If design has the power to capture and retain our attention, inform and educate us, allow us to immerse in compelling experiences, manage and complete tasks more productively, and even to make us feel an array of emotions, can it help humanity increase collective consciousness and fulfillment?
Graphic design is visual language. It has the power to synthesize complex information to digestible tidbits, the ability to communicate powerful concepts as bold or understated as they need to be, the capacity to drive behaviors and offer pragmatic experiences through beautiful interfaces, and the potential to build human habits of consumerism and brand loyalty without us even noticing it.
Above all, graphic design is a form of storytelling, and a unique tool for human expression that offers visual stimulation to deliver rational and irrational thoughts, impulses, and behaviors to its users or viewers.
The landscape of design is constantly shifting and changing, reflecting cultural movements and social behaviors while exploring and projecting concepts it deems relevant to communicate to us – whether that is to educate, sell, celebrate, inform, or for a plethora of other outcomes.
Bad design could be described by some as a puzzle, requiring time and focus to understand (sometimes to no avail), whereas good design, sometimes beautiful and sometimes pragmatic, is so intuitive that even a child could easily understand and make use of it.
Living in a major metropolitan city in the US, I sometimes take for granted how much smoother and easier my life is because of the layers of visual communications that facilitate anything from taking my daughter to school to going grocery shopping. I also take for granted how easily accessible almost anything is in the digital age, from ordering groceries to hailing a ride in a private jet.
While living in such an abundant age of technology provides flexibility and convenience at an unprecedented pace than ever before, it also makes most of us wonder, “where are we heading as a society?”, and mostly, “am I–and are we all–better off with these technologies in our lives?”
As a father and a designer by profession, this is a question that I ponder about almost every day, and while the future is unpredictable, I often wonder about the tiny dent in the universe that I’m building with my life’s work for future generations.
After all, the world that we know has been shaped by men and women like you and I, people who despite their own insecurities and weaknesses, leveraged their strengths and passions to fork their own paths, manifested their visions, and changed the course of human history.
I‘ve also learned throughout my career that design is more than what we know as the creative industries — design is the process of making a vision a reality.
As humans, we are all designers of our own lives and everything that occurs within them. It’s an incredible responsibility and opportunity for each of us.
To understand how we can use design as a tool to lead and direct humans towards consciousness, fulfillment, community, health, and life purpose, we need to first comprehend a few of the various ways that design is currently used in our lives.
Behavioral Design:
With the streamlining of user design, the advances of the internet, and the democratization of mobile phones, interactions among humans are now smoother and faster than ever before.
They’re also colder than anytime in history as we adapt to this new world, since engaging and connecting with one another now happens through the handheld screens that constantly project a more curated version of reality.
Data Design:
With more data being recorded and analyzed in recent years than throughout all of human history, it is imperative to harness it in the right way to make a productive use of it.
While specialists can sort and decipher unsurmountable amounts of complex raw data, design allows for a synthesized and organized end product to deliver a clearer understanding of relevant behaviors and trends for better and smarter insights to the generalists that make for leaders and decision makers in forward-thinking organizations.
Product Design:
From consumer goods to digital applications, design comes in a variety of packages and experiences. Brands seek to capture our attention and maximize our engagement. The more that we engage with their products, the more they grow as a result.
While this is a basic economic principle, we must use it to become more aware and selective about the products and brands that we choose to support. Hence, the growing relevance of social responsibility as a defining factor for modern consumers.
This doesn’t undermine product quality, customer service, or integrity overall for consumer decision-making. As the world evolves and we become better educated consumers, our hierarchy of needs is raised accordingly. This means that brands need to package and communicate these aspects of their value proposition accordingly, and design them as an integral part of their products.
Human Design:
Design as a tool for self-expression, voicing movements, stories, and personal mementos or even creative outbursts for ideas to make their way into the physical world.
This type of artistic output seeks to represent the state of the world and our species in one point in time, and relevant work poses questions and allows its readers to internalize a message.
Imagining a Future of Conscious Design:
Much like a hallucinogenic drug, this experience has the ability to use a combination of methods, pairing behavioral, data, product, and human design elements with empowering and compelling content to facilitate a deeper perspective and worldview as a means of self-actualization.
To aim for a complete understanding of the human experience with an open mind, true curiosity, increased focus, and a meaningful life purpose should be facilitated by technology and available to all.
As we seek to build progress in the technological arena, it is just as important to assess the state of society and seek the same level of progress there, in order to utilize technology to advance — and not deteriorate — the state of the world that we live in.
