Debate On The Future Of German Communication Design

There are already some examples hidden in the rather maiden-like archives of this blog: Crowd sourcing competitions like the one Cottbus did to find a new logo for the city's marketing association. In design business these – in the eyes of many German graphic designers – are besides unfair tendering practices and never-ending unpaid pitches the reasons for a increasing lack of respect and appreciation for work done in this field. In the comments of many a post in the German Fontblog the discussion made the feelings run high.

As a reply to the demand for a more official context to discuss this matter with renowned representatives of the world of graphic design business, in the course of the TYPO Berlin in May a debate will be held. Nine positions will be presented using the Pecha Kucha method whereupon these views will be confronted with each other in a podium discussion. Questions like the one for the possible need for a kind of German design chamber are to be debated. Afterwards TYPO Berlin attendees get the possiblity to continue the exchange of arguments and perspectives in the «Café Global» at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt where the entire conference is held.

As I repeatedly noted I think that behind all these critizised developments in design business the question for the actual worth of design is hidden. Today nearly everyone has relatively powerful software installed to his computer to work on images or graphics easily. As a result everybody uses it and the work of an expert apparently isn't needed anymore. But in fact – and we all know that – graphic design and visual communication is by far more than just moving images back and forth.

Ironically the awareness of the positive effects of design in the context of corporate communication is continuously increasing. But – here I absolutely have to agree with the article in the TYPO Berlin blog – the willingness and courage to adequately invest in professional design services and to trust in the experience and know how of a specialist is searched for in vain among the most of potential customers.

Whether a kind of design chamber is the way out of misery, I don't dare to claim. I definitly believe that a collective effort to promote the potential and worth of professional visual communication for businesses and institutions only makes sense if we designers ourselves redefine what we actually do for the people we work with – and I don't say «for» deliberately. When I was reading all these discussions and nearly endless lists of comments I got the feeling that the institutionalized unity of a chamber is just the expression of a need for a shared idea of the work we do – the work that progressively dissolves in the endless verbose attempts to justify it and to reason its worth over and over again. The chamber is a symbol for a frame of reference that allows us to evaluate our work and to determine the own position within a structure. And of course it also about being a designer as a part of the own construction of identity, thus about a feeling of self-worth.

Nevertheless: I'll attend this debate to get a picture of the current state of design business in Germany and where it is heading. After all I don't want to jump in at the deep end when I'll return to Germany and move to Berlin to the end of this year. And of course I'm interested in taking part in this process of a profession's self-discovery.

Update: Malte of kopfbunt.de already wrote an article on the same topic some days ago that might be interesting for my German language readers.