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Welcome to the Designer’s Decree! This document has been created to address the growing need for designers to invest theory back into the design process. Please read the decree and our Aims. If you would like to join the cause as a firm, or as an individual, please click the adopt button and fill in the appropriate information to add your electronic signature.
Aims
We, the undersigned, pledge to adopt the following set of principles that will guide our hands and creative processes in constructing effective, Communicative Design.
1 Art IS comprised of both form AND content;
2 Content refers to theoretical approach, more specifically implementation of semiotic theory;
3 Design is an Art form that is of a nature that relates to
the theory, or theories, of signs and signifying systems (Semiotics);
4 Art CAN NOT exist void of content.
5 The absence of semiotics is equivalent to stripping away
the tools for art making and rendering a potential work of art impotent.
6 Design Apathy is bred through technical programs that
focus solely, or predominantly, on craft, negating
education on theory;
7 In Work, we will use Semiotics to construct effective
visual communication strategies;
8 In Education, we will teach the importance of theoretical
approaches and the utility of Semiotics;
9 In Life, we will become better communicators and savvy
interpreters of the rhetorical manipulation of Semiotic concepts;
10 In Principle, we will use these tools wisely and morally in constructing our designs.
The Designer's Decree
As a people, we are sign using creatures. We decode meaning from compositions with subconscious ease.* We stop at red octagons, smoke in designated areas, and change our outlooks based on the season. Our desires and even our identities are being shaped and altered by the signs that surround us.*
As Designers, it is in Our nature to commune through aesthetics. To this end, We have become knowledgeable readers of signifying systems. And while We are able to pull meaning out of what We see, it is just as important to be able to breathe meaning into what We create.
To do this, We must have an understanding of how meaning is formed and how the viewer can derive meaning from the combination of words and image.* This Visual Language shares much in common with the spoken word.
Being in a unique position, we carry the burden of purveyors of that Visual Language. It is Our responsibility as Designers and Our duty as the proprietors of this knowledge to employ it with effectiveness and caution.
However, it has become apparent that there is a growing attitude that Designers can carry Our burden with little or no knowledge of Semiotics. Semiotics being the basis for
communication through sign-constructed systems.
As Designers We have been given the responsibility of shaping the world We live in through advertising, packaging, and public opinion. We cannot do this without fully understanding the fundamentals of communication theory.
We MUST take a stand against this malpractice of Design. In order to properly execute Our unique role as the purveyors of Visual Language, We must be masters of this Visual Communication; taking into account Our understandings of signs and what they signify.
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