NO CLIENT: five ways designers are changing their practice and the world

Brockett Horne, co-chair of undergraduate graphic design, Maryland Institute College of Art

NO CLIENT
Five Ways Designers Are Changing
Their Practice and the World

If the 1990s marked the advent of the designer as an author, then the new century empowers designers to consider their abilities to self-initiate projects. The designer has taken on the role of producer with aplomb. Designers possess the skills to identify and tackle projects directly, without the commissioned point of view of a client. The graphic designer’s role has shifted from creating artifacts to creating systems, from translating messages to crafting them, and from visual problem solving to defining complex solutions for savvy audiences.

This paper offers evidence of five client-less practices: 1.the merging of graphic and product design; 2. design activism; 3. competitions and grants; 4. concepts before commissions; and 5. self production. The presentation will conclude with ways that educators could engage these models in their classrooms to prepare students for practice without clients.