Graphic Design 2.1: Professional Practice, Project 7: ‘Cultural Identities’ Critical Review 2 (Choosing a Topic)

Your Critical Review 2: Your Topic

Identify some topics that you find engaging and stimulating, but also ones that require analysis – that prompt discussion and argument, rather than simply describing the subject. It will be a critical review after all.

Some of your ideas may be based on first-hand experiences and observations. You may wish to pick up on some of the issues around appropriating visual languages or imagery, creating mass communications, or changes in technology and how these relate to your own practice.

Alternatively, you could make comparisons between graphic designers working during different historical periods, or whose approaches differ from one another, for example modernist and postmodernist designers.

All of these examples represent comparisons between different points, one of which will be you, your work and your ideas. Other points will be the ideas you explore or the work of others. You may find you have two points of comparison or you may triangulate between three points.

This diagram might help to visualise this structure:

Whatever topic you choose, you will rely on secondary source material – facts, images, ideas, quotations – gained through reading or observation. Use these elements to construct and support your own argument about the subject, or to support or refute an existing argument. You may want to argue a case against a prevailing attitude, or idea in illustration, or take an idea from outside the field and argue its case within graphic design – for example, looking at ideas of how people identify and understand themselves, and how they might be represented or catered for within visual communications. Either way, rather than repeating what has already been written on the subject by others, give your own opinion and back it up with good references. In other words, be critical.

You will find it useful to frame the title of your critical review as a question. Having a question as a starting point means that you need to answer it; this will help you to avoid an overly descriptive critical review, and give you a structure for your writing. An example of a question could be ‘Was graphic designer A a key influence on designer B?’ This question then suggests others. What was designer A and B’s approach to their subject? Did they work in the same way, with the same intentions or ideas? If there was an influence, what was it? This gives a much clearer focus for your review than a more open-ended title such as ‘A comparison between graphic designers A and B’. 

For this project,return to your ideas/questions/topics proposed in project 2 and revise and expand on itaccording to the thinking you have had since you first wrote it.Expand this to 250 wordsanduploadit as part of this project submission. You could also include some images you may want to include in your essay or presentation.

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I returned to my original ideas proposed in project 2 and considered a few of the questions which interested me the most.

I felt that the question: ‘How postmodernism has influenced graphic design’? could be interesting to discuss and also made an alternative version of the question being more specific: ‘How has postmodernism influenced logo design?’

Here is a list of potential references/research points that could be discussed throughout my critical review:

Potential resources:

1. "No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism" by Rick Poynor

2. "Postmodern Design Complete" by Judith Gura

3. "The End of Print: The Grafik Design of David Carson" by Lewis Blackwell and David Carson

4. "Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team" by Alina Wheeler

Designers to discuss:

1. David Carson (postmodern)

2. Paul Rand (modernist)

3. Massimo Vignelli (modernist)

4. Paula Scher (postmodern)

5. Saul Bass (modernist)

Logos to discuss:

1. Google

2. The Public Theatre

3. IBM

4. UPS

5. Apple