The good design nuances of Colors magazine ‘lend’ well to the Macsystems
advert. Maybe this comes from the similar design goal that a magazine and advert
share. Their functions are to clearly and effectively communicate information,
whilst also to visualise an identity for itself. As a chief social function of
design is to visualise the identity of institutions and audiences.
To reiterate this point. Think about what the Macsystems advert would look
like if it were redesigned with the Underworld/Tomato sleeve? The result for me
would have been more interesting to look at. This would however detract from the
adverts readability, making it harder to decode, ineffective as an informative
advert and therefore a bad piece of design. Just because something looks
interesting to look at doesn’t mean it’s a good design. Deciding wether
something is a good design or bad is a difficult thing.
There are so many variables such as taste, current ideologies, social values
and attitudes on design to base a decision. Graphic design described by Ellen
Lupton is a category encompassing any form of communication in which signs are
scratched, carved, drawn, printed, pasted, projected, or otherwise inscribed
onto surfaces. Graphic Design is utterly commonplace, appearing everywhere and
produced by anyone. More people today have the potential to produce graphic
design, than ever before, wether it be good or bad.
Graphic design can be produced by anyone with access to computers with design
applications, whether this be at home, school, college, university or the
library. Anyone truly can use the technology, but not all can design with it. As
a final piece of design, the Macsystems advert is defiantly much better.
The success of redesigning something bad out of good in this way, really
comes down to how appropriate the nuances of the good design are. Can we
conclude that truly great pieces of design, are the ones that can be formulated
and used universally. I don’t think so, Graphic design can never be that simple.
As the ideologies of society change, so does the effectiveness of design. Are
the pieces of design that survive this change any better than the others?
A single formula for great design can never exist. Graphic design is too
diverse, with many languages and levels to communicate through. Graphic design
doesn’t have a Holy Grail. It can never exist because everything based on one
formula would begin to look similar and so boring. Who would stand for it?
