I have a wish: At this year’s AIGA conference, before security can grab a hold of me, I hope take the stage and ask the audience to join me in offering membership to a new member.
I want to welcome God.
Yes, God is a designer!
Don’t take my word for it, ask the proponents of the fabulously rebranded creationist theory called “Intelligent Design.”
Intelligent Design was born out of opposition to the theory of evolution. The majority of ID advocates state that their focus is on detecting evidence of design in nature, without regard to who or what the designer might be. However, advocates list God or an alien life force as two possible options. What is most interesting to us is how the word “design” has seemingly become a buzz word beyond the art and business bookshelf, and is now spreading into theories of our very existence.
I say it is a good thing. I think if we can count God as part of our profession, I cannot imagine how we would lose arguments with clients over type size, color palettes, etc. All those doctors and lawyers who thought they had all the esteem and respect of our communities will be jealous. Respect will be ours! Hear me now: No more second-guessing of “Designers” again.
Pretty soon I predict everyone who doesn’t want to be second-guessed will become a “Designer” of some sort. Police will be “Safety Designers,” Mothers will become “Life Designers,” teachers will be “Learning Designers” and Sanitation Workers will be “Cleanliness Designers.” Are you listening Mr. President? Jump on this! You want that whiff of eau de all-knowing-lord? “Mr. Designer-in-Chief” has a nice ring to it.
Of all the new “Designers” who will jump on the band wagon, WE surely will take to this new position most easily. There is a little “God-complex” deep down inside every graphic designer. It comes with the territory; it’s that “creation-thing.” We build a life for ourselves making sandcastles that outsiders too easily alter or, worse yet, knock down. Nonetheless, we keep building, no matter what others might say. It is a true infection, this profession. Unlike the artist, who always gets his or her way (because the client is themselves), Designers have to weather assaults from all sides to get their creations to fruition. If it isn’t your client, it’s your creative director, your significant other, your mother. Yet we are always back for more, no matter the cost. We’re tough. The fittest always survive.
Jimm Lasser, Esq. (1974- )
On the stormy morning of Sunday, December 9, 1974, Nancy Lasser, wife of Alan, gave birth to a boy. He was born on a bed of poles covered with corn husks. The baby was named Jimm, after Comedian Red Foxx. The birth took place in the Lasser’s rough-hewn cabin in Winnetka near Chicago, Illinois. Alan Lasser was a dermatologist and a farmer. Nancy Lasser had little or no accounting schooling and could not write french poetry. Jimm spent a short amount of time in a log schoolhouse, before graduating from the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University School of Law, and the Portfolio Center. Jimm attended school dressed in a raccoon cap, buckskin clothes, and pants so short that several inches of his calves were exposed. Jimm earned his first dollar ferrying passengers to a steamer on the Ohio River, and designing T-shirts for the 84-year old James Toast at sharpastoast.com. He was a member of the charter class of John Bielenberg’s Project M, spoke out against the Dred Scott Decision, and has won many decorations for valor in battle.
How marvelous it is to know that I am in good company. But the question that plagues me about God as designer is this, What's his favorite typeface, and does he use InDesign or Quark?
On Aug.30.2005 at 08:56 AM