Parallel of writing to designing
So lets hope I did this right ;)
I read an article a while back that talked about how art and design schools don't focus enough on the writing process and it's propper techniques. The author talked about how they were implementing courses in the curriculum where a design program such as ours, whould have a class specifically focused on propper writing techniques that were directed specifically towards the field, in order to make the students better designers. They talked about how writing is a visual process and the paralells between writing and designing.
Do you think that our ability to write well affects our ability to use type?? Do designers really need to be able to write well to be a good designer?
posted by Lynda @ 10:58 PM
10 Comments:
YES! Unequivocally YES!
Typography is the study of how to use type. Type is the visualization of written language. Could the connection be more clear?
Even a basic knowledge of writing will increase the impact of your work. What's worse than seeing good work with a misspelling in it? The error immediately becomes the focus. All that effort... wasted. (I might point out the misspelling of "proper" in the original post as an example ;)
As a designer (and certainly as an instructor!), I cannot stress enough the importance of writing and reading for the betterment of your skills and prospects in the field. And I'm not even talking about using "fancy" words, just basic grammar and spelling.
Too often we use technology (eg. spell check) as a crutch. Ultimately it is your responsibility to make sure it is correct.
Play more Scrabble®!
Personally, I do think that our ability to write directly affects our ability to use type. If you cannot form a sentence or spell right, how are you ever going to learn how to break the rules that you never learned. It is a vicious cycle. Being able to write as a copywriter is one thing, but simple writing skills are necessary to communicate and to be taken seriously as a designer. Without typography, which is directly connect to writing, designers would be come limited in what they could produce. A master's degree in writing is not necessary for design, but a basic understanding and ability is crucial for survival. You won't always have a copywriter looking over your shoulder to correct your mistakes.
When I look at someone's work with a misspelling or blatant grammatical error I think they have failed at life.
I think it would be great if Kendall offered more classes on writing. However, if you're still spelling "a lot" as one word or mixing up the proper uses of their, there and they're you've obviously missed some crucial elementary school lesson that no college level writing class will address.
My solution is a simple Apple I command (or CTRL I for you PC users) and a nice grammatically superior friend to use before handing in any final project.
I think writing is important, and that's why they have prerequisites in college. If you are in college and you can't write correctly, then maybe you shouldn't be in college. Unfortunately many big time universities are full of students who are horrible at spelling and writing. I like to think of college as a separation of good students from the bad. But we all know that's not really the case.
As Graphic Designers, communication is the skill that we sell to our clients or employers. If we cannot communicate with an audience, what we are good for is to make things aesthetically pleasing. It is great to indulge in the purely aesthetic, but it is basically high tech window dressing if we are not communicated something relevant to our audience. The more skilled we are at communicating, verbal, non-verbal or written, the better we will be as Graphic Designers and Typographers. It is something that has been relegated to secondary importance in a Designers education. Schools seem to put a lot of focus on technical eye candy. When maybe they should be teaching students more about other forms of communication outside of the purely visual, writing being one of the most important of these. Everyone might just be surprised how much correlation actually exists between sophisticated writing and successful design.
I absolutely believe that writing affects your ability to be a good designer. How could it not? Being able to write and comprehend are valuable tools for everyday life. I personally think that Kendall should have a writing course specifically designed for all majors. It can only help in the long run.
There will always be copywriters and Editors in our field, and they will always check our work. But as Nick said in a previous post --having writing skills makes him a more marketable designer. This is something we should all strive for as we head out into the real world. We shouldn't rely on the copywriters and editors, just use them another tool to do the best possible job that we can as visual communicators.
Is everyone checking their spelling as they write their entries? I know I am! :)
Of course writing is an imperative part of communication. It can be difficult for people to perceive our messages clearly when they are looking at an image. It is much more difficult when they are trying to read text and it doesn't make grammatical sense. I think if we were to strengthen our writing capabilities, not only could we sell ourselves as designers, but as self-proclaimed copywriters. Yet another skill to add to the resume.
Of course our writing finesse impacts our ability to be good designers. I believe that a strong vocabulary and good understanding of grammar help all people everywhere to do better in their areas of focus. The more eloquent and succint one can be the better. Especially as designers, the more adept we are to proper english, the better we can convey the concept to our audience. The more knowledgeable we are, the better we can choose just the right words to sell our client. Plus, a well-spoken designer saves on copy-writing.
I believ in order to be good at anything, including setting type, you need to have a greater understanding of all it's parts. The more you are informed on writing structure the better you will be at type setting; even if you have copy writers.
You should be able to read or write well anyway. I mean come on, how long have all of us been in school? I think that, more important than knowing how to write well, is the ability to be able to comprehend and understand that which has been written. You do not need to be a scholar to communicate an idea understandably, but it seems that, in some cases, you need to be a scholar to understand that which has been written. Understanding and communicating clearly is extremly important.
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