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saying; when designing, if one goes back to “the message”, and develops the design
by taking “the message” as the guiding principle, the workwill be different. The
mature person will operate in life by focusing on what is the “best” mode of being,
thinking and acting, and the graphic designer will operate by focusing on “the
message”.
The “best” mode of being, used as the objective to be focused on, is similar to
the “Idea of the Good” described by Plato in his seminal work, the “Republic”.
Plato’s “theory of Ideas” refers to the understanding that there are two worlds; one
is the apparent world of everyday phenomena that is in constant flux, and the other
is the world of Ideas, the unseen world of abstract representations perceived only by
philosophical reasoning, that are the cause of what is visible [Plato, 1973: Book VI].
In the “Republic”, Plato notes that the Idea of the Good is the “cause of knowledge
and truth”, and also the ultimate object of knowledge. This Idea is “thatwhich imparts
truth to the known and the power of knowing to the knower”[Plato, 1973: 201]. In
the design process, this means that when the designer is properly concentrated on“the
message” (Idea of the Good), s/he will naturally obtain the knowledge (power to
know)necessary to create the work.
Building upon the ideas expressed in the previous paragraph, it could be stated
that a piece of work will benefit from being created by a mature graphic designer,
rather than an inexperienced one, because the work will be properly directed by the
message, through the graphic designers focus on the message, and thus the outcome
will be as if “the message” is delivered by “the message” itself, with the designer
playing an intermediary role.
The notion of the mature designer letting “the message” deliver itself without
getting in the way may bring to light the similarity between Plato’s and Lao-
Tzu’sideas in that, the ancient Chinese philosopher, in the “Tao Te Ching”, lays
down the foundation of the concept of “wu wei”, which literally means “non-action”
[Morgan, 1933: 44]. Lao-Tzu explains that, beings in harmony with the “Tao”(the
Chinese concept of the metaphysical way/path/principle, similar to Heraclitus’
“logos”) behave in a completely natural, effortless way. The Taoist philosophy
recognizes that the Universe already works harmoniously and that when a person
exerts their will upon the world they disrupt the harmony. This is not to say that a
person should not exert will, rather, it is how one acts in relation to the natural
processes. The “how”, the Tao of “intention”, is the key. The Tao of “intention”, the
intention to act in relation to the natural processesin Lao-Tzu’s philosophy, is the
intention to be “Good” as put forth by Plato and corresponds to the intention to be
consistent with “the message”.
Going back to the central question expressed in this paper:would a piece of
work benefit from a graphic designer displaying a distinctive style? Or, would
style overshadow the message of the piece?, it may be stated that the style will
overshadow the message when the focus of the work is not on the message itself,
thus creating an unsuccessful piece. As long as the focus is on the message, the piece
and its style will both be born from it and thus will benefit eachother. The message
will deliver itself. Thus, “style” ever follows “the message”.
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2. Cyrano de BergeracinGraphic Design
The situation of the style and the message may call to one’s mind the play by
Edmond Rostand titled “Cyrano de Bergerac”, written in 1897. Based, but
exaggerated to the point of unrecognizability, on a real life dramatist and duelist, the
play relays the life and escapades of Cyrano de Bergerac: a brash, bold soldier and a
well educated poet with a tender heart. His one drawback is an unnaturally large
nose. Hostile to most people for considering them to be fools, his sentimentality is
only available to the love of his life, his cousin Roxane, who is unaware of this
infatuation. When Roxane confides in Cyrano that she has fallen in love with a
soldier who loves her back and asks Cyrano to be a guardian for him, Cyrano, broken
heartedly, accepts her request. He befriends Christian and informs him that Roxane
is his cousin. Christian, who is not a refined gentleman like Cyrano, is in need of
poeticspeech to open up his feelings for Roxane. Upon learning this, Cyrano suggests
that the two should work together in order to create a romantic hero: one will provide
the handsome physical appearance; the other, the eloquence. The plan works
perfectly; Cyrano writing letters to Roxane as Christian and Christian reciting
Cyrano’s words when he is with Roxane. This goes on even when Christian and
Cyrano are sent to fight in the war until Christian dies in battle. By this time, Roxane
has forgone loving Christian for his looks but only loves the tender soul in his letters,
which means that she has fallen in love with Cyrano. Cyrano never reveals the true
author of the letters to Roxane so as not to tarnish the image of Christian as the
romantic hero. Roxane only comes to the realization that she has been in love with
Cyrano, when he, wounded and dying due to an attack, recites the last letter written
for her.
Fig. 2. The characters of Cyrano, Christian and Roxane as portrayed in the film
Cyrano de Bergerac (dir. Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1990).
If one is to look for similarities between the play and the graphic design
process, it may be said that while Christian represents “style”, Cyrano represents
“the message”. This is due to the fact that, in the eyes of Roxane, who may stand in
for the “target audience”, Christian is the outward appearance, while Cyrano’s soul,
his feelings, are what is being communicated. When it is said that “form ever follows
function”, applied to the play, the saying may be transformed to say that “Christian
ever follows Cyrano”. This situation is emphasized in the play in one particular
scenein which Christian, tired of relaying Cyrano’s letters and doing everything that
he dictates, decides to stop listening to him and speak with Roxane himself, using