I bought the Michael Rock book in order to get some further insights on his stance on authorship. The book contained a rather interesting discourse, but also contained the same essays available on his website. I find it interesting that the discourse on authorship, and his discouragement of content creation has culminated in a book of created content additional to a client brief.
’The current role of the designers up to the imagination, ingenuity and sheer stamina of the individual…’p23
‘Design is a deeply contradictory act,: the personal and public are inextricably intertwined. Designers make things and make systems that make things. But most of all they perform a narrow, yet essential function in the increasingly complex economy that is public speech.’ p34
‘After years in the somewhat thankless position of the faceless facilitator, many designers were ready to speak out.’ p48
‘many great stylists don’t seem to make the cut, as it is difficult to discern a larger message in their work – a message that transcends stylistic elegance.’ p51
‘Perhaps it’s an absence or presence of an overriding philosophy or individual spirit that diminishes some designed works and elevates others.’ p51
‘Perhaps the graphic author is actually one who writes and publishes material about design.’ p52
‘The general authorship rhetoric seems to include any work by a designer that is self motivated, from artist books to political activism. But artist books easily fall within the realm and descriptive power of art criticism. Activist work may be neatly explicated using allusions to propaganda, graphic design, public relations and advertising.’ p52
About Emigre:
‘The three actions blur into one contiguous whole. VanderLans expresses his message through the selection of material (as an editor), the content of the writing (as a writer), and the form of the pages and typography (as a form-giver).’ p52
‘If the ways a designer can be an author are myriad, complex and often confusing, the way designers have used the term and the value attributed to it are equally so. Any number of recent statements claim authorship as the panacea to the woes of the browbeaten designer.’p54
‘Perhaps, in the end, authorship is not a very convincing metaphor for the activity we understand as design. There are a few examples of work that is clearly the product of design authors and not designer/authors, and these tend to be exceptions to the rule.’ p54
‘If we really need to coin a phrase to describe an activity encompassing imaging, editing, narration, chronicling, performing, translating, organizing and directing, I'll conclude with a suggestion:
designer = designer.’ p56
‘We are envious of the power, social position and cachet that artists and authors seem to command. By declaring ourselves “designer/authors” we hope to garner similar respect. Our deep-seated anxiety has motivated a movement in design that values origination of content over manipulation of content.’
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