Deconstructivism

Deconstructivism is the opposite of what graphic designers have been doing or have been taught to do. Instead of letting the image completing the story for the words, the words tell the story for the image. Deconstructive artist want the words to be more powerful than the image. Jacques Derrida believes that words have been treated as merely a code, using them is just a behavior and the behavior alters the meaning. This is very true. A whole new meaning can be presented just by the placement or even the 'emphasise' of words. Words can be easily misunderstood.

In design, normally we read a design by seeing the image then reading the text. This is not the case in deconstructivism. First we see the text, then we read the image. Grammotography is what Derrida called the study of writing. He began to question language itself. As technology started to advance, type was becoming digital. A handful of designers wanted to cope with the changes in technology and rebel against it. Ed Fella, was just one of the few who continued to design the old-fashion way by finding or creating handwritten type.

Designers will always be trying to find away to reawaken the mind of the viewer. It seems to be getting harder to communicate something new, because it seems like what could be designed has been designed. I don't believe this is the case, but no new ideas pop in my head either. Designers of the 21st century are going to be pushed mentally and physically to send new messages to the world. In an age of rapidly advancing technology designers are going to have a harder time keeping up. We live in an age where we are turning to a machine (the computer and internet), instead of our peers, for answers. We now live in an age where designers have to work harder to spark a feeling or emotion in society. Like past graphic designers have done, what is it going to take for us to make the world stop again?