Arteliance

: : Speak Up > Computer = Fart, or Digital Immersion Is Not Design : :

Still, nothing changes the fact that the computer ≠ design.

ideasonideas » Blog Archive » Designers must write

Even that early on, I knew that design was about more than getting funky glasses and flipping through type magazines–It had everything to do with the idea. How could you effectively explore or begin to develop an idea without first scratching down some thumbnails and messing about?

:: ( CRIT ) :: DESIGN BLOG ::: Cookie Cutter Creativity

Creativity on the computer has become a philosophical question for me. I have a background in fine art and I’ve been around long enough to know the difference between drawing with a conte crayon and finessing a bezier curve with a mouse. There is something lost between the artist working late into the night with paintbrush and furious passion, to the ‘group mind’ connect the computer provides. It all becomes just a little homogenized when individual passion is watered down in the endless ocean of surfing. More than enough phish in the sea.

I remember when art was actually a required part of public school curriculum. Not that it was great in all cases, but it was there. Now teaching technique supersedes teaching critical thinking in American education. I teach symbolism as visual literacy for designers, which you might think would be of interest to many aspiring designers, but my classes are small compared to the newest software bells-and-buzzer offerings enough of the time to know the priorities have shifted. Even with consistently high student evaluations for what they learned in my class over many consecutive years, enrollment is not what it should be and schools promote computer training well over design philosophy instruction. And my own training? Finding available classes or workshops in esoteric studies such as semiotics or sacred geometry are virtually non-existent in this country. Do a search on Google, you’ll see what I mean. So I read and conjecture a lot. And I use, God forbid, intuition and my own experience as teaching tools.