WEEK 5: Introduction to Rhetoric in Communication Design (Part 2)

Milton Glaser

LECTURE
Veronika Kelly - Introduction to Rhetoric (Part 2)
 
Design = Improving the World
Designers = Social Facilitators

Designers must consider ethics, responsibility, sustainability in the practice of design.

READING
Kelly (2014) Design as Rhetoric in the Discourse of Resonance
Veronika Kelly's paper (2014) outlines a qualitative study involving interviews with a number of designers in relation to rhetoric and resonance. But, as she notes very early on, "designers didn’t use the term rhetoric."

"I argue that frameworks for communication design based on the relationship between design and deliberative rhetoric must also extend to a critique of this relationship, in order to interrogate the positions that designers take up in a practice that advocates courses of action for human subjects." (Kelly, 2014)

I agree in principle, but I do not expect or encourage all designers to be or become academics. Therefore I cannot expect this critique to reach designers unless the communication is also designed for designers (not design scholars) as the audience. Put simply, I don't believe that designers are reading design journals, or considering what design scholars think about their design practice.

Put even more simply, designers and design scholars are at the least, speaking two different dialects from the same language (see diagram below). Further, I would argue that Academic Communication requires a quite large scale re-design to bring it into the 21st century - not just in terms of the transition to online delivery.

"Drawing is Thinking" - Milton Glaser

Kelly notes that designers may not spend time reflecting critically upon the social impacts of design. However, I think there is a difference between critical reflection, consideration of sustainability, long-term effects and design responsibility, and the continual academic discussion around defining what design is at psychological, ideological and philosophical levels.

BEN STOECKEL

As designers, we use the tools at our disposal to create an impact, a lasting impression (resonance). Resonance is the end goal, what we want to achieve, strive for.
Resonance is the outcome/reaction to a piece of work.
We “need to understand the audience and we need to understand them well enough that we can make a reasonable assumption on how they’ll behave and respond to something” -designer B (Kelly, 2014)

REFERENCES

• Davis, M. (2013). Research Writing in Design. Design and Culture, 5(1), 7–12.
• Dorst, K. (2008). Design research: a revolution-waiting-to-happen. Design Studies, 29, 4-11.
  Goldsmith, E. (1984). Research into illustration: an approach and a review. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Goldsmith, E. (1987). The analysis of illustration in theory and practice. In H. Houghton & D. Willows (Eds.), The psychology of illustration: instructional issues (Vol. 2, pp. 53–85). New York: Springer-Verlag.
• Kelly, V (2014). ‘Design as Rhetoric in the Discourse of Resonance'. Paper presented at the 2014 Design Research Society Conference, Umeå, Sweden
• Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: the grammar of visual design (2nd ed. ed.). London: Routledge.
• Noble, I. & Bestley, R. (2005). Visual research: an introduction to research methodologies in graphic design. Lausanne: AVA.
• Rose, G. (2012). Visual methodologies: an introduction to research with visual materials. London: Sage.
• Storkerson, P. (2006). How to Develop Basic Research in Communication Design. Paper presented at the Wonderground Design Research Society International Conference, Lisbon.