#agiopen

I have chosen the last talk of day one by Peter Saville (UK) to focus my blog post about the talk that most stood out for me over the two days. I have chosen Peter's talk for the topics he discussed and the responses he came out with, to the questions the interviewer was probing him about. The personal feel to the discussion was a indicator for me to choose this talk, the whole time Peter was talking to the interviewer and the audience, it feel like he was being totally honest and drop this large design persona he carries around with him. He is very confident man and sometimes will come across slightly arrogant to people, but with a man who has contributed to the creative industry hugely, he has all the right to be able to express his strong views on many areas of the creative industry, not just graphic design.

Peter Saville was very open when it came to discussing the role of the graphic designer and the labels now given to different designers in the industry. He expressed ' There is a reset in how communication design is used in our economy' , before he went into this deeper later in the talk, I thought at this stage he was right that there needs to be clarity when it comes to the labels assigned to designs. This clarity is being blurred by the ever changing representation of the roles designers take on now, he notes that graphic design is definitely suffering from this. 

"Graphic as a word is very misleading. Graphic is being used in the news, 'graphic this, graphic that'. The irony state of hybrid, the label matters more than ever, there is shared territory but the label really matters to designers. What label do you apply to yourself?" 

Peter goes on to explain that 'Designer is author' and that if a designer is not carrying a label, they are in a 'non-place'. This makes a lot of sense to me when he brought this point up in the talk and he was the only member of AGI to really personally bring this up. The label can offer the designer many opportunities and with a designer not having a label assigned to them, can hinder their future design path. 

Are we:

Designer or Artist? Fine Artist or Painter? Visual Communicator or Graphic Designer?

The meaning of the labels are being analysed and dissected, this is resulting in the role of the designer opportunities changing when advertised. From personal experience of hunting for a internship for this summer, I have discovered that many opportunities relating to graphic design positions will want a design to have web design experience, HTML and CSS desirable and sometimes other design skills like photography. The tasks associated to the role of the graphic designer is growing and adapting as time goes on, this is straying away from the tasks graphic designers would normally do in the 70s, 80s and the 90's. Exactly within the time Peter was creating the majority of his iconic work which made him one of the most famous graphic designer of all time. 

When quizzed on his views about self initiated work, Peter Saville responded with "It is slippery ground" and this related to his views on graphic designers finding the market with that method of work. He went on to explain that if graphic designers 'create and initiate their own project' they are writing their own message through their work. He stated 'if you are writing the message, your are being a philosopher, not a graphic designer".

With the work that graphic designers are meant to design, there is always one intended message if not a few messages included. Saville questions graphic designers being seen as 'connectors' but immediately says "connecting what?"  The question really is 'Does the graphic designer receive the brief, understand the message and have to believe in the message in order to communicate the right things across the intended audience?' In my opinion, the designer has to have some understanding of the message in order to produce the right work with the right meanings attached. Without some understanding of the messages and context assigned to the work, the design will surely be missing the real main points it is being created for.  Saville: "Anyone can make art, if you wish to contribute to the context of art, you will need to find it out, but cannot from the outside"

Fantastic quote he has just made here! True point in my opinion. He is basically describing the problem which can come from everyone having their own view on what graphic design, art and other forms of creative arts really is. With so many people producing art around the world, the face of art is changing constant as every day passes. I can only imagine that Peter Savile is trying to mention that without knowing the real contexts within the creative industry relating to specific areas of art, you cannot produce a true representation of it. With anyone having the chance to produce art, the world is being filled with a large amount of work of mediocre quality. This is the feeling I got from the statements and body language Peter was showing through his talk.

When asked by the interviewer about what he has brought to art, PS said that 'possibly only my awareness to art'. This is very interesting that the only contribution he can state is this, because for a man who has impacted the world of graphic design for many years now, he cannot hide the contribute visually he has made so conceptually he should have more reasons to state. The world 'awareness' is very important to that statement, because awareness definitely affects the way you go about your work and persona towards your work. Without overall awareness combined with artistic contexts, could have been very different. He understands his clients, his audience who will consume his work and most importantly he knows what he wants from being a 'designer'. 

Coming from Manchester most importantly, Peter was invited by the Manchester City council (not the football team!) to become creative director of communication. In 2002, the year of the commonwealth games, he was tasked to create a new identity for the city and improve the representation attached to the city from residents and visitors. In the talk he sounded agitated when he mentioned "people think their opinions about their place are right when they have never visited it".  Fair Point in my opinion, he is right to say that you need to experience the city as a whole before you can come up with a overall opinion of the city.