Week 3 | Fields of Practice

What is the scope, and what are the boundaries of graphic design today? Current and future?

The Effect of Globalisation on Design

How has Globalisation affected your business over time?

The general answer for this included travelling for work and through technology being able to collaborate a lot with anyone around the globe. With remote working and communicating more over video calls and email, you can work anywhere in the world with anyone. Although there is some negativity, most of the comments are positive with it being something that is collaborative and ever expanding.

Task 1:

D&AD award winners. Explore the categories of the D&AD award winners 2020Links to an external site and consider how this impacts on your views of design terminology, consider the overlaps and points of change, difference and similarity.

The D&AD awards include a vast amount of categories for the creative industries. I have found serval categories to overlap and several projects are mentioned in more than just one category. I have also found categories for practices I haven't heard of before - yet my own work would probably fit into it in some way. Am example of this is categories like IMPACT, WRITING FOR DESIGN and SIDE HUSTLE. It allows for inclusivity and opens the awards up to more creatives. The terminology used allows for a complete understanding of the category while being broad enough for a wide range of projects.

I am particularly interested in the WRITING FOR DESIGN category which includes projects and campaigns that are not only well designed but use a lots of wit in their content. A lot of projects in this category also venture into other categories like BRANDING, DIGITAL and PRESS. Spotify and Channel 4 won in this category and created great campaigns that used wit to connect with their audience.

The SIDE HUSTLE category is an interesting one that makes the awards seem more down to earth and something anyone could achieve. Most creatives will have a side hustle making this a category which could be achievable for anyone. WindowSwap was a quarantine project that won in this category. A clever idea born from looking at what people were missing at that time.

DojaCode is one project in collaboration with Girls Who Code that won awards in 9 different categories. Girls Who Code wants to close the gender gap in tech by getting girls interested in coding. Doja Cat was brought in to make the first codeable music video in the world. The interactive experience, DojaCode, turned Doja's hit single, Woman, into an interactive experience that teaches girls how to code. It is a project that has many layers to it with message, digital design and entertainment factor.

Task 2:

Breaking the Boundaries of Graphic Design. Choose a piece of design that breaks definitions of design practice and write a paragraph describing this practice. Come up with a new term that describes this area of work.

What areas fit under the umbrella of graphic design? I think it is endless and graphic design can travel through so many different areas of design. Editorial, web, UX, digital, identity, type, brand... and so on.

From looking at pieces of design that break definitions of design practice, I have created a new term that I think appeals to these areas of design. I have called it 'community design'. To me this would encompass designs that speak to their community - and are created specifically to appeal to their audience and have that at the heart. I think this can related to overall brand identity but specifically would relate to designs that use a communicative style to their branding to speak clearly to their specific communities. Examples:

Fresh Sends

Fresh Sends are a gift giving business dedicated to relationships and community. Their business is a mixture of brand identity, editorial design, type, packaging and more. I think this can all be incorporated into the term 'community design' because all of the design provides some type of communication to their community.

Tails

Tails is a tailored dog food delivery service - I use this service for my dog. This again uses a range of terms including brand identity, illustration and product design. All of this can be encompassed into the term 'community design' - as a company who is also clever in tailoring its designs to appeal to owners of 4 legged friends and what we love.