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For the Annual Herron Visual Communication Senior Show, We were allowed to create a project
for ourselves. Originally I had decided to put together a display of my work, a portfolio of
sorts. However, after a lot of consideration, a came to the conclusion that I could take
advantage of the "show" format and make something more appropriate. I decided that I would
create a project that would visually inform the audience (friends, family, and Industry Professionals)
of my idea of what it means to be a graphic designer.
Earlier in the year, I happened to stumble across an essay written by Gunnar Swanson
that appeared in Steven Heller's book, "The Education of a Graphic Designer." The essay
had a huge impact on me and my ultimately came to shape a majority of my own ideals and
philosophies on design. At around the same time, Clement Mok and the AIGA also released the
"little red book," which was tiltled simply, "Why." That book and it's creators
(Clement Mok, Stone-Yamashita, and the AIGA) also had a lot of influence on this project.
The result is a 6 foot by 2 foot poster that was hung at the show for that one night
only. The poster deals with the idea of removing graphic design from the idea of it
belonging to vocation. Instead, graphic design education should be viewed as a liberal art,
or the education of the free thinking person. I believe a graphic design education could
do much more than give someone the necessary tools to perform a trade. I believe that it's
ultimate purpose is to prepare someone to be a better functioning member of a democratic
society. Therefore, in essence, nearly everyone could benefit from a liberal education in
design.
Unfortunately, due to the massive size of this poster, it does not translate well to the web.
It's intended purpose was that a viewer could take in several "views" of the poster depending
upon how close they were to it. For example, the type size on this poster ranges from 6 pts.
all the way to 300 pts. Please feel free to download the full size PDF, it is the only way
to read the small text on the poster.
-->Download a full size PDF of the project. (2.5 MB)
If you don't already have it, You will need the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view the PDF file.
Created Spring 2003.