GRAPHIC DESIGN OF THE FUTURE

GRAPHIC DESIGN OF THE FUTURE

On Craft: Marian Bantjes, Graphic Designer

The future of aesthetics lies in random generative software such as Processing, but which will become less random as designers gain control of its abilities. The digital will merge with the hand-made like electric guitar and bagpipes, and together they will break down the rigid tempo imposed by increasingly prescriptive and powerful template software.

On International Design: Richard Grefé, Executive Director, AIGA 

In the 21st century global economy, communication designers will make the complex clear. They must also focus on human-centered need, sustainability, simplicity and the special challenges of communicating across cultures. Communication designers will become a strategic resource for the way we approach problems. Creativity can defeat habit.

On Design & Business: Joel Podolny, formerly Dean, Yale School of Management

The future of design in business is promising, from both strategic and tactical perspectives. Design can help frame a business problem, develop and support a clear and compelling message, and align that message with business objectives and customer preferences. Design can drive revenue. And more and more companies are discovering the value-add that design can provide.

On Type: Matthew Carter, Type Designer

New font formats are encouraging type designs with larger and more varied character sets, particularly significant in the non-Latin world. There are more good young type designers now than at any time in history, and there is more teaching of type design at college level — a bright future.

On Education: Meredith Davis, Professor, North Carolina State University

The future of design education depends on how well institutions can adapt curricula to changing conditions in the field: to the increasing complexity of design problems that argue for tools and systems, not objects; to designing with rather than for people; to recognizing the importance of community and context; and to collaborating with peer experts in other fields.

On Sustainability: John Thackara, Director, Doors of Perception

Most designers are in the representation business, so their first response has been to design a poster about sustainability, or launch a media campaign. But the transition to sustainability is not about messages, it’s about activity — helping real people, in real places, change a material aspect of their everyday lives.

On Visual Language: Alice Rawsthorn, Design Critic, International Herald Tribune

One of the most important roles for graphic design in the future will be to help us to make sense of what’s happening in the world around us by interpreting developments in science and technology in a visual language we can understand. Graphic designers have always done this by presenting complex information clearly and legibly, but increasingly they will do the same for theories, as the software designer, Ben Fry, has already done with his visualizations of the human genome.