ICA/AIGA Design Series: Between Art and Commerce: A Design Paradox

In one of the Institute of Contemporary Art design series lectures, Rick Poyner and Michael Rock discussed recent examples of graphic design, questioning and challenging conventional ideas about purposes and possibilities.

• Place for designers to step up to plate and take responsibility for their design.
• "A movie is not what it's about, it's how it's about it." Same with design.
• Prada's alpha brand, Guilt. Expands with the brand. Not focused on selling product for Prada (ubiquitous already). Prada's consumers highly intelligent women who enjoy irony.
• Designers: Cultural Producers or Corporate Pawns?
• Examples of one design firm's strict use of Helvetica in their work. Another designer creates the same business card for every client.
• Design critique examining design's role in society and effect on culture.
• Design at the fringes gains traction and seeps into collective conscious.
• Rather than offer yourself up as anything the client wants you to be, come in with a point of view.