Archive
Civilization
‘Everyone teaches everyone.’
Pierre Bourdieu, sociologist
‘It’s our own view that often encloses other people inside the prisons we build for them, but it is also our view that can free them.’
Amin Maalouf, author
I like to think that, in the middle of the 20th century, at the end of World War II, the French and Swiss typographers and poster designers who shared the same political affinities and who came together to form the AGI had realized that the unstoppable developments of modern times called for a new union. I like to think that they wanted to witness their writings and illustrations meeting and confronting one another, beyond all borders, throughout the continents, all over the world.
I find it hard to believe that this initiative was totally unrelated to the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and to the declaration made by tongue-poking Nobel prizewinner, Albert Einstein, in December 1951 in the UNESCO Newsletter in a piece entitled ‘Culture must be one of the bases for understanding between peoples’.1 In this piece, Einstein clearly explains that this universal culture can only be built through mutual understanding between different cultures.
That same year, our colleagues at the AGI all expressed a similar wish. As the world was rebuilding itself, they acted as graphic designers for various humanitarian causes. Driven by their artistic determination, they looked for high quality in their signs and images which were intended for everyone, addressing commerce, culture and social and political activities with neither denigration nor predominance. In the magnificent words of Walter Gropius, they sought ‘unity in diversity’. It was in this spirit that they joined the social and economic forces for reconstruction and development and, in many countries, contacted talented designers who, like them, wished to share this ideal. The many artists included the greatest talents of the time.
Today, we can see their idealism was not enough to overcome the pragmatism required for the survival of each and every one under the circumstances in their various countries. Although they made glorious careers for themselves, the altruistic utopia that helped them emerge is in serious trouble. The definition of values is largely dictated by a worldwide market. Only inert cultural entities, such as monuments and museums, enjoy the minimal of international protection. The cultural forces present in every country and in particular, in developing countries, are being formalized, organized and standardized. The famous ‘mass culture’ and its arrogant media allies impose this control.
As a graphic designer and a loyal member of the AGI aware of his professional duties and as an independent agent within the framework of the market economy, I have to deal with easily identifiable archetypal individuals, rather than free individuals! Free, as we consider ourselves, perhaps erroneously... Who knows? So when I attend an event, I am often unwittingly assisting in the triumph of the mass culture monster. As I have not lost my faith in the human race or its capacity to understand things, however, I still hope that one day the monster will be exposed. Or that next time, it will leave me the room for an actual exchange of ideas... But in vain. It thrives. And now I know it will not mend its ways.
We cannot let the matter rest; we have to act.
Faced with this beast, graphic designers should reconsider the fundamentals of their role. The technological revolution of the last twenty years offers the potential for progress and will probably generate further possibilities for communication between people. At the same time, however, until now this radical transformation of our environment has concealed the urgent need to understand our times and find the means to respond. It is essential to diagnose the overall situation in the near future.
It took fifty years for the status of graphic designers to be recognized. It will take some time to find once again the humanist spirit that should never have ceased to support the profession.
I propose two slogans to get started. In my opinion, they are fundamental.
The first slogan is a form of refusal: NO to the market as the only means of exchange. The market always appeals to the need to conform and we must not alienate any sensibilities to serve any old cause.
The second is a declaration of a clear direction: YES to a democratic culture, as this enables us to meet the need to coordinate differences and allows all individuals to become subjects. Culture engenders freedom and encourages criticism. We have to promote culture. In a word, let us not only speak; let us also give everyone else the opportunity to speak themselves as often as possible. Like other professionals – doctors, solicitors and lawyers – we need to think about the definition of our mission in the public sector and reconsider the practice of visual communication as a whole, locally, nationally and internationally. We also need to think about the ethics of our profession in all those places we have the pleasure of occupying with our signs.
As designers, our eloquence and subjectivity should not put to use for manipulation without our approval. This is what the 20th century has taught me. If, today, the most talented young graphic designers want to be free and independent, escaping the rights and duties of socialized communication, I am convinced that this is because they wish to free themselves individually of the banality, the vulgarity and the repetitiveness of the mass media. It is a refusal to become an instrument of the mass commercial strategies from which they often feel detached. We should be ready to forgive them, those of us who wish visual communication to be sincere, human and socially useful. It is high time we all thought and acted together. As supporters of the commitments dear to our past AGI peers, we can no longer be content with being the so-called ‘champions’ of a code of ethics on the verge of extinction.
Pierre Bernard, Paris, 2006
Essay taken from 'AGI: Graphic Design Since 1950' by Ben & Elly Bos