This article is from Culture PL which is a website devoted to Polish culture. I chose this article as it breaks down the exhibition ‘Designing for Freedom’ which is Berlins first largescale exhibition celebrating Polish graphic art created over the last 30 years. A key aspect of this article is looking at how graphic designers work in Poland and how they promote messages of freedom but also how they personally have been affected by political movements in Poland as a designer. Graphic design can be used as a medium for the transformation of political and social awareness and this exhibition reflects on creative freedom and how it’s developed in Poland inspired by social realities.
This source informs my theme of social design as it studies how social politics effects graphic designers taking into consideration trade and success which is a huge part of design as a business. A key question that was raised in the article looking at the Designing for Freedom exhibition was what creates development and opportunity in design. The article highlighted the importance of democracy over dictatorship and looked at how this benefited designers. Poland is a socialist country which works to ensure workers have more power. However the article also raised a series of important questions which can inform my work such as looking at how designers in Poland have built an artistic platform to communicate messages. This linked to my subject matter looking at freedom and equality as it raises awareness about how limits are created by ‘political and social realities’. These realities could be democracy related as wealth is not spread evenly and can sometimes work out to be un-fair as wealth can be inherited and not always directly worked for therefore this can create gaps in design due to the lack of new technologies causing as mentioned earlier limitations on opportunities as new technologies create hierarchy.
From this source I found it interesting looking at how the exhibition worked to raise awareness on how design can be used as a powerful tool for radical change not only for political power, oppression etc but it can also change design it's self. The exhibition looked at how designers facing struggles in the developing digital age aren’t always perhaps left behind but have the advantage of carrying on traditional forms of design and therefore national traits can still be seen in 21st century design which is important to consider especially when used for political activism such as freedom for example as it shows the importance of the message to Poland and the people of Poland as a whole. A key point that was mentioned was how designers in Poland like many others I'm sure face the paradoxes of design such as the balance between being individual but also the desire to indulge in trends which at the time of the trend can be an significant way to grow however with political design such as designing for freedom it is the message that is the most importance element but this exhibition as described in the article looked at the growing social improvements in Polish society over the last 30 years which have benefited graphic art and the designer overall in a positive way.
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