This workshop originates from a perceived dearth of coherent direction within contemporary Graphic Design as a discipline. Where movements such as Futurism, Modernism, Postmodernism once defined the arts we now have no readily discernible ideologies within design to follow. We participate in the maelstrom of the internet and its myriad communities, where ideas can change from moment to moment and groups form and disperse within a matter of days. Neoliberalised and networked capitalism has atomised the practitioners of the discipline further and further, and as such, the debate surrounding ‘the state’ of graphic design has been rendered ever more in flux. Manifestos and writing concerning the condition and purpose of graphic design are rare and perhaps increasingly futile; outdated before they are even published. With this in mind, what does it now mean to be a critical practitioner? Critical of what? Without defining the terrain upon which you stand adopting a solid stance becomes increasingly difficult and traditional fixed positions of design are exposed as more and more lacking.
Despite this perceived ‘lack’, graphic design continues to somehow progress. Vitrines of design can be found everywhere online, showcasing images of work removed from their original context. Endless streams of flattened content lost in an ever-shifting mass. Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook. All of these play out similar roles and it is on these platforms that visual trends are primarily developed, disseminated and dispersed. Are these the new movements? Small, but many, agile in their fragility.
This workshop mines Tumblr as one such repository and dissects its contents. We aim to take on the absurd task of reading into and over-intellectualising graphic design trends in the hopes of mapping a territory. Discussion will drive this section as we pluralise popular graphic forms. Following this, we will attempt an inversion of this process by mapping both current and ‘dead’ or inert trends to contemporary contexts in a bid to examine if trends can be used as a plural set of heuristic responses. We will eschew ‘originality’, whatever that may now mean, and replace it with ideas of networked commonalities.
Post Eady is a collective formed after graduating from the Royal College of Art as a follow up to the graphic design forum named ‘Eady Forum’.
It is intended as a space for workshop creation and critical discussion around graphic design.
The current members are Joana Pestana, Max Ryan & Vilja Achté.
There are no more seats left for this workshop