Hello Everyone! Today I would like to reflect a bit on how design always contains a part of the artist and how, even if there is a target audience, the designer will inevitably show some of themselves and their own style or personality within each work that they create. This is true throughout all of art. As I said in some of my earlier posts, art is a way for the artist to communicate their inner identity and ideas through mediums that are sometimes greater than words. In every artists work, they put a bit of themselves. This is why critiques can sometimes be so hard for artists; they feel that the people who are criticizing their work are actually insulting them.
In design, there is usually a target audience and designers must tailor their work to the audience or the client. This can cause barriers with regards to the artist’s own personal style because they must conform to what the audience or client would want rather than what they think (or know) looks good or better. This can be very hard for designers and make the job frustrating or patronizing when a client who has no idea about art, design, or layout tells them to change a design and make it (in the designer’s eyes) worse.
Recently in Media Arts class, we have been working on a design unit in which we had to use InDesign and other Adobe suite programs to create certain products or works for a target audience. This was in order to practice and show are skills in design, but also to simulate the work and life of a real designer. For example, I was asked to make sympathy cards, so the target audience would be people mourning a loss or going through a hard time. This was very challenging for me because I wanted to maintain my own style while also making the card realistic for the target audience. Therefore, I tried to keep with my love of using digital programs and making use of the resources around me and I used Illustrator to create watercolour flowers digitally instead of painting them myself. This was my way of using my personal style, and, although it did not really show through the look of the final product, it still connected me to my work more deeply.
Another project that we worked on this unit was a font design. In that project, I had more leeway with regards to an audience, and I was thus able to keep more to my personal style and what I enjoy in design, that is minimalist and modern designs (in the field of fonts and logos). Therefore, I settled on a simple, yet, in my opinion, elegant font which blended and married together the sharp corners of the rectangle with the smoother circular shape. This design really showed my style and probably did so more than my sympathy cards.
The challenge in design is that sometimes one’s personal style is very different from what the target audience wants. Therefore, they must come up with creative ways to incorporate their own flair into every piece that they create. This may not show up on the final product and a viewer may not be able to see it (as with my cards), but it still adds a bit of the artist in to the work and makes the work more personal to them.
Thanks for reading!
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Image credits:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiCvvLTjP3hAhWNm1kKHQ8tBiMQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.behance.net%2Fgallery%2F57593053%2FThe-Creative-Pain&psig=AOvVaw3iOzUTmymdZIpKRsZbLAsn&ust=1556895157815100 https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwil156Kjf3hAhXFx1kKHXKsDcQQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fvikepicx.pw%2FMario-Musica-Infographic-Drawings-in-2018-t-Design.html&psig=AOvVaw1agBr_R7b3hEB-2rSjSkib&ust=1556895004195973
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