Planning & Structuring an Essay

When deciding how to plan and structure my essay I want to look firstly at what example of graphic design in relation to my question interest me and whether they are appropriate to my question. My essay question being "Discuss the role that Graphic Design can play during periods of political and/or social upheaval." Looking at examples of constructivist design by artists like Rodchenko and Tatlin in the wake of revolution is always going to produce some inspiring work. As this work is in response to such a large change in the fabric of the countries political and social conventions and issues their is many cases of design and art that were unprecedented before sue to such change in technology and culture. This will offer the perfect starting point within my work and intellectual analysis of very radical work of the time.

Thinking about my overarching themes and questions within this essay I have highlighted firstly the idea that the designer has a obligation and sense of moral consciousness on the issues he or she feels strongly about and responding to this is their second nature. Additionally I am interested How is the designer informed by cultural and political change within their work? How do they use their power to shock? How can they inform and change the state of the world in response to this? These questions should then formulate the outline for my essay and become the outlining element of my argument. Lastly I am also interested in the ambitions of the designer and if their opinions and beliefs come into play when creating any kind of design work.

After discussing my essay plan to a fellow student we spoke of how my themes and questions should naturally create some informed research and engaging arguments. But they spoke of how it was important to be clear in my argument and not let my essay become over complicated and off topic. This I felt was an extremely valid point and something I had not yet considered in my workings. I also spoke of how I wanted to look at the work of Shepard Fairey and his connection with the Obama Hope campaign, she suggested a book titles 'Art for Obama' that was in the collage library as she was doing the same question and found a lot of really great quotes and examples of these kind of themes in the book. I am definitely going to take this into consideration in my work to create more of a overview of the subject.

Bibliography-

2009. Rodchenko & Popova: Defining Constructivism. Tate Publishing

Milton Glaser, 2005. The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics. Rockport Publishers.

Shepard Fairey, 2009. Art for Obama: Designing the Campaign for Change. 1^st Edition. Harry N. Abrams

I identified these three books as good stating points in my essay as they all relate to this idea of social and political issues informing graphic design. One being on the 1900's Russian work of Rodchenko & Popova, one being more of a essay on 'Socially and Politically Driven Graphics' and the last being an insight into the ambitions of Shepard Fairey in his work for the Obama presidential campaign. I hope these three sources offer a broad overview of my question and highlight similar themes throughout.