“Today it has become necessary to demolish the myth of the ‘star’ artist who only produces masterpieces for a small group of ultra-intelligent people. […] Culture today is becoming a mass affair, and the artist must step down from his pedestal and be prepared to make a sign for a butcher’s shop (if he knows how to do it)” is part of some writing some asshole named Bruno Munari starts off with and already I’m gagging. This is my problem with designers- they think they’re better than everyone else because they’re “useful” for everyday jobs whereas fine artists can only appeal to “high society”. Saying that artists need to “step down” and be prepared to do simple tasks honestly sounds like he’s insulting the intelligence of fine artists and what can be accomplished through fine art- in my opinion, anyone can be a designer, it’s not that fucking hard, but it takes a special person to be able to channel feelings and emotions and complexity into fine art that can be consumed by EVERYONE, not just ultra intelligent people. This is my problem with communication design- The self importance that most designers hold because their work is “accessible” to the public. I’m confused when they say “The designer of today reestablishes the long lost contact between art and the public” because to me, that contact has never been lost. It’s only lost to stupid people who need to dumb it down for the audience. When reading the section of “What is a Designer?”, he just basically proves my point/issue- designers want to make everything in the world of art more complicated. They want to make themselves feel more important because they can connect to an audience easier. I have never screamed “shut the fuck up” more times at a piece of paper reading Bruno Munari.s bullshit since the last time I read American Psycho. I basically read 8 pages of self indulgent fuckery. 

While Helen Armstrong didn’t make me wanna slit my wrists, I still disagree with a lot of her points. Ellen Lupton says that “design is a social activity”, and while I understand that she means that everyone can partake in it as they go along the day, I think it’s a little bit of a stretch- I feel like the phrasing of “social activity implies ACTIVE participation, and I highly doubt many people are actively looking at the design around them and wondering why and how. Ellen even says this with “Design is visible everywhere yet also invisible” which just makes my point more valid- I personally feel someone cannot be socially active with something they are unaware of. Helen then goes on to name drop El Lissitzky, Rodchenko, and the Bauhaus movement (as well as others) and while those artists and the Bauhaus movement are fantastic, to me they are fantastic because of the artistic movements they are involved in and artistic expression they provide- I don’t think it’s fair to lump together the Bauhaus movement and all of it’s beautiful aesthetic value to something like Helvetica. Calling graphic design “the avant-garde of the new millennium” makes no sense to me, because there is nothing avant-garde about communication design!!!!!!!!!!! You’re not different or ground breaking for making posters!!!!!!!! 

Let’s put it this way- do I understand why and how my classmates came to the conclusions they did in their assignments? Yes, I do. Do I get how designers feel like they are helping to solve problems? Yeah, sure. But do I believe that designers are more thoughtful than regular artists and that their work appeals to more people because they are trying to bridge the gap between art and society? No. In my opinion, they’re not special for connecting to people, because even the “ultra-intelligent” art can connect to people.

Maybe I’m jaded because I personally don’t give a shit about communication design. I don’t look at advertisements and wonder how and why they work. I don’t care about design and how it can appeal to the public. I give a shit about art. I care about how a Francis Bacon painting speaks to me. I care about creating my own works of art that speak on my experience as a person. I look at collages by Jesse Draxler and I’m comforted by the distortion of the image. I have favorite designers, but they are my favorite designers because their aesthetic speaks to me on a level that goes beyond the basic necessity that design needs. A lot of designers feel as if they are better than fine artists because their work can speak to a broader audience, but the truth is that art can speak to everyone who seeks out the art that can speak to them. Maybe in the past it was harder to do, but these days everything can be seen easily, and there’s no need for designers to be pretentious fucks who wet their pants over the “accessibility” of their work.