Head of Department’s Statment
The Graphic Design / Visual Communications profession suffers from a sense of vagueness.
Unlike parallel disciplines – such as product, fashion or interior designs – the products of which allow for certain understanding of the profession, products of visual communications are problematic, as they are not unequivocal in their functionality.
The existence of a product is not necessarily subject to the packaging or the design thereof by the designer. If that is the case – what is the role of the designer? I believe that in order to understand the visual communications profession we must look beyond the functional aspect of the work.
The core of this profession is the design of the visual environment of our culture, which manifests itself in products, signals, books, catalogues and on street signs, TV screens, cell phones and computer screens.
Visual Communication is present and fills both the public and private spheres, into which the designer injects visual codes, a plentiful of images, visual heritages from the global and local history, as well as the history of the arts, from the rich fields of the material culture and every aspect which inspires us and on which human culture is based.
Among these codes, certain values, ideals and beliefs are interwoven, as well as social, economic and political contexts. Each of these may come together, unfold or transform in the daily work of the designer, as feedback to his/her work and in the now – the current culture.
The visual communications designer is operating in close relations to local and global cultural and intellectual systems. This approach gives less importance to the economic market forces, which consider the commissioner – usually the economic/commercial body wishing to purchase a coat to sell its products – as the party which should be satisfied and as the final decider on the market and the visual landscape of the culture.
Asaf Hanuka – Head of Visual Communication Department
