Non-professional

I do not believe that graphic design can be practiced as a hobby like painting, music or any other traditional art. Graphic design is a communication discipline. The designer collects his/her energy from the outside, gets commissioned to work. Graphic design is a profession, in Turkey as well as in the rest of the world.

            On the other hand, it is true that graphic design as a means of communication is used for a variety of purposes by people who are not design professionals. The streets of Istanbul are pasted all over with posters of amateurs. Computers and digital printing technologies facilitate the unsupervised communication of all kinds of messages. This is not just the case with urban walls but also true for the internet. I would like to refrain from calling this act “Non-professional Graphic Design”; it is more like the using of graphic design by people who are not graphic designers by profession, to convey their messages to society. Just as a person who advises their friends about certain medications and treatments cannot be called a doctor, an activist who makes a poster and hangs it on a wall to give voice to his protest cannot be called “an amateur graphic designer”.