design eye fact is, today, the primary means of social communication. Its purpose is noble work to enhance our visual environment, making the world intelligible and improve quality of life, provide information and improve things, disseminate civic causes and collective interest and culture. Its specificity as a discipline is to convey "feelings, emotions, information and knowledge."
But design can also do the opposite: to seduce in favor of ideology and fundamentalism, promotion and alienating wild consumerism, generate noise and pollute the urban environment, being an accomplice of the disregard for cultural identity and individual freedom and collective.
ambivalence is for this design as a primary instrument of communication (for better and for worse), that its exercise involves many implications: economic, political, technical, cultural, social and ethical issues. The graphic is linked to industry and commerce, and therefore to the economy, the media, culture, and also to politics, to marketing and consumption, aesthetics and semiotics, the science of communication and, for that matter, human sciences and new technologies.
This is the field of forces which today is part and defines the graphic design, and what makes their specificity and specialization in comparison with other design disciplines. While all products and industrial artifacts and urban and architectural, pass 'first' for the eyes, they are visible objects in the environment, and if done for the practical functions of the 'action' in human (to operate, manipulate, move, work, etc..), are not however to communicate "information" and transmit "knowledge" .
But the dilemma and the critical distinction - what about ethics? - Is at the extremes: between design as communication (giving people the necessary information in any area of \u200b\u200bsocial life) and the design of persuasion (trying to convince , to entice people to buy things and vote in person or ideologies they subscribe to.) Quite
voices have and, together with ours, which has been among the first, with regard to the essential dilemma. 1 "spending too much energy is being designed to promote mindless consumption, and low energy on helping people understand an increasingly complex and fragile." 2 Ken Garland had written that "There are occupations worthy of our abilities to solve problems. A series of environmental crises, social and cultural unprecedented demand our attention. There are plenty of cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programs, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently in need of our expertise and assistance. "
While the role of graphic design is the "communication", the discipline has to do with a "language" itself. It is the basic language of image and text, or what we call language "bimedia" (iconic and typographical), organized in collaboration expressive images and texts. The essence of the graphic language has given rise to technical developments and ramifications, as the languages \u200b\u200bof color, functional signs, symbols of science and technology, graphs, which constitute the language of schemes, and digitization. Are new elements, some conceptual and other technicians, who are not classified within the fundamental dualism image-text, because they are not one or the other. And come to supplement and thereby expand the repertoire of communicational resources of contemporary graphic designer.
When I talked to people who are unfamiliar with my profession or young people interested in study design, perhaps the most common question I have is: what is the difference between Industrial Design and Design Chart (or Visual Communication Design). To answer this question I use the example of a bottle, to explain in a simple and practical that the label is a graphic designer and the bottle is Industrial Design.
Graphic Design, as its name implies, is focused on the design of graphical elements in two dimensions (2D) as: posters, labels, logos, advertisements, magazines, layout, etc. While the Industrial Design is dedicated to product design, ie to design three-dimensional (3D), design objects that have measures: length x width x height, as they could be packaging, furniture, machinery, packaging, household appliances.
Thus, the overall design is present in almost all areas of our lives, this makes it a world wide and there are several specialties (or slopes) in the world of design and that they generally are closely related and complement or support each other. Therefore, in an office or design team is normal to find several specialties and their design professionals working together with each bringing in their view of design, whether graphic, industrial, multimedia, information, fashion ... and many more.
then the design is so large and so tied to the creativity that puts limits the imagination, even can be applied in the kitchen, as in my case, I studied Industrial Design after Professional Cooking and now I dedicate it to merge the two worlds. With this I want to emphasize that the design is a discipline that involves aspects such as creativity, sensitivity, aesthetics, form, color, design theory, but above all must speak a passion! Many people who are inclined to study design "attracted" around this concept and fun to explore a career "different" immersed in a world full of creativity. But be careful not to fall on it for fashion or mere novelty, but rather must be knowledgeable of curriculum, have a clear conviction and objective, to imagine a future as a professional and basically feel that attraction (which is not so easy to express), which is the passion for this profession, a passion to love.
However, some people come in with false expectations and drop out when they realize that a career as professional and serious as any other, which definitely no es fácil a pesar de ser una profesión “chévere”. Porque son muchos los que estudian diseño y pocos los que nos graduamos!
Lina Giraldo
Diseñadora Industrial
Cocinera Profesional
