right now. Our culture is riddled with too much inner strength. Confusion is the first step in separating the pieces. This will ultimately lead to clarity, but for the moment, it will serve every inch of our tangled feelings.
