Graphic design has been likened to a wine glass. When we drink wine we barely notice the glass it’s served in. It wouldn’t be true to say that we don’t care what glass we drink out of – we wouldn’t choose to drink a rare vintage out of a Tupperware mug, for example – but it’s the wine that matters, not the vessel it comes in.

Graphic design has been likened to a wine glass. When we drink wine we barely notice the glass it’s served in. It wouldn’t be true to say that we don’t care what glass we drink out of – we wouldn’t choose to drink a rare vintage out of a Tupperware mug, for example – but … Read more

I recently saw another demonstration of graphic design’s ubiquity. Someone had taken a series of photographs of busy streets and then painstakingly removed all the logos, symbols, signs, colours, street names and road markings. In other words, they had removed all the graphic design from these photographs. The results were staggering. A world without graphic design is an unrecognizable world — more alien than all but the most extreme sci-fi imaginings.


I recently saw another demonstration of graphic design’s ubiquity. Someone had taken a series of photographs of busy streets and then painstakingly removed all the logos, symbols, signs, colours, street names and road markings. In other words, they had removed all the graphic design from these photographs. The results were staggering. A world without graphic design is an unrecognizable world — more alien than all but the most extreme sci-fi imaginings.

Adrian Shaughnessy


Source:
London-based radio station Resonance FM’s Free University of the Airwaves

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