That is how I first describe it and think of it. But doesn’t everyone visually communicate just by his or her very existence? You, Me, Tribes-people, A parent, a policeman, a newborn, we all communicate, to some degree, visually. We’re all designers, as Papaneck points out in the text ‘What is design?’ taken from the 1984 book Design for the Real World, ‘Design is the primary underlying matrix of life.’ and it comes in the simplest of tasks such as your morning routine.
But what are we doing that separates us from those who aren’t studying to become ‘Visual Communicators’?
Visual Communication (as a course) is versatile. It bends, shapes and moulds to your preferences. I know this by simply looking at and listening to my peers in the classroom. Our creative career goals are all over the spectrum. Illustrators/Photographers/Curators/Community Arts/Unsure, the course helps you to realise what it is you want to specialise in and pushes you in the right direction.
But still, what is visual communication? It feels as though Rick Poyner, a writer in design and culture, is describing visual communication in his book Obey the Giant, as ‘visual journalism’. It’s intelligent, up-to-date “design (which) captures and condenses into seductive graphic form the mood, concerns, inspirations, aspirations, fads, obsessions and stylistic tics of the day”. As visual communicators we are Journalists without the “sphere of knowledge”. We may or may not have the ability to produce a well written piece of text about something we feel passionately about, it doesn’t matter, Our job is to express this VISUALLY, choosing carefully what to discard, what to include and how all the elements interconnect. These are things that a journalist would also need to consider.
So the next question is, where do I fit within this field of practice?
When I think back to where I have come from artistically, I think of weekends standing on a stool at the kitchen work top making a mess, painting tiles, making collages, drawing pictures of my cat etc, then as my personality developed and I discovered more about myself and the world I would design dream outfits, have crash courses on my mother’s sewing machine and made a 12 page book full of illustrations of imaginary shoes I wish I owned. I was very good at visually communicating. I would use it as a form of therapy, a way of showing off, and a way of showing what I wanted. GCSE showed me the painfully emotional works of Frida Kahlo and sculptor Margrit kovacs whose work had very depressing undertones. Throughout A-level I was taught that art should have meaning to it, in both fine art and photography, and every piece needed to be emotionally justified. It wasn’t until studying foundation art that I was told by a tutor that its okay to make art for arts sakes. It was okay to make geometric patterns without it having to symbolise the loss of love or a rejected lover, or create illustrations that simply pleased me. I began taking this approach to my work and found it suited my outlook and me. My workflow increased. Since then and starting the course in visual communication I’ve slowly began to create an identity and style of work that I feel content with, which differs from my situation during a-level and foundation where the strict, narrow course structure meant I often felt creatively restricted.
Through the personal development part of the course, I regularly discover artists whose work inspires me, such as KozynDan, Zeloot, Dennis Tyfus and Zachary Rossman. This is a method that keeps me excited and full of inspiration, and has helped me notice how partial I am to illustration above anything else, and more recently, children’s illustrations. In children’s illustration there is no propaganda or heuristics involved. The only persuasion being used is persuading the child to be drawn into the story and aid their imagination.
A workshop in college based around story telling sort of sealed the deal for me and I began to experiment with my children’s story idea to develop a character or two and create a short narrative. Although I looked at Gustav Freytag’s pyramid method of writing good interesting stories I decided I would just focus solely on character development and the quality of my illustrations, for now.
Thinking up a concept came quickly and easily, there is always one rattling around in my head. It involved a young boy who would be giving tips on how to avoid getting attacked or eaten by a fictional hair scary monster…
For the presentation part of the brief, I brought in these 4 illustrations and put forward my interests in becoming an illustrator, particularly in stories for children. Although my drawings showed style and were interesting to look at, the content didn’t seem to apply so much to a younger audience and was much more suited to an older generation into zines and comics, but for their style and art value rather than content. Form follows function as it were. It made me think about following this route instead. I thought it might be interesting to find out whether the most influential children’s book illustrators had always stuck to whimsical drawing styles or whether they had, at some point in their career, catered for an older audience. I was lucky to find in a recent copy of vice magazine 5 drawings by Quentin Blake (Roald Dahl’s illustrator) including these 2...
This differs highly from his trademark images of jolly cooks mixing a stew in a messy kitchen. This also answers my question. You would never see these drawings in a Roald Dahl storybook! It also leaves me with food for thought. Can I do both? Should I combine the two? Or keep them separate?
So where do I fit? And more importantly, where am I going to fit in the not so distant future? I am a designer, like everyone else. but I want to make a conscious and intuitive effort at being a designer. I want to use the ‘intellectualization, celebration, research, and analysis’ of this consciousness that Papaneck speaks of. I still have a long way to go in terms of technique, but at the moment I’m happy playing with ideas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Papaneck, V. (1984) Design for the Real World 2nd Edition, London. Thames & Hudson.
Poyner, R. (2001) Obey the Giant, London. August Media Ltd.
Vice, The Second Annual Fiction Issue. VICE Magazine Publishing, Inc.
www.quentinblake.com
www.google.com
www.flickr.com
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