I thought I was not very good with typography, and I was quite ashamed. How can I be a good graphic designer if I can’t pair a serif with a sans serif harmoniously?
I lived in a narrow river. According to the lore of this river, to be a feminist, hire a female designer. To decolonise, hire an indigenous designer. To support the working class, hire a working-class designer. Then ask them to design like a posh white man. Understand the man-drawn typefaces like a man, use delicate words like a tasteful hipster, make the fonts smaller, add data on the corners to make it more clinical, or Japanese characters to make it metropolitan.
A diverse workforce does not guarantee respect for diverse values. Graphic design would be much more alive otherwise. I am a Chinese woman, and I shouldn’t demonstrate my soul as a white guy wearing a mustard yellow beanie to be a legitimate designer.
I used to hate messy layouts that are hard to read. Now I see how illegible graphics make thematic sense. Design doesn’t have to be smooth or happy.
Instead of making things smoother, add friction meaningfully.
Bad fonts like Comic Sans can undermine the legitimacy of a fancy institute.
Prop-making as a way to critique consumerism.
Make fonts differently
Communicate freely, ignore the rules. AI made me believe in human souls.
