Design as a conversation

Design aims to create dialogue with its audience.  It wants to evoke some sort of thought from them.  Even the simplest form of design provokes the mind.  In class, the conversation was seen between Lady Gaga and Yoko Ono—a music-based conversation.  There was a back-and-forth response between the two artists, and in a conversation, one of the most important thing is a back-and-forth flow between people.

But design and conversation does not need to be as complex and as abstract as that.  Designs carry messages.  If that message is sent successfully, then already there was some sort of conversation going on. Take for example, poster ads.

Poster ads are meant to sell their product to the viewer. Ads are supposed to spark interest in the potential customer. Once they’ve been hooked, the conversation starts. For example, imagine a flyer advertising an Open House.

This flyer is supposed to catch the attention of people walking by. The bright colors, such as the yellow on the cupcake, fulfill that purpose.  It’s as if the yellow is shouting “Hey, look at me!” Once the attention is captured, the flyer must say all that it needs to say, as simple as possible, without loosing the interest it had sparked.  If that is successfully done, the viewer may walk away thinking “Yes, I will check out the Open House,” rather than not think anything about the product at all.

Lady Gag and Yoko Ono was a conversation between two artists.  Design speaks to people. It creates dialogue and thought. In Lady Gaga’s and Yoko Ono’s case, it was a musical design. Rather similar to that of Einstein on the Beach by Phillip Glass and Robert Wilson.