without thought

Graphic consumption

I found something really interesting in this piece by Matt Soar. In my role as graphic designer, I have never been comfortable with the prescribed role of consumer. Whilst other designers concern themselves with the latest consumer novelties and ‘must haves’, I feel far more content seeking inspiration outside of design itself. Perhaps it’s an inertia on my part or a firm belief that good design runs deeper than just window shopping. In his writing, Soar’s evaluation of Gary Steven’s book The Favoured Circle rang a bell in my head. A career in design is a career in consumer etiquette (no doubt). As designer you are not always valued for your skills and aptitudes but on what pathways you consume: where you’ve come, your education, whom you know, what ideas you absorb and how willing you are to absorb others.

“Class is fascinating because it is like the air we breathe: absolutely in evidence but utterly taken for granted. It also works in many subtle ways, all of the time.”

Stevens, according to Soar, has taken the ideas of French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and translated them in relation to a career in Architecture. What Soar manages to make clear is that success in design is not always a simple matter of proper aesthetic application but also relies on the absorption of certain values regarding taste and its propagation thereof.