In the Ways of Seeing by John Berger, there is a small graphic on page 17 illustrating three men looking at the floor. This illustration is visually reiterating what the text is discussing – people looking at the world from their own perspective. Art allowed for the recreation of a real object or image. This art, however, relied on an artists interpretation of the vision. Paintings and other forms of art showed the vision from the eyes of the painters/artists. They have the opportunity to leave things out, emphasis things over other things, and to add their personal style to the image. Before the camera, looking at an illustration or painting meant looking at an object through others eyes. The camera gave the first real image without many other influences.
The diagram is showing how people would see things before the camera era. This concept is an important one to remember when looking at all types of design and art. Every artist has a certain perspective and that can play a major role in design. Perspective can be influenced by education, experiences, lifestyle, etc. Knowing that perspective can vary between people should cause a design to carefully think about design. Artists may have one idea as to what a design means, while another separate individual seeing the design/art may walk away with a completely separate idea.
With design, perspective is something that should be thoughtfully considered and minimized. Perspective can allow for different thoughts, emotions, and actions. Design allows messages to be communicated to a wide range of people. Perspective can lead to different messages that may not have been intended in the design. Trying to eliminate perspective from design is important because as a designer you want an audience to receive the same message.
As a designer, many of the pieces I designed are intended to be seen by a mass audience. They are reproduced and distributed over different mediums to different people. Because of this distribution, it can seem hard to connect to a piece. To retain that connection I focus on the original aspect of a piece; I like to think about the different actions that were taken during the creation process. Because reproductions can be found everywhere, and design is something that has a purpose, it can be hard to associate with the original design. I like to remember that every design I create has a different learning moment associated with it.
