OUGD601 - Primary Research Ideas (Methodology)

Primary Research Idea:

My dissertation is focusing on tendencies and characteristics within contemporary graphic design practice and culture. I will be focusing my research and exploration even closer on characteristics of typography and design for print, with a particular emphasis on poster design. 

For my primary research, I plan on contacting a number of practitioners who produce work now and conduct informal interviews with them. The purpose of the interview will be to gain insight into the design processes/approaches that these contemporaries use, and to explore some of the outside influencing factors that shape the direction of their visual work.

I also want to see whether or not these designers are aware of the deconstructivist movement, and if so, do they value it or see it as being relevant to their practice? One of the main interests I have is the idea that styles from the past can infiltrate the collective consciousness of designers who work in the present time. Often, designers are unaware of these outside influences; they work in a space where there is little justification for the design treatment they employ and don't fully comprehend the purpose of the work, the audiences it will reach and the contexts it will appear in. 

The other main primary research I want to conduct will be come in the form of an interactive survey. I have began making an extensive Pinterest board, collecting contemporary work from the last 5 - 10, which I feel deconstruct traditional binaries associated with graphic design culture. A lot of the work is highly influenced by postmodernist aesthetic and deconstructivist typographic style, as well as burrowing key elements from high modernist graphic design. 

I want to present examples of this work to groups of people to gain their insight. I plan on:

• Printing out examples of design which I feel is influenced by deconstructivist theory and blurs the boundaries/binaries of traditional tendencies of design - I will look for event posters
• Stick these up on the wall and place them directly next to examples of design which are minimal, clean and basically functional - examples of posters which can be seen in everyday settings/contexts
• I will get people to rate their response out of 10 in various ways
• Do it in small groups of 5 maybe? To different groups of people – graphic designers, fashion students, fine artists, illustrators and NON CREATIVES
• The criteria will include: 

Legibility?

Functionality?

How does it make you feel?

Can you take anything away from the posters?

Out of the two, which event would you actually attend? Why?