Ripped from the Headlines
Is design as important as dance or television? The New York Times doesn’t seem to think so.
While the aforementioned subjects each have their own section, design—on the rare occasion it is addressed directly—is squashed somewhere between gardening tips and the top seven flocked wallpapers in “Home & Garden.”
More often, the subject of design is approached obliquely: an appraisal of the A380 superjumbo jet in "Business," an evaluation of the new surface navigation system for subway riders in "NY/Region", or a piece on the influence of Herbert Muschamp in the “Obituaries.”
In some ways it’s fitting that criticism of something as ubiquitous as design is embedded throughout the newspaper, rather than confined to a section. The problem with this stealth approach, however, is that in the midst of a business-focused story it’s hard to convey more than a surface impression of design’s significance; the social, environmental, and political implications of the latest Facebook functionality or a new park bench that prevents homeless people from sleeping on it.
In-depth and sustained analysis takes space and time. Let’s dedicate a section—hell, even a page—to explain how and why the designed entities we interact with every day are made, distributed, and disposed of.
Alice Twemlow is chair of the Design Criticism MFA Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York and a PhD candidate in the Design History Program at the V&A Museum and the Royal College of Art in London. Jillian Tamaki is a Canadian illustrator who grew up on the Prairies, and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her next project is Skim, a graphic novel to be published in 2008 by Groundwood Books.
Remarks 37 total remarks were added before the post was closed.
Greg J. Smith
There is loads of design in each and every edition of the NY Times - look at the advertising. Meticulously choreographed lifestyle placements abound! I guess the problem with design being relegated to this domain is that people aren't trained to recognize good design (or the appearance thereof) as anything but a signifier for class and status.
As much as I would like to see a design section, why not write about it in the context of news (i.e. a discussion of "defense architecture" park benches that are "homeless-proof"). This might be more useful than the majority of "arts" design writing, which often amounts to little more than glorified PR.
Andrew
The NYT also does a seasonal "T" magazine insert focused on design, as well as regular issues on fashion (like last week's). There's also the T Magazine blog. I can't think of a newspaper in the U.S that covers design as well as the NYT. Look at The Washington Post sometime and see how much design gets covered there. Any random Wednesday NYT's more likely to include some piece that discusses design.
Mark
Yawn. 'Design' is inherent everywhere. TV, thankfully, is a limited entity that might be summed up in a newspaper section. Mostly everything is designed in some sense and 'design' can cover a multitude of things. Use of the word alone is pretty meaningless. What do you mean by 'design'? You should be happy that it's everywhere.
Dennis Eusebio
I often wonder if being a designer brought all this fame and attention, would it actually better the profession?
Look at other professions where fame and riches come into play. Sports, Film and Music have not really benefitted from fame and fortune. In fact, its eaten away at its core by motivating the wrong people to join in.
So while my ego would want to be on the NY Times or CNN for something I've done in design, at the same time I wonder why it would really matter in the long run.
Dennis Eusebio
Mainly, great work is being produced no matter if we're on the cover of NY Times or not.
chris robertson
i feel that design recognition has never been better if you look in the right outlets. look at the collaborations taking place in all aspects of industry where we even have the automotive industry inviting computer game developers (gran turismo) to create the next generation of car dashboards..
designers are the new engineers in terms of the painful search of recognition and the realisation of being undervalued. but surely its the value your peers place on your work and not the uneducated general public that truely matters?
Shane
I think those are definitely some interesting thoughts, and I think the general public would benefit greatly if they were better educated on Design and the impact it has on their daily life.
Ben
I'm with Mark, design as a term is pretty meaningless. We're making it even more meaningless by applying it to every odd and end in everything we do. We overuse design to a point that almost annoys me. Myself included.
Sandra
Someone else agreeing with Mark and Ben. The "everything is design" camp is borderline embarrassing in its equivocations. The only specific claim is 'I am entitled to more attention.'
Scott Andrews
I felt like this newspaper today. Does it seem like sometimes we're just blowing in the wind?! Ha...
Scott
www.ARRiiVE.com
Ross
I've always been of the impression that the NY Times was one of the best designed papers around, and was also the most supportive of design. But then again, I guess I need to familiarize myself with it, the only newspaper I read is The Stranger.
I imagine it will be awfully hard to educate the public on what Design is when so many people use the word Design as a catch all phrase. I'm sure the people at the local Burger King will be thrilled to know that they're now 'Burger Designers'.
And when people just throw the word 'Design' around like that, it just dilutes the meaning of it, don't you think?
Russell Warner
A sense of design is much more than a specialized skill like piloting airplanes or fighting fires. On the contrary, in a highly designed modern world, understanding design becomes more like literacy; your ability to understand what is going on around you and what is being communicated to you comes to depend on this sense. And as we now move into a multimedia world, this sort of transliteracy will become a total necessity to the next generation and needs to be taught in elementary school, not as a college major. I think it's fine for the NY Times not to have a "design" section in the same way they don't have a "literacy" section. But society in general needs a better/more educated perception of design itself.
Michael McWatters
Perhaps it's because design is intrinsic to events and things, rather than an event or thing in and of itself.
For example, food, travel, film, theatre, and books are each events or things we seek out in their entirety (events or things to be purchased, owned, consumed, experienced).
Good design, on the other hand, is not a thing or event sought out in and of itself; it is an intrinsic quality of many other things.
Newspapers have sections dedicated to telling us about things or events, not necessarily the qualities of things or events. Hence, there is no design section, but instead design is noted and scrutinized in each of the other sections.
Gaz Shaw
Perhaps there is scope for a regular design section, but I also find myself leaning towards Greg's argument too. Perhaps the crux of this article strengthens part of Wolff Olins' thought process for their London 2012 Olympic Games branding.
The furore over the logo in particular transcended the usual confines of the blogoshere and design journals. There was a global debate; people were discussing it in bars and at the dry cleaners, around the dinner table and at the kitchen sink. In Britain alone, design luminaries--Peter Saville, Adrian Shaughnessy and Michael Johnson to name a few--gave their own critiques in the mainstream newspapers and on TV. Design writing and design appreciation was everywhere; and although it was quite a unique debate, it didn't require a dedicated design section. And there was, most certainly, an interested audience.
Name
Comments should be >50 words. Too many walls of text.
Jacob Halton
What's so funny...yet in a sad way, about this post is how it summarizes the overall understanding of design among the population. Design is something that surrounds us all and has probably THE biggest impact on our lives and culture today; but whenever I meet someone new, when talking about our professions, I always get the "Well I don't know anything about graphic design..." Or "I don't even know what graphic design is."
The sad part is many clients share this outlook. Maybe if the public was more aware of what design IS, even from an outsiders point of view, they would hold more respect and consciousness towards it. But don't tell that to the exec's at wal-mart, they're counting on that never happening.
After all, we don't need to know how to play every instrument and song on an album to enjoy listening to it :)
Maurice
"Design is something that surrounds us all and has probably THE biggest impact on our lives and culture today"
Actually, economics has a much bigger impact on lives and culture. I would also say engineering and the state+legal system are far more significant in structuring people's lives than design. Of course, if you define 'design' to include anything that was the result of human intentionality and action, then I guess you're right, but by generalizing design in such a way, it ceases to be the province solely of professional designers.
It's no surprise that people don't have a better understanding of design when designers themselves spend half their lives arguing over what constitutes design.
Paul Lukas
Back in the late '90s, the Times used to have a weekly design column, which was written by Phil Patton and Andrea Codrington (they alternated each week). Surprised nobody else has mentioned it here.
Keenan Cummings / BYU
I agree, but I wonder if dedicated space for design is around thee corner with the increasing democratization of design (for better or for worse). It seems that design literacy and interest is on the rise, but maybe I am overly optimistic.
I do have a question for anyone who might know: what does this site use to embed the font in the title while keeping it highlight-able? Is there something that woul allow a whole site to be set in a non-standard font and remain easily editable(blog) and selectable?
Simona
Design is a cloth for every invention, even if it's an idea or the most sofisticated car... Design is everywhere. Have you take a look at your coffe maker?
miss representation
If Muschamp's influence was mentioned 'obliquely' it was because the key piece of information was his passing. And given that much of his influence was a result of his prominence as the architecture critic for the Times, they can hardly be faulted for not having reported on such a tautological perversion prior. Are you wishing for piece such as "Times elevates relative minor academic to vaunted position; subsequently is seen as critical force"?
After all, who was there to hire Frank Rich after he quit reviewing theater?
felix sockwell
Heller has a new design/ art section in the book review titled Visuals: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/books/review/Heller-t.html?_r=3&pagewanted=3&ref=books&oref=slogin and new magazines like are Good are probably better suited to drawing more descriminate, progressive minded people interested in design.
Hey, at least they're archiving illustrators now!
Andrea Guinn / MU
I agree. Design touches just about everything and would be hard to condensed into its own delineated section, though it would be helpful in getting people to see it's not just a frivolity outside the context of marketing.
Keenan, wouldn't that just be selectable text in Flash?
Joe Clark
I’d say the real problem is the colonization of the word “design” by twee interior decorators, for whom the term means a tremendously important new chair, lamp, or rug.
If you wrote a similar column on design coverage on TV, you would note that it now borders on impossible to imagine the word “designers” without also imagining Tim Gunn uttering as a salutation for apprentice frockmakers.
joe
wat the heck are you talking about i thiught this was a massage therapy like at the spa
Jacob Halton
"Of course, if you define 'design' to include anything that was the result of human intentionality and action, then I guess you're right, but by generalizing design in such a way, it ceases to be the province solely of professional designers."
Actually that is what I meant, but you make a good point that it stops being "our" thing, and sort of makes it a big democratic thing.
Then again....that IS what it is becoming, more and more. Which is why the word "photoshop" is now a verb, and a commonly used one.
I guess that raises another question I've been thinking about lately....
"who influences design culture more these days? The designers who run firms and agencies, or the people who have illustrator installed on their dell?"
syed
Guys, happy new year!
Wolf
Maybe you're not on the cover of the New York Times, but you made the cover. What's better?
Bret
This one looks a little funky in IE7.
Sean Bell
The problem is that design has no common voice and by common I mean with the common man. I would argue that cooking is as or more ubiquitous than design and yet it gets its own network on TV. I want to see design shows on TV - not interior design shows.
Maybe we just need to get over ourselves and run our own marketing campaign for once instead of creating them for our clients. I think deep down we like the idea of being misunderstood artists or worse we like positioning ourselves as aesthetes.
There is enough collective brainpower in the AIGA alone, and there are so many others, to make design a national - understood - topic.
Personally I would welcome that kind of clarity. It makes the design pitch easier to prospective clients when they understand the value that design holds for their company and it might even make the in-house designers life bearable in many, many more instances.
Bert Mahoney
The simple fact is that we live in a designed world and not any other kind.
Some people have astute awareness, knowledge, and opinion of a given field of practice and they are passionate about it. Sometimes these "fields of practice" do go (sadly) largely ignored mostly because of the publics lack of awareness and literacy within it.
This should not deter us from consistently helping create awareness and share knowledge and perspective freely.
Remember, if you don't know what you don't know, you haven't a clue it exists.
Stephen Tiano
"Design is something that surrounds us all and has probably THE biggest impact on our lives and culture today"
We need to get a grip here. If there were no stuff,—art, products, ads, books—there would be nothing to design. As a book designer, part of my job is to never lose sight of the fact that there is little use for me if no one writes the book.
I’m not sure what to make of the hallowed tones and self-importance of those who think design is the it. Is it laughable or just sad? Get over yourselves. It’s work, not the meaning of life.
jim jaffe
surgeons think most problems can be solved with a scalpel and plumbers believe that civilization relies on good pipes. why should the design claque be any different?
a good newspaper's a stew comprised of many such ingredients. the Times not only has more than most, but tends to be better designed (tho dull compared to a newspaper with exciting design like the Herald Tribune)
Matthew Wrightley
"The simple fact is that we live in a designed world and not any other kind."
That's a ridiculous claim. You assert as fact that which you have yet to prove by argument. One could replace 'designed' with 'political' or 'natural' or 'social' or 'human-made.'
Maybe (as argued above) a definition of 'design' extends to anything that is the result of human effort, at which point designers cease to be anything special, since people in all fields are trained in problem solving and in reflecting on and improving upon that problem solving. 'Design claque' indeed.
Don O'Shea
You can hear the same lament of unrecognized ubiquity from those who work in the field of optics. For example, if you are aware of a certain recent exhibition in Las Vegas, do a mental replay of the gadgets displayed there and note that the displays, imaging and image processing technologies, there is little that could be shipped without a good dose of optics, the Rodney Dangerfield of technologies.
Matthew Wrightley
But Don, the designers now come along and say "the optics had to be designed, see how design is everything, therefore professional designers deserve credit for everything"
paul merrill
I thought "A Brief Message" was going to be updated more frequently...