Blog

02.10.2008 | Demanding better graphic design

A full-page ad was placed by the B.C. Government in the September 25 – October 1 issue of West Ender, welcoming back all B.C. athletes from the Beijing Games.

I applaud the spirit of the ad and I applaud the athletes, but I am disappointed in the quality of the visual design. The government should support excellence not only in athletes, but also in communication design. This ad is not an example of design excellence. It is yet another visually safe, computer-generated photoshopped illustration that is offensive in its blandness. By the placement of their tiny, barely recognizable photos inside the gold medal, it looks as though all these athletes have won a gold medal. But wait - I get it, it's the gold medal of our hearts that they have won.

I am sure that the designer of the ad is not to blame. This ad is clearly the result of trying to please a well-intentioned, but visually unsophisticated government committee. I have seen too much bad communication design over the years, and it's killing me as a professional designer. If I see another badly stitched together, duotoned Photoshop collage of people of diverse, yet balanced ethnicity, gender and age on a government report cover, I am going to gag. I'm mad as hell and I can't take it anymore!

I call upon the institutions, corporations and governments of B.C. to take more risks with design. Step away from the clip art, the overused stock images, the literal symbolism. Do not be afraid to stand out with a bold, powerful design. Do not be afraid of visual abstraction - it has been used in modern art for a long time (remember that Picasso guy?). 99 years after Picasso began his period of Analytic Cubism, it's high time for abstraction to arrive in the B.C. government's visual communications. Get in there before 2009, when modern art will be 100 years old, because that would be a little late. The power of abstract imagery is that it is open to interpretation. It allows the viewer a certain choice as to their level of engagement with the design. And, scariest of all, it even allows that the viewer has intelligence.

How about commissioning one of the many talented photographers, illustrators, or fine artists which populate this province to create a unique, custom image that celebrates these athletes in a new way? And how about allowing the graphic designer to create beautiful typography which quietly but uniquely supports the chosen image?

A beautiful, bold, daring design leaves a visual legacy of its own and will inspire other institutions to follow suit. The existing ad leaves nothing open to interpretation, generates only a saccharine aftertaste, and is certainly not a powerful, memorable image.

And don't get me started on the British Columbia logo. Mountains and a rising sun? Sure, it's pretty, but what's unique about that? Does it say anything about the history, the diversity, the cultural and economic potential of this province?

Fellow British Columbians, it's time to start discerning tired visual clichés and to demand more visual sophistication from our institutions and the world around us.