In this account, consideration is given to various ways that knowledge, beyond the formal knowledge needed to work with expertise in solving the visual aspects of design problems, is implicated in practice. In the study Gary shows the difficulties he found locating the
theoretical and contextual knowledge that underlay the formal aspects of his practice. He had little difficulty in discussing reference sources for visual aspects of his work, but the sources of knowledge and inspiration that informed his work appeared to be much harder to recognise. On the other hand, his work clearly showed an understanding of consumer values that went beyond formal aspects of design like typography or colour choice, for example.
The case shows how knowledge and values crucial to his work and yet less obvious to him, were derived, not only from an awareness of economic and political change understood at the level of media news, but also from several other sources including the field of business,47 and habitus48 at various levels. As well recognising these sources, consideration has been given to tracing the designer’s own implicit knowledge resources, and the contribution that staff with differing backgrounds have made to the work of the firm.
The design office
Gary is a well-established graphic designer and the owner of a medium-sized graphic design company employing six staff. He was in his early fifties and had a wealth of experience spanning over twenty-five years, in most aspects of graphic design practice, through employment with a larger design company earlier in his career and latterly in the
development of his own design company. His office was located in the centre of a business district and, unlike many graphic designers who prefer to work from home, Gary placed importance on situating his business in a downtown city location. The single floor office space was made up of the usual amenities and facilities expected in a professionally set up graphic design office, including a modest board room, a small office for himself, a reception space, and an open plan studio space with up-to-date computers and outputting peripheral computer related equipment.
His office also had Internet access to the businesses with whom his company worked. They were essential to communication and efficient studio production. The décor of this office
47 Examples of the way in which the knowledge supplied by clients both historically and in each respective brief, informed his concepts was evident in the work case studies he discussed in the interviews
48 Bourdieu’s concept of habitus is discussed in page 69, Chapter Three.
space was very low-key. Pastel colours and wood panelling with aluminium joinery predominated. No examples of recent successful work were visible on the wall space.
Instead, attestation to the calibre of work and recent successes of his firm were validated by several Best Awards49 certificates showing the classes of work and projects that earned his company recognition amongst his peers and also made a statement about the calibre of work that the company could produce. The other studio staff, usually up to three other graphic designers, were located in the work space behind the reception. Gary’s office and the firm’s board-room provided a psychological space between the staff workspace and the rest of the floor occupied by his company. Gary’s office had full floor to ceiling glazing, providing excellent visibility of all traffic coming into the office and at the same time establishing recognition of him as the presiding identity of his design firm.
The designer’s background
As an individual and as a designer, Gary revealed dispositions that carried with them various kinds of cultural capital relative to his practice. These dispositions had arisen in his early years, through social structures related to education, in early professional experience and through lifestyle. Each of these stages provides a useful means to consider both the cultural capital needed in individual practice and also the cultural capital called for in the wider field of graphic design. His background reflects both established moral values on one hand and a tendency to unconventional standpoints on the other. Central to these dispositions is the strong influence of his parents, showing how the development of habitus may be attributed to “a long but subtle process of inculcation beginning in the family” (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 2).
The attitudes and behaviour that he described show a readiness to accept their beliefs and behaviour, in various ways relative to moral and political positions. His observation that
“they believed in doing what was right, rather than what was the norm”, carried with it references to both the strong moral code founded in their Christian values and how these were applied to political issues of the day. That his parents had expressed trust in him signified an assumption that his attitudes would be acceptable to them, but importantly, it established a need for him to develop his own values and to stay within the boundaries that he knew his parents expected of him.
I suppose my upbringing has had a huge affect on my lifelong interest and values and it’s really those values that I suppose developed from my parents initially. That I can easily trace back to why I am what I am and my parents were, I suppose, when I was brought up in the mid sixties, where they were, they would think a little bit left of centre, politically. They certainly believed in doing what was right as
49 Best Awards is an annual event organised by the Designers Institute of New Zealand (DINZ), recognising work judged by local and international designers, to be amongst the best in New Zealand.
opposed to what was the norm. That came through initially from our church, which we were brought up in, whether we liked it or not right through until I was a teenager. I was expected to go to church on Sundays or youth group and that’s had a very direct effect on where I stand on things. My parents’ political beliefs also affected the way I thought. For instance I didn’t like having to have my hair cut short so I attempted to push the rules as far as I could get away with. And I was largely supported at that by my parents as opposed to the school’s line which was much harsher, but my parents thought that it had nothing to do with . . . you know . . . how good a person or student I was. And they didn’t put undue pressure on me whereas most of my friends’ parents would insist. So little things like that I suppose, where you were given responsibility where . . . I think my parents probably gave me more, or they were very trusting. They had trusted in my judgement from a very early age . . . that I would do what was right and that trust at times surprised even them, but because I had so much rope I respected it, and I stayed within the boundaries that I knew and that my parents entrusted me with.
The influence of his parents and his upbringing can be seen in Gary’s view of a changing society of his teenage years compared with present society. In this comparison he observed a move away from a society in which there was a greater sense of community to a
contemporary society characterised by individualism and self-interest. His beliefs mirrored his parents’ belief that the interests of the individual should not override the interests of community.
I grew up as a teenager in those 1970s where we used to march against conscription, where we used to march to support abortion, women’s rights, you know, all kinds of things . . . if it was the rugby tours . . . whatever political problems there seemed to be at the time. And they were things we thought were about bettering our society.
They weren’t about your own personal wages or someone being charged too much for the rates. They were less selfish ideals, I feel. And I suppose all those values, if I look at it holistically from the outside, and I haven’t really thought about it. I think it has a real influence on the way that my career has developed.
A strong work ethic and acclamation for achievement is apparent in his father’s values and later in his own values at school. Artistic interests were also there from very early on in his lifetime, visible in an early interest in music and drawing.
My father, from a farming background, believed in hard work. He always worked hard, and he was never idle and to our endless frustration he would never sit down and watch TV or just quietly read a book. He would always be doing something and it would annoy him if others weren’t. I did inherit the enjoyment of working hard and standing back and seeing the result, and that result being acclaimed. People standing back and saying “well done, that’s great, thank you so much”, that’s been a
help and I suppose that acclamation is something that I have constantly looked for in my career. It started off when the teacher would ask you to do a drawing on the blackboard to help with a particular lesson, because you were able to do it more easily than she was perhaps and people said “You’re talented, that’s great”. So I always enjoyed the pats on the back for being good at drawing and that carried through into my career, so I think that helped develop my feelings that I wanted to be a designer, although in the early days I wanted to be an architect, because I didn’t understand that there was a career in graphic design; there probably wasn’t.
Dating back to when he was seven or eight years old, Gary had recognised that the architect designed family home he lived in was different from others in the street. This was significant to him, and he considered that it had influenced him to tend towards a design career. Family physical environment is shown to play a part in personal interests, as he made clear in this account.
There were definitely things in the way of interests that we had but I think the home that we were brought up in had a huge effect on the fact that I became interested in design, because we lived in a house that was well designed. The architecture was special. We felt special, being able to live in what was a special house. It wasn’t an expensive house. It was built on a very limited budget. But it was special in that it had been designed. And the fact that it had been designed by a very prominent architect, as opposed to all our neighbours who lived in seemingly ‘spec’-type homes which looked much more ‘State’-like. We felt that we were different and we liked being different. We always felt that our house was special. That’s the first time I can remember thinking, “I want to be an architect!” We were always drawing. Me and my younger brother . . . always drawing houses and cars, because we didn’t have TV until I was twelve or thirteen.
While the internal influences of home life engendered an awareness of design and in
particular, drawing, outside the influences of the physical family environment he was able to develop values about his external world. His preference for the ‘rougher-edged’ Rolling Stones in his teenage years distinguished his music preferences from that of his
contemporaries, as did his growing awareness of a developing cynicism that they did not share.
I had a close group of friends who were heavily into music. I was never a musician myself, but I have always loved music and I always like alternative music not necessarily what everyone else liked. It wasn’t until the mid 60s that I was buying music or getting into it. My first long-playing record I ever bought was Rolling Stones
‘Beggars Banquet’ and that was 1967, I suppose. To me the Beatles weren’t naughty enough. I liked the slightly rougher edge of the Rolling Stones, it probably carries through now that I love all kinds of music, but I particularly like more the groups that
are pushing to the edge than the normal range. I took it for granted that my
contemporaries would all have similar values to my own and it was a bit of a shock to realise that they didn’t, and I don’t think that I really came to terms with the fact that society didn’t all have similar values until quite late in my teens – that we didn’t all want the same things . . . as time has gone on. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know whether in those days, we as a society were less cynical. I was certainly less cynical.
Gary had a sense that social values were changing. This cynicism was sufficiently important for him to offer a critique of contemporary issues, even though the discussion was centred on his teenage years. He expressed concern that the reliability of media reporting was becoming increasingly questionable.
Now I certainly don’t believe what I read in the papers or certainly what I see on TV.
Whereas twenty years ago . . . thirty years ago, I believed what I saw written, I believed what I heard on the radio and saw on TV and almost believed it unquestioningly, but these days when I hear what is happening with Iraq and Blair, and Bush, my automatic reaction is not to believe as opposed to belief. I actually think that there has been so much spin put on you just don’t believe what is being said.
Social structures and education
Gary’s design education involved a search for recognition through his creative work. He referred to the importance of originality in his work compared with the work of others in his course but his heavy reliance on the images and layout conventions available through the design annuals like Graphis and Modern Publicity, that were his principal printed reference source, came through in the interview. The design methods of Bruce Archer (1965) had already been applied to product design, but graphic design of the period tended to the eclectic and derivative. In his design school education, there was little emphasis on building the resources that could have been used in dealing with the difficult area of developing ideas for concepts, other than through the broadening influence of his peer group who had what he described as “a wide range of interests”. If we accept Wenger’s view that individuals learn through involvement in their community of practice (1998, p. 269), then these interests may have influenced his creative work. He had difficulty, however, in discussing how he was able to relate them to his coursework in graphic design.
To be a graphic designer it’s critical to have a wide range of interests and so at the same time as studying at design school, I was interested in what was happening in the fashion school. I was interested in the music scene and architecture. I was interested in all of the other wider side of the design disciplines. Product design was an interest of mine. Our design school was alongside the product design school. We had a close relationship with what they were doing, and I think that to be a well
rounded designer you actually have to have an interest . . . which drags you through those things, through your friendships.
This was the period immediately before a move away from a reliance on the values of the modernist international style in typography, an approach practised by his lecturer and still relevant to the professional design practice of the day. It required knowledge of the modernist principles expressed most visibly in the ‘Swiss School’ and learned through awareness of published examples in design annuals. There was an inevitable eclecticism in depending on this approach. Gary was quite clear about the absence of any theoretical problem solving or conceptual thinking base to the graphic design teaching of the time, instead relying heavily on his interests, his life experience and his background, as a basis to his formal work.
My recollection when I think back thirty odd years is that as a student I was trying to do design work that impressed my peers and teachers and I largely did that in private way from the school, basically because I was trying as much as possible to do something in an original way and I think this is the wrong way of going about it but it was the ego-driven way that I went about it. I think that in those days, there were huge influences of what other design work was being done in England and America so the design annuals were something that we looked at and we would have been influenced by, although we were very fierce of not copying - but certainly they were influential.
Early professional experience – habitus and capital
The education system is significant in the process of building up cultural capital, tending to cultivate a certain familiarity with legitimate culture and inculcate a certain attitude to creative work (Bourdieu, 1993). The habitus of the design school and the interests of the lifestyle surrounding it, afforded cultural capital that Gary could draw on in his early professional years. However, it is difficult to establish clear links between these sources of cultural capital and his graphic design practice, in the absence of responses that could have revealed knowledge of these through the methodologies, attitudes or even reference to interests in his practice of graphic design in his early employment, other than in the examples he gave in music and in typography.
I think, starting out, what was a huge influence on me was what was actually what was happening in music. At the time album covers were a huge influence on design and they kind of led fashion, the whole marketing of music to teenagers and the pop culture which went with it was a huge influence which, with the downsizing to CDs, had largely been lost, and increasingly so where with the Internet these days, where students these days are mixing their own music and they don’t go out and buy these, whereas in my day, going out and getting an album . . . and what was
happening on album design was actually quite an influence. When it came down to ways of problem solving that didn’t rear its head in a formalised way in my career until I joined [names design company] where the original principals worked in the UK and brought back some of that [names design company] way of thinking because in [names design company] I think that there the agency way of doing things was something which influenced them.
The formal aspects of typography learnt at design school were carried through to his work when Gary became employed as a graphic designer. These skills assisted him in his initial work in book design, which depended heavily on typography. In keeping with the high importance given to formal values by many graphic designers, he regarded typography as
The formal aspects of typography learnt at design school were carried through to his work when Gary became employed as a graphic designer. These skills assisted him in his initial work in book design, which depended heavily on typography. In keeping with the high importance given to formal values by many graphic designers, he regarded typography as