The function of design and how graphic design speaks to society and Essay

The function of design and how graphic design speaks to society and affects human experience in in a broad spectrum - Essay Example Paul Rand’s quote above illustrates the essential nature of communication as it relates to graphic design and the design process as it impacts numerous different forms of the public exchange of ideas. In â€Å"Declaration by Design: Rhetoric, Argument, and Demonstration in Design Practice† (1985), Richard Buchanan wrote, "If one idea could be found central to design studies, it most likely would be communication." (Buchanan, 1985)Thus, design affects the human experience by creating an expanded vocabulary of expression to relate the varying degrees of subjective experience to an audience, and further reflects the need of human beings to express themselves in ever more complex thoughts. Simplicity, in this aspect, can be seen as a design tool that cuts through conceptual elaboration to present an archetypal structure or form. The goal of design is to create new words that are not words but symbols, signs, and images which express a message to society through a language t hat both references and transcends common, everyday speech. In this regard, design can be seen as â€Å"stylized language† and speaks of the complexity of social communication while conveying the message or theme of the designer. Design ultimately is a form of art, yet it can be approached scientifically to determine the characteristics which define it and govern its operations culturally. Martin Buber’s theory of knowledge is based upon the analysis of social forms of communication, and in this theory the symbolic aspects of communication are distinguished from signs that merely describe or point directions as a function of communication by the nature of transcendence. Buber creates a number of social relationships as models showing the importance of communication referencing the subjectivity of the â€Å"other† in its means of taking the individual beyond the self into a transcendent state of understanding and shared experience. As this is the intimate, spirit ual nature of communication that we represent in art, it is rare in practice and the actual functional communication in society is often sign oriented in that it only seeks to inform or direct but not provoke a transcendent experience. As Maurice S. Friedman writes in his book â€Å"Martin Buber: the life of dialogue† (2002): "Subject-object, or I-It, knowledge is ultimately nothing other than the socially objectivized and elaborated product of the real meeting which takes place between man and his Thou in the realms of nature, social relationsm and art.† (Friedman, 2002) Buber’s theory of knowledge is important in understanding the social aspects of communication as they relate to design. For example, social communication that is directed or mediated by the sign can be expected to be functional, utilitarian, and descriptive, designed for the facilitation of personal operations in daily life but not particularly concerned with the transcendent as subject matter. Symbolic communication, in contrast, takes as its subject matter and intention the symbolic aspects of expression that relate to the communication of Truth and the communicator seeks to create a higher state of awareness or understanding in the other. Thus, the design and graphic art process should be evaluated first to determine whether the form of social communication is using a language based on signs, which point to other objects, or of symbols, which transcend themselves in shared subjectivity, when