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.
I agree with Paul Rand’s view on the designer/client relationship. There should be reciprocal in the relationship between designer and client, and reciprocal is the basis for a deal between them. But if you want to build a long-term relationship, reciprocal is not enough. And for design, a lot of good work is done on the basis of trust. If the client doesn’t trust the designer, the designer can’t gain enough trust and it’s hard to design work that satisfies the client. Therefore, trust is the biggest driving force of cooperation.
There is a difference between “underground” and “mainstream” today, especially today, as long as there is a lot of exposure and data approval, it will become “mainstream”. So, what the public recognizes is “mainstream” and what the minority recognizes is “underground”. In fact, for me, the “underground” can become the “mainstream” at any time, because information spreads very fast now. Once new information emerges, it can be spread around the world quickly.
“If you don’t need it … don’t buy it” – 1941 Canadian propaganda poster by the Wartime Information Board. This is an anti-consumerism poster. Visually we can see a huge elephant being sold, followed by the text on the poster, “If you don’t need it…Don’t buy it”. And we see two individuals looking at the elephant, a woman and a man. It can be said that we hardly see the circumstances in which these two people need elephants, they look like they want rather than need. In fact, today also, many kinds of goods are on sale. Many people also buy partly because they want it rather than need it.
This advertisement was made in 2004, and DOVE firstly found a group of ordinary people to be the models for the advertisement, which attracted a lot of people’s attention at that time when the advertisements were all about perfect faces and bodies. DOVE also wanted to tell women that there are different kinds of beauty in each woman, and that the most beautiful is simple and real. In a period when advertising was all about perfect faces and bodies, DOVE did the opposite.
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