Design
The good design nuances of Colors magazine
‘lend’ well to the Macsystems
advert. Maybe this comes from the similar
design goal that a magazine and advert
share. Their functions are to clearly
and effectively communicate information,
whilst also to visualise an identity
for itself. As a chief social function of
design is to visualise the identity
of institutions and audiences. To reiterate
this point. Think about what the
Macsystems advert would look like if it were
redesigned with the
Underworld/Tomato sleeve? The result for me would have been
more interesting
to look at. This would however detract from the adverts
readability, making
it harder to decode, ineffective as an informative advert
and therefore a bad
piece of design. Just because something looks interesting to
look at doesn’t
mean it’s a good design. Deciding wether something is a good
design or bad is
a difficult thing. There are so many variables such as taste,
current
ideologies, social values and attitudes on design to base a
decision.
Graphic design described by Ellen Lupton is a category
encompassing any form of
communication in which signs are scratched, carved,
drawn, printed, pasted,
projected, or otherwise inscribed onto surfaces.
Graphic Design is utterly
commonplace, appearing everywhere and produced by
anyone. More people today have
the potential to produce graphic design, than
ever before, wether it be good or
bad. Graphic design can be produced by
anyone with access to computers with
design applications, whether this be at
home, school, college, university or the
library. Anyone truly can use the
technology, but not all can design with it. As
a final piece of design, the
Macsystems advert is defiantly much better. The
success of redesigning
something bad out of good in this way, really comes down
to how appropriate
the nuances of the good design are. Can we conclude that
truly great pieces
of design, are the ones that can be formulated and used
universally. I don’t
think so, Graphic design can never be that simple. As the
ideologies of
society change, so does the effectiveness of design. Are the
pieces of design
that survive this change any better than the others? A single
formula for
great design can never exist. Graphic design is too diverse, with
many
languages and levels to communicate through. Graphic design doesn’t have
a
Holy Grail. It can never exist because everything based on one formula
would
begin to look similar and so boring. Who would stand for it?