RATIONALE

RATIONALE: THEORY

In the essay component, 4 models of graphic authorship were highlighted by Almeida and McCarthy to provide a basis on which a progressive and future mode of graphic design practice can be built.

The 4 models, ‘Design as Advocacy’, ‘Design for Art’s Sake’, ‘Entrepreneurial Opportunities’, and ‘Collaboration of Equals’, were found to have a direct connection with the self-set projects that graphic designer’s undertake.

The practical component aims to synthesize 3 of these models of practice, and provide a proposed practical context for their exemplification.

RATIONALE

A growing number of graphic designers are finding themselves in professional environments where they are able to pursue projects built on speculation and uncertainty. In the past, this could have been the result of numerous unforgiving conditions deeply seated in the professional day to day graphic design practice, but primarily, in the way in which graphic design work is comissioned.

The question “What if?” is rarely a viable option in the wake of a client-set brief. Hence speculative projects, and progressive modes of practice, tend be projects set by the self, to the self, for the self and other like-minded creative individuals.

While these projects are often initiated by an individual, some of these projects are open opportunities for collaboration, entrepreneurship, and the advocation of causes that satisfy the existential brief that graphic designers, often unconsciously, set to themselves.

Graphic designers are constantly expanding the field by taking a transdisciplinary approach. Some graphic designers are able to carve completely new pathways for their career in the ever-changing creative industries.

SELF SET aims to provide a platform for the speculative, inquisitive, and progressive graphic designer, who uses the discipline beyond it’s distinguised confines.