The Relevance Of Social Responsibility To Graphic Design Discipline

The paper will investigate the subject of identifying the two variables; which are culture and graphic design; it will review different aspects of culture and see if society has been influenced by graphic design. It will also touch briefly on the dependency of graphic design on our community. And will explore in-depth the history of the beginnings of Graphic design and how creative practice relates to social responsibility context and how design causes fundamental impacts on the environment in the present day.

Furthermore, it will investigate design practitioners, have they changed their practice and how relevant is a social responsibility to contemporary consumers.

References will be made by using historical papers and examples, to see whether the fundamental issues remain constant or perhaps design has been adapted to fit this society or has society changed to design.

The principles of social responsibility are built on a system of ethics, in which decisions and actions must be ethically be verified before proceeding; this is no different for a graphic designer or any other individual within the creative field. If the decision or actions cause any infliction to society or the environment, then it would be deemed to be socially immoral.

Ethical values that are inherent in the community which creates a difference between right and wrong. In this way, social balance is believed to be in the ‘right’, but more commonly than not, this ‘fairness’ is absent and is evident within the practice of Graphic design.

Each person has a responsibility to act in a manner that is beneficial to society and not solely to the individual.’

There have been several studies that have been conducted to determine the association between society in the design sector. In the researches, various definitions of befitting graphic design are prominent.

In a study that was completed eight years ago, by Phil Meggs, an American graphic designer where he concentrates on his research on ‘tracing the history of graphic design.’ (Meggs and Purvis, 2012)

In this work; he proved that graphic design could be traced back to the cavemen where there were murals of the animals they hunted for food.

The study interestingly also draws out the development of the alphabet as having descended from symbols.

‘Aristotle said, without image, thinking is impossible. He was right. The alphabet is. Image-centric. We learn to draw letters; these drawings make words that we put thought into.’ Wepow (2017)

Therefore, Graphic design in context has been ingrained within humanity fibre, past and present and would be inconceivable to imagine a world without it. In fact, in some ways, humanity has never had the opportunity to be apart from it.

Always there lurking around us, visual communication is as ancient as a man first walked on this earth as Homo sapiens as Phil Meg’s study has proven.

Still, it has been a lengthy Journey from stone tool to digital technology.

Scientists assume that speech was developed approximately 100,000 years ago, first recorded evidence of communication dates to 30,000 years ago. The evidence was found in Chauvet Cave in France and dates to the Palaeolithic era. Twenty thousand years later, Homo sapiens next progression from cave paintings are petroglyphs.

Petroglyphs are images which have been generated by an early man, cutting into the rocks, which was another example of initial communication. ‘All of these markings are referred to as Rock Art.’ (King, 2005)

Individuals all over the world have been creating rock art for thousands of years. Some of their messages, created thousands of years ago, which can still be seen in the present day.

The oldest are usually located in rock shelters and caves where they are preserved from the weather.

However, in dry environments, some examples of rock art have persisted for thousands of years.

‘First, written communication was through symbols. Pictograms represented more physical objects, and ideograms represented ideas or concepts. We still use them today, especially charts and diagrams that are pictograms and almost every traffic sign is an ideogram.’ (Hrsto, 2014)

However, some 5,000 years ago, we moved on from symbols, and writing was invented.

Writing methods can be roughly broken into three categories. Logographic is mainly based on pictograms and ideograms, syllabic is based on syllables and the alphabetic that is based on the alphabet. All of the groups started to develop in the Bronze age. However, it is difficult to categorise one unique method because all of them appear in any given writing systems; nevertheless, the first true alphabets were Greek and Latin.

It proves that humanity has the abilities to learn new skills and to take these skills to the next level to communicate, which is confirmation by the earliest cave murals, which dates to prehistoric times.

The Murals are often paintings of animals to hand imprints to events like hunting, and they have been established all over the globe.

Historians are still in a debate of the fine details as to whom these are used to communicate. However, one clear thing is, right from the start, humanity showed a natural ability to communicating with visuals.

‘Although smoke signals, drums and horns are prehistoric, first communication form that still exists today was developed around 6th century BCE, and it was mail.’ (Hrsto, 2014)

However, there were pigeon carriers, heliographs, maritime flags and some mechanical acoustic experiments to communicate with each other.

The progression continued, but it was not until the late 1830s when electricity helped to create a telegraph.

The 1870s gave birth to telephone, and 1890s gave us radio. Radio was the first widespread usage of wireless communication.

In the 1920s the television had been invented and the first advertisement broadcasted in 1941, the advertising game has begun.

Right at heart, graphic design is a form of art we have seen this proven by the earliest cave murals, which are the first evidence of graphic design, in a simple form. Despite this, visual design in practice did not begin officially until the invention of the printing press in the year 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg.

It identified the start of the so-called ‘Gutenberg Revolution’ the era of printed books in the West. Still, also it is the Gutenberg’s invention enabled the mass production of books for the first time and changed the society.

However, when an individual mentions the printing press, most will instinctively think of Johannes Guttenberg and his revolution.

While Guttenberg invention was unique in its own right, despite this, it was not in fact, the first printing press to be invented. The first printing press goes back to the 3rd century.

Despite this fact,’ Guttenberg rightfully deserves his place in history for producing a machine that allowed for the mass-production of books for the first time in history’. (McFadden and English), 2018

Graphic design in practice reigns back to the industrial revolution of North America in the year 1790, even though we saw the source of the profession in 1440. ‘William Addison Dwiggins wrote an article ‘New Kind of Printing Calls for New Design’ (printed in the Boston Evening Transcript, August 29, 1922.

‘He was a book Designer, ‘Dwiggins first used the term ‘graphic design’ to describe what exactly his role was in structuring and managing the visuals in book design. From day one, designers were struggling to explain to non-designers what, exactly, they did.’ (Ellis, 2018)

This confirms that graphic design has been present for a long duration and has shaped society over time. McLuhan quote validates this as he once said, ‘We become what we behold, we shape our tools, and then our tools shape us.’ Mine (2013)

McLuhan quote endorses that indeed, that society has processed within each step of civilisation, but McLuhan also predicted the increase of technology. The effects this would consequently have on our community; he also was said to believe that the media has the power to extend the range of the human senses.

Which brings the attention that Designers must be familiar, not only with present and future applications of technology but also the rich history that has gone before that has allowed to build up our skills.

Graphic Designers need to question their involvement with regards to social responsibility lies with society.

One example of this is a contemporary graphic design agency called LOKI, which is a design and communications studio.

‘Their objective is working at the intersection of graphic design and promote social change.

Their practice is rooted in social justice principles, focusing on community building and collaboration, cultural production and publishing, activist research and political mobilisation. LOKI creates images, objects, and experiences that engage, empower, and oppose. Which is essential as a Social designer’. (Graphic Design & Social Change, n.d.

In recent years Graphic Design has been grown in accelerated rate, especially into new territory, the new area is social and humanitarian, which has substantially benefited the design sector. It has given a unique perspective to the design practice, which has allowed for Graphic design practitioners to be more socially diverse but more crucial socially responsible and behave in a more passionate level rather than being narcissistic, although this behaviour still exists.

‘In a Division of culture report, Sali Sasaki explains within her report ‘This new perspective on design gave more responsibilities to designers, who play an essential role as new agents of change. Designers today seek to create something new for the world by using creativity’. Saki (2010)

Consequently, it has not always been the case; traditional designers practised in a context which seems outdated in this present day, they worked in a way that terminology of aesthetics style and mannerisms were critical rather than seeing the needs for the consumers.

‘Wright Mills, who was an American Sociologist, in 1958 attended the 8th international design conference in Aspen; designers share the dilemmas of an overdeveloped society which production capacity surpasses consumers resources’. (Grant,1992)

A gentleman called William Rees who is an urban planner at the University of Columbia, ‘estimated that it requires four to 6 hectares of land to maintain the consumption level of the average person from a high – consumption country. And believes that our consumption of goods is a function of our culture’. (Shah, 2005)

The sociologist, Mr Mills, is precisely right to bring up awareness that, Consumerism is the desire for goods that are not essential, the aspiration for luxury.

Consumerism is reinforced through the use of advertisements and marketing. The initial advertisements were not like the ones we would recognise today. Advertisements would be in newspapers, along with information not involve many visual elements within the advert. ‘Society has begun to see more visual adverts in the late 19th century when colour printing became more frequent and cheaper. Posters became a popular method of attracting consumers. However, this has caused people to question the ethics behind advertising. We began to see more visual adverts in the late 19th century when colour printing became more frequent and cheap. Posters became a popular method of attracting consumers. This, however, has caused people to question the ethics behind advertising’. (Living, 2017)

Of course, designers produce concepts, images and meanings to communicate; they shape and enforce the overpowering myth and the actuality to the social culture.

In contemporary societies, designers have created an image of one’s self of being a significant creator of the meaning of everyday living. (God)

Sadly, our communities depend on the mass production of products and the hidden messages that lie within them. Graphic design has created a design practitioner who always assesses the contexts and the effects of their design concepts, not only according to aesthetics and commercial aspects but also by social context. The social designer technique is to examine how effective does the design transmit messages not only regarding products but also about society and how human relationships are affected.