Graphic design is not what it once was. Compared to the nineties, a small craft and cultural field seemed clear but in the 21st century is has become a democratized discipline in the center of the modern media. With a proliferation of styles, ideas, concepts and methods, graphic design becomes part of the bombardment of images around us. With current technology, anyone can design.
Computer programs help us to make almost anything we can think of, which means that lack of skill is no longer a problem, but lack of ideas are. And so today its really no longer about getting your hands dirty in graphic design that stands out (as much), but rather it is the ability think differently. Because it’s always easier to get things done, it becomes increasingly difficult to find an original approach.
But help is not far away. The boundaries between disciplines such as fashion, art, photography, architecture and advertising are increasingly blurred. Because these fields are no longer clear-cut, cross-pollination can occur. Artists now make regular trips to graphic design, and graphic designers work more than ever with art, which is a huge aspect of ReVision Arts.
The Graphic Detour exhibition going on until November 11th 2011 at the Graphic Design Museum in the Netherlands, celebrates the diversity of an area of creative expression that is constantly changing. Graphic Detour brings work to the attention of designers who go beyond design talents for granted media interchangeably, pioneers who are distinguished by their ideas. And this new graphic design further stimulates Graphic Detour. The result is a series of encounters that sometimes we could point the way to something entirely new.
