Graphic x other design disciplines

It is of importance to analyze the relations between graphic design and other artistic disciplines, such as industrial design, architecture, interior design, fashion & textile and multimedia, in two different contexts: professional and educational. Professional relations in Turkey differ from the West because we do not have the equivalent of multi-disciplinary design companies like Holland, the UK or the USA has. It is therefore not possible to find large Turkish companies that combine all the elements required in an extensive corporate identity program, such as graphic design, architecture, interior design, and industrial design, under one roof. In multidisciplinary projects, different disciplinary groups temporarily team up for the project at hand and when the project ends, the team is dispersed. It is an ordinary practice to commission multi-specialist design companies abroad to work on multi-faceted corporate identity projects. For example The Koç Group of Companies have for years employed a US based design company Chermayeff and Geismar to work on their corporate identity program.

            The Icograda Graphic Design Education Manifesto published in 2000 states: “The term ‘graphic design’ has been technologically undermined. A better term is visual communication design. Visual communication design has become more and more a profession that integrates idioms and approaches of several disciplines. Boundaries between disciplines are becoming more fluid. Nevertheless designers need to recognize professional limitations.”

            That “Boundaries between disciplines are becoming more fluid” puts emphasis on the collaboration between different disciplines in the context of graphic design education. We cannot talk about such collaboration in the real sense in Turkish graphic design schools. Nevertheless there are some attempts in this direction in the case of a few institutions. At university level, the lessons are now planned on a semester basis, rather than stretched over a whole year. Some of the classes make room for visiting students from other departments. But all these efforts still do not suffice. There is still a need to organize multi-disciplinary projects that provide opportunities for students from different design related disciplines to work together.