I started reading “Man and His Symbols” today, and the first page struck me as a wonderful explanation of what design is:
“Man uses the spoken or written word to express the meaning of what he wants to convey. His language is full of symbols, but he also often employs signs or images that
are not strictly descriptive. Some are mere abbreviations or strings of initials. such as UN, UNICEF, or UNESCO; others are familiar trade marks, the names of patent medicines, badges, or insignia. Although these are meaningless in themselves. they have acquired a recognizable meaning through common usage or deliberate intent. Such things are not symbols. They are signs, and they do no more than denote the objects to which they are attached.What we call a symbol is a term, a name, or even a picture that may be familiar in daily life, yet that possesses specific connotations in addition to its conventional and obvious meaning. It implies something vague, unknown, or hidden from us.”
Jung isn’t talking about design here. In fact, many of the tangible things that designers produce, such as logos, corporate identity programs, etc, would probably fall under the sign category. But as our profession moves away from marketing itself as craftspersons of this tangible items, I believe we start to enter into the creation of symbols. Our roles have become to define experiences for our consumers, but there is no objective way of performing that task. Study any successful brand and you will quickly realize that its power is the vague, unknown, hidden, and PERSONAL connotations it creates in the consumer’s mind. With that said, I offer the following definition of graphic design:
Graphic design is the transition of signs into symbols.
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