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6 min

The dumbing down of the World Mind

I have been teaching graphic design at 3 universities, good ones that are tough to get into, for 26 years. The thing about graphic design is that it is a complex field to be an instructor in. Contrary to popular misconception graphic design is not about visuality, it is actually about words. Or rather it is a field that lies at the intersection of words and images since the job of a graphic designer is to transform the spoken word into a visual artifact. Which is a highly sop

2 min

About Graphic Design

I decided to become a graphic designer in 1970 after seeing an exhibition of Polish theater posters. And although I found out very quickly that the job wasn’t really about designing cultural posters and book jackets, that instead it was really all about the advertising industry, that was still perfectly acceptable: All those brilliant British commercials back then? And – yes, of course one put one’s services to Capitalism, but Capitalism was not the monster that it has become

1 min

alpha.tribe branding

And now for something completely different… Why would I do a ‘real life’ branding for alpha.tribe – a virtual fashion store? Answer: Tutorial for my students on how to assemble a behance project page, complete with an issuu flipbook whereby they show their branding manual. Which I ended up really enjoying. Obviously alpha.tribe does not need letterheads and what have you. But, it was so much fun doing them that I think that I will go ahead and add some more while I sit here t

3 min

A Eureka moment

I have been sitting here all weekend – reading, taking notes, even starting the draft of the draft of a draft of a paper. (Need to read a lot more before I even get to the draft of a draft stage ;-). I really am somewhat obsessed with the question which I keep asking, you see. The one about my students. I am, after all, attempting to do a PhD, the subject of which is art education… How can I even write a dissertation without taking all this into account? Or so I was thinking

5 min

Continued from the other day

I am still wondering here. The previous post, where this bit belongs to as well, is already way too long. So, I am starting a new one. … First, why was I only vaguely aware that Hegel had a gripe with art? Could it be because it is an uncomfortable truth (uttered by Hegel, no less!) which goes against the grain of the prevalent art system? In other words, it is not in the best interest of persons seeking a place within that system, be it as critics, theoreticians, curators or

5 min

re-blogged

Quoted from the blog Sex Drugs and Post-Structuralism (unfortunately no longer active, it seems): … “when I am alone with myself, I have not the courage to think of myself as an artist in the great and ancient sense of the term. I am only a public entertainer who has understood his times and exploited as best he could the imbecility, the vanity, the cupidity of his contemporaries. Mine is a bitter confession, more painful than it may appear, but it has the merit of being sinc

3 min

The Who (again!) and Queen

Students can be such demanding little critters… For some unknown reason the nosey parkers are still snooping around in my blog it seems – and this despite my strictest instructions to the contrary! I thought that I had made myself abundantly clear more than a year ago when I pointed them in the direction of the great urban outdoors, of which there really is no lack of at all in this city; rather than sitting at home perched behind their screens reading the ramblings of their

8 min

The perils of teaching graphic design in the land of the Shapeshifters

The blog stats from yesterday have given me more food for thought. I am actually in the middle of some serious writing, and I am taking out some time here for light relief as it were. God, I love this blog! Why didn’t I think about this before? It is such an outlet for emotions and all kinds of assorted palaver. I think I will become a much more pleasant person all around for this. Do all of my ranting and raving here and step out into the world as fresh as a daisy! Totally a

4 min

To Cheja… (and pornqueen too of course! ;-)

We have this thing here in Turkey called sozluk.sourtimes.org – a website where people can make entries about anything and anybody that the hell they please. I have been intrigued for the longest time that I seem to have quite a few entries to my name, posted by my students of course. And some of them are highly unflattering too, I might add… I was in for a bit of a shock just a minute ago when I glanced at the stats for my blog from today: The viewings have absolutely skyroc

4 min

The Diametric Opposite

We have these things called final exam juries at my university and yesterday I was present during the evaluation of my friend and colleague (and cousin, I might add) Murat‘s advanced photography course output. The final assignment he gave to his class was one in which they were to create a diptych image, one side representing the exact opposite of who/what they thought they were. Then they had to take that image and working back from there had to come to a definition of who t

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