Mental masturbation.

From a recent post I made on a thread at Speak Up:

Scott, I see what you’re saying about graphic design being the mode of travel for the ideas of other design disciplines before they’re physically realized. But then it becomes a chicken and egg argument: which comes first, the communication design or the relevant content? For we all know that without content, there’s nothing to communicate, yes?

To that end, I would say that as a subgroup, typography is probably the most important element of graphic design. Your assertion that "we are more often influenced by a concisely framed visual than a thoughtfully written treatise" may be true for a lot of people, but it’s not true for me. I read a lot, getting most of my information via dense publications (i.e., books, the New Yorker, the Economist), where photos and illustrations are minimal. But the type is set well and serves an elegant, ergonomic function for the reader in making the content easily accessible. But again, where does the content come from? Graphic design is important, but it’s more of a service to other, more thought-provoking, solution-providing disciplines, imo.

And while beautiful typography set to intelligent grid systems can greatly improve the way we access information, many people get by just fine with mediocre if not non-existent renderings of the same (look at Google, for example. It’s ugly, but it still works). It’s not a life or death matter, as many design critics would have us believe. Graphic design does matter, but not as much as other things.

As a student at my local university, I remember being in grad school, isolated in the design department, brainwashed into believing a poorly kerned line of type or an uneven rag might, in fact, signal the end of the world (gasp!). Listening to all the buzz and hulabaloo about the undergrads’ new design of our collegiate license plate. Watching them spend HOURS critiquing and endlessly refining the layout and type while listening to the head of the design department bemoan how much he hated our school’s sports logo (in his opinion, it sucked compared to the old one). I hate sports as a general rule, so couldn’t have cared less.

A few months later, I’m out of school and see these redesigned license plates featured on the front page of the university’s website, right next to some article about groundbreaking medical research that could save the lives of millions. Seen in this context, my only reaction to the graphic design example in this case was, "Who the fuck cares??!!!"

Granted, not all graphic design is irrelevant. But on a scale of importance, as a discipline, it will only ever rank so high. Essentially, a lot of graphic design comes down to what amounts to copius amounts of unnecessary hand-wringing and mental masturbation.