The Two Cultures of Design

Rick Poynor from designObserver.

The April issue of Creative Review magazine features an intriguing article by Adrian Shaughnessy, founder of the Intro design group in London, and the man behind the Sampler series of surveys of music graphics. In "From Here to Here" (the title only makes sense if you can see the images that go with it) he argues that the once homogeneous field of graphic design has "begun to separate into two distinct strands". On one side there is professional practice in all its forms; on the other a field which he terms "design-culture graphics". This territory is inhabited by designers doing their own, often self-initiated thing: publishing books and magazines, starting websites, and designing and selling T-shirts, posters, DVDs, and other graphic doodads. "Stylist