#SoManyFeelings
sgarcia@theguidon.com
The potential that design possesses is often undermined by how accessible it has become to everyone. Most visual art forms can now be pursued with not much investment in actual training, especially with the advent of the Internet and the digitization of creative processes. Today, anyone who can lug around a state-of-the-art laptop with the latest creative suites or the most expensive digital SLR unit can be the next big thing—not because of their vision and talent, but because they have the best equipment.
The work a designer does is comparable to a writer’s. They translate the abstract into concrete and, in the designer’s case, into visual forms that we can easily digest.
Each designer aims to make use of the best element possible to change the way we usually think. In the face of a chunk of text trying to tell us something yet would not look appealing to anyone, designers will seek to find creative and understandable ways to translate it. Design is able to clarify how things work and how to make life better for everyone, albeit in an indirect way.
However, despite the promise it holds, the art of design remains to be the road less travelled. What I have noticed is that people have become too focused on the fact that ideas and creative prowess will not be enough to sustain a future.
Design will never be a lucrative profession. Living in a country that puts an exclusive premium on how much you earn for your starting salary or the position you will hold in the top agencies has severely contributed to this way of thinking.
We have become too fixated on the now, and forget that we have so much more to live for. There lacks a desire to go beyond what we can do and find ways to change not just ourselves, but also the world and the people other than our own being.
As Ateneans, we should know this best as we have lived our four years of college with magis as our driving force. In the Loyola Schools, we see a renaissance even at a small scale. Most materials we see around us have started becoming more than just eye-candy. There has been a shift in terms of properly communicating the designer’s message and producing output that is worth remembering.
The senior thesis exhibit of the Information Design program best exemplifies this desire to portray design as more than what you see in the usual tarpaulin or poster.
However, design remains to be an unclear concept for most. Majority of people still believe that design is created with a few clicks in any editing software. What most do not know is the laborious process that each designer needs to undergo just to think of that one great idea that will be able to communicate in the easiest and most efficient way possible.
What separates design from art is how it is created with a specific purpose in mind, unlike art that may serve only as an expression of the artist. With such a purpose, design is able to do more than just look attractive. It pushes the designer to get out of his or her self and be able to think further and for the other.
With the creation of good design comes a form of transcendence, as good design does not stop at information dissemination. It responds to the needs of the world.
