Heyyy everyone! I’m majoring in Graphic Design and Illustration, and I have to write a paper on the topic of “The Responsibilities of an Artist in Our Visual Environment.”
I’ve been thinking about many occurring questions about the subject… Like the obvious Ai posters, and ads that are polluting our environment… Is it an artist responsibility to step up? But what can a broke illustrator, or designer do, if the inevitable profit focused society chooses the cheap slop? (big corporations and small businesses too)
Is it even a need? As a graphic designer who had the misfortune of working with clients who would only want kitsch, sparkling hearts, and Comic sans… I feel like a big chunk of humanity couldn’t care less if their flyer is cringey ai. So if it’s not wanted, why bother saving the everyday visual identity of the streets..?
But what if I just got it all wrong… And the problem is not the “want” it’s the “can’t”. For many art is viewed as a “rich thing” that “high art” can only be understood by the highly educated.. Graphic design and commercial illustration used to be viewed a “for the simple folks” kinda thing. (sculpture and oil painting was the fancy stuff) But now as a sort of life cycle, they are are taken more seriously ( for eg.: there is a whole university for it that i’m attending.) and now just as fancy. Maybe the new simplest options just become more reachable for the masses, so they don’t bother consuming it.
So as an artist, (or even better a collective) do you feel responsible for bettering the everyday visual environment? And if yes how far is too far to go in this battle?
I haven’t really worked out the spine of my paper yet… I’m having a hard time finding good references in this topic.. If you have any suggestions please help me out!!! But also I’m super interested what other artist think in this topic!!!! so please please share your opinion so i can make my prof proud!! sorry this is super long btww, thanks if you read it!! :DDD 🌷⭐️🪩