Questions / Prompts

  • What is your opinion of Paul Rand’s view of the designer/client relationship?
  • Is there a difference between “underground” and “mainstream” today?
  • Provide a visual example and description of early avant-garde culture jamming.
  • Provide a visual example and description of culture jamming today.

Paul Rand “Good Design Is Good Will” 1987 from  Graphic Design Theory: Readings From the Field page 64-69 and Steven Heller “Underground Mainstream” in Design Observer 2008.

Paul Rand believes that the work surpasses the designer / client relationship when it comes to bureaucracy. However, he believes that the closer the relationship is between the designer and the top, the better for a meaningful design outcome. He states, “I believe that design quality is proportionately related to the distance that exists between the designer and the management at the top. The closer this relationship, the more chances are for a meaningful design.” I agree with this and have had first-hand experiences that have taught me the value of creating a good relationship with stakeholders, and setting clear limits at the same time. It’s not an easy thing to do, but definitely possible and achievable with practice.

Maybe not as visible due to how rapid our current society is moving and the overwhelming amount of information that gets put out on the daily, but there is definitely a difference between “underground” and “mainstream” in the design industry. A few examples could be the adaptation of glitch art into a design style from a few years back, as well as the use of memes and TikTok trends in advertising. Because of the freedom to experiment with their style and test different approaches to design problems, non-celebrity designers play a huge role in “underground” design.

The image above is an example of culture jamming and we see a lot of these all over the internet. Most of them began circulating more and more with social media and the surge of memes and we are very likely to see more of these and maybe eventually become incorporated into advertising styles, who knows.

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