Surprises
Don’t doubt this assumption! The act of design is the clarification of material! And how undeniably that it’s a remodeling of content from one form to another! Guess what the ultimate goal is? To express the given content rendered in a form that reaches a new audience!
Retrograde
An 1850s translation of The Odyssey can’t be the same as a 1950s translation. Times change, and so do the translators. Translation is unlike science, which follows strict rules and produces consistent results over time; it cannot be separated from the influence of time and culture. Translation is always a reinterpretation. The original piece is no longer a fixed work; instead, it can be sent to the ‘factory’ as raw material and to be reshaped. Ezra Pound’s translation of Chinese poetry not only transforms the meaning of the characters into the conventional Western poetic form but also the visual component of the poem as well. I cite this example based on the fact that Pound’s translations of Chinese character poetry appealed to me.
Double Entry
In certain works and in some pieces, the designer remolds and reshapes the raw material of given content and the original content provided, rendering it legible to a new audience and representing it to a different crowd and make sure they receive the right message. Like the poetic translator and interpreter, the designer and author transforms and converts not only the literal meaning of the elements and the direct interpretation of the components but the spirit and soul, too.
Metaphorically
Given a simple salad, basically a bowl of tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumber, the designer reset it: they wash the vegetables again, cut them up, stir-fry them with spring onion, garlic and sauces before serving the dish to Chinese customer. Like the poetic translator, the designer changes not only the presentation of the dish but the taste, too.
Bruce Mau seeks to transform fresh ingredients into a delicacy. Mau is certainly not the farmer who sows and reaps, nor the shepherd who grazes, nor the butcher, nor even the hen that lays the egg —he is the cook of the cuisine. The designer is the chef.
Litotes
Bruce Mau’s design of a book version of Chris Marker’s 1962 film, “La Jetée,” never without an effort to translate the original material from one form to another. Mau is intermediary of the work and not the replicator of form and spirit. The designer is not the originator or audience.
Reference
Rocjk, M. (1996) Designer as Author. Available at: https://2×4.org/ideas/1996/designer-as-author/ (Accessed: 9 Nov 2024).
Queneau, R. (1998) Exercises in Style. Richmond: John Calder. Extract pp.19-26.