Un-doing graphic design is a feminist manifesto of my own design practice. It states that graphic design is actually a form of language in its own right and that – just like language –, if it is devoid of content then it is devoid of meaning.
Graphic design without meaning is either useless or a slave to profit, to the dominant social system that is aggressive, oppressive and only devoted to profit. That kind
of graphic design is the mirror of crushing capitalism, which looks at human beings only
as potential consumers and leaves no room for minorities, ambiguities, stratifications
of meaning that ask to be understood, to be read through multiple layers of meaning.
It is simply the reflection of a social order in which the dominant thought is the predatory one of those who accumulate more than they can, of those who do not share, of those who judge. Basically, it is the reflection of a world built by white men for other white men
and to hell with all the rest.
Graphic design without meaning is either useless or a slave to profit, to the dominant social system that is aggressive, oppressive and only devoted to profit. That kind
of graphic design is the mirror of crushing capitalism, which looks at human beings only
as potential consumers and leaves no room for minorities, ambiguities, stratifications
of meaning that ask to be understood, to be read through multiple layers of meaning.
It is simply the reflection of a social order in which the dominant thought is the predatory one of those who accumulate more than they can, of those who do not share, of those who judge. Basically, it is the reflection of a world built by white men for other white men
and to hell with all the rest.
In these terms I also think of Pink, a project on the meaning of color, in which Sheila
de Bretteville asked women of all ages to write on pink paper cards what that color,
the epitome of femininity, meant for them. By association, I am also thinking of Jenny Holzer’s Inflammatory Essays, deliberately lacking a clear authorship, presented anonymously on the streets of New York, created to give space to a plurality of voices, dragging those voices out of their own marginality, their own meekness, claiming validation for each individual experience.
de Bretteville asked women of all ages to write on pink paper cards what that color,
the epitome of femininity, meant for them. By association, I am also thinking of Jenny Holzer’s Inflammatory Essays, deliberately lacking a clear authorship, presented anonymously on the streets of New York, created to give space to a plurality of voices, dragging those voices out of their own marginality, their own meekness, claiming validation for each individual experience.
This work is a reference to these projects, it consists in 64 pink paper cards (format: 10x10 cm) that can be put together according to one’s wishes and that include quotes and artworks from women writers, artists and designers in order to covey the plurality of voices that supports this idea of design and humanity, voices that share the same frustration and the same anger, but also the same hope for change.
5 copies
64 pages
100x100 mm, uncoated pink paper, 120 gr
Digital printing
Type: Avara by Raphaël Bastide
MA in Communication and Design for Publishing
Supervised by Marco Tortoioli
ISIA Urbino 2019
THANK YOU!
