Graphic Design for the Real World? Visual communication’s potential in design activism and design for social change

Katrine Elisabeth Bichler, Sofie Beier

Publications: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

This article examines graphic design’s role within design activism. It outlines design activism in general and its relation to commercial design culture in a consumerist economy. Thereafter it discusses persuasive tendencies in graphic design and questions if its current contribution to design activism is limited to its predominant narrow role of persuading for “the good cause.”

To illustrate the hypothesis that such a persuasive approach lacks activist potential and thus social impact, cases that represent traditional graphic-design activism are compared to alternative approaches with an informative rather than persuasive character. The latter cases exemplify how information design can challenge the status quo and range from conventional leaflets to interactive tools and data visualizations. The discussion explores how these cases work as a non-commercial service to its audience, rather than solely solving communicative problems for commissioning clients. It is argued that in this way visual communication can intervene into problems on a functional level, similarly to artifacts from design disciplines such as architecture and industrial or product design.
Original languageEnglish
JournalArtifact: Journal of Design Practice
Volume3
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)11.1-11.10
Number of pages10
ISSN1749-3463
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Keywords

  • Graphic design
  • information design
  • Design activism
  • ethical economy
  • design culture

Artistic research

  • No

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