How Critical is Criticism? The Relevance of Critical Writing in Irish Graphic Design

By Brian Stapleton
Thesis, Dublin Institute of Technology, 2006

Over the last year, in many a conversation, one question has cursed me. I could be socialising with friends, catching up on their news, laughing about old times, and then it rears its ugly head. “So Brian, what is the subject of your thesis?” I try to warn them, tell them that it’s really not very interesting, which, of course, has the tendency to pique their curiosity and so they insist. I try to change the subject but that never works. Eventually I give in and tell them. And that’s when I’m faced with the blank expressions and the fear that I’m wasting a year of my life. “What is design criticism?” they say. You see, most of the time these friends are either practicing or studying graphic designers. And if they don’t know what I’m talking about, why am I writing a whole thesis about it? And then of course there’s the fact that after five years studying the visual side of life, now I’m investigating writing! It does seem a little absurd.

But it is for exactly these reasons that I believe this thesis is of value. For over twenty years now design criticism has been growing and developing. And yet the dilemmas in the above paragraph persist. Why are people devoting time and money to design criticism and is it really worth it? Are design critics simply indulging themselves, putting more meaning and importance into our field than what may be truly deserved? And if my findings are to the contrary, if criticism is of benefit to graphic design, then shouldn’t we be promoting its use in Ireland?

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