My class assignment is to create a personal aesthetic statement for myself. At this point in my life, I am inclined to write, “I am an artist.” When I was in college my first time around it was “At a later date, I’ll be awful great.” well, it is a later date…and nothing really came of that. Time for change.
Something I find peculiar about being in the graphic design industry is that people don’t view graphic design the same way they do “Art.” For example, when our class gives critiques on student projects, if it is a sculpture or a Photoshop drawing or painting it is viewed more “personal” and it can’t really be critiqued in the same way as graphic design. One almost feels like if you were to speak up, you would hurt the artist’s feelings.
I have always been able to squint or view art in a way that immediately tells me what could make the project better. I can pick over a painting – or “Art” just as easily as I could a graphic design poster. But we don’t. I guess we assume the artist intended it to be that way. Graphic design on the other hand can be changed to fit the needs of the client and everyone’s a critic. Students in class pick apart the “print design projects” but in reality the art of a Graphic Designer goes beyond what the project “looks like.” It tells a story, it is the art of visualizing and connecting ideas and concepts – so, critique about the margins and colors if you will, but graphic design should go far beyond what looks good. We should be the telling the story of how we came to our design and critique that process as it is the more important aspect of our work.
Graphic design is “Art” and there is good and bad in all art forms. I design different kinds of art for different kinds of clients and in varying shapes, sizes and forms. Connecting ideas is my form of “Art.”
Anyway, all that to say this…my personal aesthetic statement “I am an artist.”
