Author as Designer

In Michael Rock's "The Designer as Author" article, the validity of recognizing designers as owners is explored. He compares the identification and classification of design from Modernist (or Structuralist) thought to post-Modernist (or post-Structuralist) tendencies of fragmentation. He draws heavily on Foucault and Barthes in their dealings with the "death of the author", but at the same time attempts to see if there is validity in the celebrated designer through several methods of identification. The first is from Truffant and Sarris's film theories: a director (author) is recognized through their technical proficiency, style, and internal meaning. However, designers may exhibit proficiency and style, but internal meaning is often omitted or conforms to the needs of the client. The second method is poetic; most recognized work takes the form of an artist's book or an activist design. However, books are self-referential and alienating, and activist design speak of a community, and have overt intentions in their use of style. The best examples of designer of author then, could be books about design (eg: Ellen Lupton, Rudy VanderLans, Bruce Mau).

Of the Modernist approach, design as authorship is described thus: "The rejection of the role of the facilitator and call to 'transcend' traditional production imply that authored design holds some higher, purer purpose. The amplification of the personal voice legitimizes design as equal to more traditionally privileged forms of authorship."

Of the Post-Modernist approach: "If we really want to go beyond the designer-as-hero model, we may have to imagine a time when we can ask, 'What difference does it make who designed it?' "

I think this exploration of whether designer is an author needs to be discussed further. Which is more important: the collective or the individual? What I think Rock is trying to resolve is the prioritization of one over the other, when both are equally important. I read an article in STEP magazine about star designers, and the fact remains is that we all like to have idols and some people will forever need to be idols, despite being in a field where our work is meant to serve the client and customer, not ourselves. The idea that authorship commands authority is something I'm glad Rock took the time to point out. With the Internet, we're largely decentralized in that everyone gets to express their opinion, but I think this has also led to the reinforcement of our need for authenticity in a different way. Users become authentic en masse: Amazon's customer reviews are useful because we get to see an overarching consensus versus one expert commenting on the book. This is a lot of individuals being taken as a collective: while it is more time-consuming, it is democracy. Authorship is validated from a multiplicity of authors, and design is already that: studio and project collaboration between many individuals.