Topic:
Designer as [x]

Background

When we looked at Mike Monteiro’s video, we looked at a rather expansive, but literal definition of what a designer can be. Someone who designs things; budgetary, graphic, programmatic, systemic, whathaveyou. This essay examines a metaphorical definition of a (graphic) designer; the metaphor being a comparison with other professions. We’ve also examined a lot of identity and identity adjacent content and very current iterations of design eduction and thought. Throughout, the semester we’ll be peppering in some more foundational/“important” thought from which those current ideas spring. 

You may have, and to my mind “should have” read this text earlier. If so, good. If not, also good. I also think it is fine to re-read it and see how your thoughts on the piece have changed. If you have read it, and asked to prepare a response, you may be more interested in examining the fallout from the essay and might focus on that in contrast and comparison to the Michael Rock text.

This is Michael Rock. Okay, bye, see you next week.

















Just playin’. Michael Rock is a designer known for his work at the design firm called 2x4 (they have an office in NY btw). You may recognize some of their work:

(dynamic logo system for the Brooklyn Museum)

(logo and branding for Target’s Prologue brand)
(book design for Theaster Gates) (Type design for LACMA)

Questions You Should be Thinking About & Answering (for Yourself) as you Read This

Further Reading/Viewing

Designers and Dilettantes from DesignObserver (2007)︎An essay that examines the “fallout” from the authorial shift in graphic design. It “builds” on Michael Rock’s essay as a starting point and uses it largely to examine Elliott Earls’s work. Worth it and fun to read the comments here.

Designer as Producer by Ellen Lupton (1998)︎ Ellen Lupton examines another thing a designer “can be as” to examine other cultural connotations and implications.

You are not a storyteller by Stefan Sagmeister︎

The Rise of Designer as Life Coach by Kara Cutruzzula︎ (I think this is largely an economic examination of the topic, as in career opportunities, however there’s probably something subtextual about designers’ ability to currate and enliven brief messages and embue them with a deeper apparent “meaning”)

Multiple Signatures ︎
A collection of essays (including Designer as Author) from Michael Rock
(I own this book if you’d like to borrow it, just don’t eat Cheetos while you read it plz)

Fuck Content by Michael Rock(2009)︎
Another essay from Michael Rock, expanding on some ideas from Designer as Author

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Things We Talked About in Class (03/31/2021)

Continual Partial Awareness by Cory Arcangel︎
I forget exactly why we were talking about this; I believe it was something to do with the value of ideas versus executing them. In this lecture, Cory Arcangel talks about a bunch of ideas he had that he knows he’s never going to make.

Untitled (...thoughts on a title) by Nicole Killian and Patrick Gantert︎

I forgot again why I wanted to mention this, we may have been talking about the traditional tools of designers? Not sure. This book is entirely composed out of screenshots and there’s no proper “text” in it. I do own the book (I believe I have it at Purchase) and it is a really interesting and at times super visually arresting piece.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell︎ I remember asking about the idea of “mastery” and how important it is (if at all) to be a “master” of something or if school can confer mastery (versus your own obsession/experiential learning)

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Casper David Friedrich︎