![]() Zhouyan Sun (Yan) Graphic & Media Design Can graphic design be political? My answer is yes. Graphic design is always political, no matter what the content is. It doesn’t have to be involved in a specific incident to be political, like designing the peace symbol or signages for a social movement. As Ruben Pater (2016) put, ‘Designers have a position of power because they are (partly) in control of the messages that are sent.’ Just because we are in such position, everything we design stands for a certain group of people and is in favour of only the certain group of people. To my understanding, the political side about graphic design lies in that designer has the power of choosing what to show. During my dps year, I work at a small design studio where I have been assigned many independent jobs. One big role is to do a website design for ourselves. What matters most about it is not whether it looks fancy. The aim is to attract more clients from around the world who would like to get their brand design work done, especially asian clients. As a result, a good-looking and complicated website may not work. That’s because for most of the time, the clients know nothing about graphic design. Therefore we have to use the simplest way to attract them – to use single-coloured strong symbols among the studio’s past jobs. And it will be even better if the symbol is a world-famous one (like the visa one). We choose to take out the colour and not-so-famous logos out in order to shape the brand picture the way we want – a professional, smart and sophisticated brand design agency. The content you choose to design is also about power. To design something is to let more people consume it. (Barnbrook, 2020) Recently I’ve read a student magazine called Coming Out of the Fog designed by Zoe Lowdermilk–Oppenheim (2023). The magazine is focusing on British women adopted during China’s one-child policy. As a Chinese person, I am too familiar with the topic of baby girl abandonment. However, this is the first time I came across a publication talking about the situation of these girls (those adopted) after they grow up. The designer opens a window for the public to have a look at a group of people that are almost invisible previously. Through design, the creator and the group she stands for successfully seize the power to let people see them. Some design aim to induce people to conduct a certain act–another proof of design is political. Harris writes in his article (2016), that Interface designers are magicians who use blind spots, edges, vulnerabities and the limits of people’s perception to make them addicted to social media. It is amazing how a small red dot can make millions of people unable to resist. And the temptation to click on it is so natural that none of us can hardly realise this is designed and we are being manipulated. As Barnbook (2020) puts it, ‘I couldn’t see the world in any other way than the one I wanted to portray’. Everyone has their own small perspectives towards the world which is unique but limited. As designers entitled with such power of manipulating communication, the responsibility lies on our shoulder to use this power wisely and for good. Bibliography Bourton, L. (2020) 'Graphic design is political: Jonathan Barnbrook on how we can build a better industry'. Interview with Jonathan Barnbrook. Interviewed by It's Nice That, 10 September. Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/jonathan-barnbrook-in-conversation-graphic-design-100920 (Accessed: 28 Apr 2023). Harris, T. (2016) How Designers Make You Addicted to Social Media. Available at: http://thepoliticsofdesign.com/blog/how-design-makes-you-addicted-to-social-media (Accessed: 28 Apr 2023). Lowdermilk–Oppenheim, Z. (2023) Coming Out of the Fog. Pater, R. (2016) The politics of design : a (not so) global manual for visual communication. Amsterdam: BIS Publishers.
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