Communication design: The Crisis of Credit Visualized

This post is a wee bit off topic in that it isn't strictly about traditional handmade design ... If that fact causes you great anxiety, I advise you to please to take it up with the manager, thank you. ;-)

When I went to school for art direction, the name of the program I studied in (and the wording on my Bachelor of Arts diploma) was "Communication Design." I really like that terminology, and the approach behind it. It can be summed up like this: The idea must always be central. Every decision made while creating the piece must either extend from the idea, extend the idea further, or both. I try to be idea-centric in all my artistic pursuits, commercial or otherwise. It's still probably most pronounced in the work I do in advertising; but, I try to be idea-centric in my crafting, too. The idea just might be something like "fuzziness," or "fluidity." Or, on occasion, " bacon". (I don't do much fine art, but the fine artists that I am drawn to tend to be somewhat cerebral as well, for example, the most genius artist of all time.)

So...

When my friend Sara showed me this excellent specimen of Communication Design, I absolutely had to share, even though it isn't technically "handmade design." (I suppose that it was made by hand if you consider the right hand of the animator, which must have been glued to his mouse for days – or months – to pull this thing out!)


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