Abstract: Degree in Design

Vanessa Mae, an inspiring violist, integrates classical tunes with pop music. Thus, the producing of fusion, newage music. It is exactly what is meant by the integration of the past and present to produce the future. It is the same equation as Art & Design + Technology equates the FUTURE.

"Designers are therefore all 'Futurologists' to some extent. The very essence of their job is to create the future, or at least some extent of it." - Roberts Anders [Quote]

Design itself has caused the advances of such technologies. What about the literacy amongst the society? We may be living in a fast paced society, and where technology is concerned, the past is buried and forgotten.

We are moving towards a visually high-technological world. Blending Art & Design with Technology.

"As we explore the visual world around us, learning can occur. We can visually discriminate what we see, building our knowledge base to become visually literate, and therefore enabling oneself to critique what is being visually communicated." - 'http://vicu.utoronto.ca/stuff/branton/homep.htm' [Quote]

I derive Art as a form of self-expression. The design may mean something to the designer but it may be meaningless to others; it is self expressive. As a designer, we must resolve this form of self expression with the knowledge that should be recognised by others too. This is called Visual Literacy.

However, the progression of the future has to relie on the past and present. Where, the fusion of Science, Technology, Education, Past and Present simmers the future.

"...help us keep our ethnical bearings as technology insinuates into our lives." - Anne Ruggles Gere [Quote]

The advancement of technology is complex and this calls for simplicity. Designers have to ensure that while technology progresses, and gets complicated, the society has to keep up with progression. This is where designers design a balance of complexity and simplicity. A literacy for the growing society; a visual literacy. The Art & Design of visual communication.

Are the grafittis art we see, a form of cry for help? Have we moved too fast? Too fast to look at what is happening around us? Do we take a moment off to ponder at the mistakes we made of the great things many had achived?

Some do.

Others just fuse into the future without knowing what is happening behind. It is about them and the future. There is no stopping; to them, it is just a one-way street.

Is it because of such people, that the society or the world per say have broken into many parts? There are the rich and the poor; the literate and the illerate? Have this also something to do with the visual language in the environment we all live in?

Being a social analysis, we should be critical in our thinking. Which means, (being the designer) we should educate not only the slower by also the faster pace movers without disrupting the speed of advancement of the future. And the fastest way is not through text only but with visual elements and/or context (graphics). Quick and clear cut, the message being brought across, hassle free.

In short, a designer has to keep a balance between the past and present through visual ocmmunication, fusing the past and present with visual literacy into the society.