Projector magazine. Issue #39
With this issue, dedicated to Turkish graphic design, the Projector celebrates the start of a new chapter in its history. From now, English will be the only language of the magazine. Our activities will primarily focus on the research of national design schools and their peculiarities.
In times of instability, political and economical turbulence, design, as an internationally recognised language of visual communication, remains one of the bridges which may still connect us. At the end of June we celebrated the World Industrial Design Day with an international conference titled «Design Diplomacy». To me, this communicational transboundary function of Design seems crucial and extremely important nowadays. Design is a creative and truly demiurgic profession. And let us celebrate unity and mutually enriching professional exchange!The Projector, from its early years, serves a uniting media for the design community. Stay in touch!
And we open this isuue with a publication by Onur Yazıcıgil, dedicated to the Turkish script reform: «Spoken language and written script are two defining characteristics that nations use in order to unify their citizens and to culturally distinguish themselves. This is applicable to both indigenous cultures and those who have yet to form notions such as „nation“. These indigenous cultures had not adopted any system of writing, but were long united through the unification of spoken language, which was very well enough to unite its inhabitants».
«The region of the Republic of Turkey, once having used the Arabic script, made a significant, and often deemed „over night, ” switch to the Latin alphabet in 1928. Yet, the seeds of this change can be clearly traced as far back as the 1860s. Not only did the eventual Script Reform bring a new visual mode to printed media, but also played a major role in the subsequent language reform, which resulted in the contemporary Turkish language“.
«Traditions of written scripts inevitably carry heavy baggage of information that denotes their geographic location and hence the group of people who created them. But this is also not peculiar for written scripts, as it is evident in any other cultural activity such as music, food and costumes. These cultural outputs help us „read“ the philosophical interpretaations of their creators».
One of the co-authors of this isssue — Selcuk Artut says: «When I graduated, the schools I attended did not do much to help me acquire the professional skills I would need. Instead, I preferred to prepare the soup according to my preferences. Today, you can advance yourself comprehensively by utilizing the resources that are easily accessible with a mouse click. Numerous online courses, webinars, and workshops can help you acquire the skills you need to succeed in your career. You can gain the knowledge and expertise necessary to excel in your field with dedication and hard work. As an example, I am currently teaching multiple courses on Interaction Design, among them the Physical Computing course relies entirely on my individual efforts to learn the content».
“ — Be patient; otherwise, designing something may turn out to be a never-ending process. — Design is not only about designing artifacts; they need to concentrate on designing their lives as well. — A decent designer needs to improve his/her skills and tastes by actively observing their field. — New technologies are arising, and a designer’s role is under considerable debate. A designer should be part of this conversation».
«I like having long walks alone to concentrate on developing ideas. Usually, seaside walks are the best to get a clear perspective on mingling with new things. Additionally, being in close proximity to nature and fresh air inspires my creativity. However, when it comes to the moment of creating things rather than thinking about them, I like to have comfort in my production environment. I usually prefer working in my art studio with no interruptions. This way, I can fully immerse myself in my work and focus on bringing my ideas to life. Nevertheless, I always make sure to take breaks and go for a walk outside to refresh my mind and gain new inspiration».
Safer Lehimler says: «The 21st century considers the interdisciplinary interaction as a necessity to the designer. This situation increases the need for collaboration and teamwork, which is valid for design processes. Design students and young designers should be engaged in teamwork as well as individual reading, writing and drawing. In this context, together with their teammates, they should define new design problems, diversify the visual experiments related to the abilities and discover new ways of seeing».
«Design is primarily emotional to me, but it is also conscious. Undertaking the task of delivering a determined message to the target audience, graphic products require a conscious action. However, this action essentially begins with an emotional and artistic transference».
«I have a hobby garden. I love dealing with the soil. At the same time, I enjoy watching the textures of formations and changes in nature. In particular, I associate the textures I see in nature with the design processes. I also love to travel, especially to study historical artifacts. I have a stamp collection since my childhood».
«I don’t think Turkish graphic design has distinctive features in the 21st century anymore. Although Turkish designers sometimes associate the rich cultural heritage with their products, we use the Latin alphabet as a communicative element instead of a language like Persian. I think this situation offers a universal perspective to design projects. Turkish designers, who constantly follow the innovations in the field of design and provide the audience with new visual experiences in this direction, carry out successful projects on an international scale and also take part in many international design events».
Umut Akkan says: «The biggest advice we get in our professional culture is to work for continuous improvement rather than being the best. Because there is always something better. That’s why I’m not the best at anything. I believe in continuous work and effort».
«I approach every job I am excited about with the same enthusiasm. Money is secondary. But this is not insignificant».
«It is necessary to work on many projects at the same time in the advertising agencies of our country. Every project has different time needs. While some projects are resolved quickly, some require much more time. Preferably, I would like to devote enough time to each project».
Cem Eskinazi says: «Most of my work is still in the United States. I’ve collaborated with some studios here in Spain too, and I had Turkish clients in the past. I don’t think it’s important where the studio is based anymore. At this point, the studio is the laptop».
«Anything typographically-based sounds particularly interesting to me. Right now more than half of my practice at the studio is typeface production for other type foundries. Last year I took on multiple identity projects, which turned out to be very typographic in nature. Most of the clients are either non-profits or in the cultural sector».
«In fact, I enjoy technical things a lot, especially in type design, so I could do most of the production work on my own. In book production, unfortunately, I have to work with a production manager. I wish I had deeper knowledge in this area. I’d want to have deeper understanding of the technicalities of print production, unfortunately I haven’t had enough projects that required complex printing knowledge so far!»
Ozhan Yurtseven says: «To my mind, the most important thing to a young designer is to realize the importance of being timeless. We should always keep up with the current trends, but also consider the risk of becoming outdated».
«Design is not an art because it is a product that emerges in response to a need. Something that does not fulfil a function is considered art, while design stands out with its functionality. Although designers may include emotional overtones in the rational structure of a job, design is ultimately a service thing. Therefore, even if this is an art, the main purpose of it is to provide a service anyway».
«The view that artificial intelligence can threaten our profession for the time being may be right. In fact, artificial intelligence technologies are still in their early days, so there are uncertainties in this regard. However, this does not mean that professions entirely dependent on human intelligence and creativity will disappear. Instead, the use of artificial intelligence technologies can change the way people work and bring different skills and competencies to the fore».
Geray Gencer says: «I find inspiration in my everyday life. I am inspired by the interaction with all kinds of people: peaceful, natural and unusual ones. Through designing, I often attempt to follow the meaning behind something that has happened, or to describe a particular mood or emotion. What is really fascinating about it is that I can pass that inspiration one; if I can clearly get across an aspect of life, if I can create a meaning with the people who see my works, I may have a chance to inspire them as well».
«Being good at designing means you are good at balancing consciousness and emotions. Some projects require rationalism, some need heart and courage. Some projects demand for art based production, some of them must be very functional, every project wants a different formula».
Murat Erturk says: «I try to keep my perception open as much as possible. I use traditional materials such as pastels and charcoal. I make sure I don’t stay at my computer constantly. I try to be visually nourished by going out and looking at the city I live in with a graphic eye, and I closely follow what is currently happening in design».
«Contemporary graphic design in Turkey appeared not long ago, and except for few schools, design schools could not develop their own education styles. For this reason, it is difficult to say that we have a distinctive national style like Poland or Iran. However, there are a few designers of their own style, who analyze and interpret formal features reflecting local elements. I see myself as a designer who feeds on the local. Even though I design in accordance with the time I live in, my roots are always here».
«I don’t care about receiving awards, but I’am concerned about participating in competitions because this encourages me to get out of the routine workflow and create a different product. Each new competition encourages new designs and helps designers to expand their portfolios. For this reason, I always recommend young designers to participate in competitions. Measuring talent is a relative issue. Each competition has its juries, their experience and tastes may be different, and these juries may change yearly. For this reason, I like to consider competitions not as a measurement but motivation to create».
Online students portfolio of the HSE ART AND DESIGN SCHOOL counts more than 170 000 projects. Such a load of visual material surely may sometimes give you wonderful unexpected findings. Working on this issue, we spontaneously decided to take a look at the projects linked with Turkey. And see what we have unearthed!
The First project we’d like to share is the work by Vanya Vorontsov, whom it’s quite difficult to introduce briefly. He’s a graduate of bachelor program, a student of our master program «Art-direction for Culture Institutions», a successful independent freelance designer developing his own projects, a mentor at our school, and, finally, an art-director of the four recent issues of Projector, including this very one. As our educational program is fully project-based, we involve our partner institutions and their project briefs into our academic activities.
In 2023, The State Museum of History of Saint Petersburg is planning an exhibition entitled «From Istanbul to Constantinople», and the development of visual identity and exhibition space design has become one of the project briefs in our Art-direction program. The exhibition is supposed to research and describe the oriental Byzantine and Ottoman influences on Russian culture, art and architecture. Vanya has designed a sharp-minded visual identity and a project of the exhibition in the historic halls of the Museum. With respect to historical material, he’s developed a contemporary visual and typographic language.
«Tulips in Turkish Art: Meanings and Visual Language». The visual research by Elina Mamaeva is dedicated to the images of tulips in Turkish art. She researches the meanings and visual language connections with this flower in the Turkish visual tradition.
Visual research gives our students a more comprehensive understanding of their projects— before developing a corporate identity or a visual communications campaign, they dive deeper into related topics, and make up a compendium of visual materials.
After plunging into the research of tulp images in the Turkish visual tradition, Elina developed a new brand identity for BIFED international documentary film festival held on Bozcaada island (Turkey). It focuses on ecology, and serves an independent platform for film creators and artists working with environmental issues. During the festival, not only may you watch movies, but also participate in workshops, attend lectures, talk to artists and eco-activists, and much more.
