3) The Designer’s Toolbox
We have related the three levels of working with language (the term language in the broad sense of its meaning): the level of syntax, semantics and pragmatics to the basic questions of communication design. In detail: the question of what in terms of identifying what it is, the object itself (for example, a ball) or the basic interaction of objects (kicking a ball), the question of why related to a sequence of objects, that is, individual signs or basic interactions (for example, a soccer game) and the question of how the ball is designed, the body works to kick a ball, how the rules of the games are etc..
Although in fact it is more complex because of several intersections between the levels, to keep it simple we will work with the following equation:
The syntax level is related to the how level.
The semantic level is related to the what level.
The pragmatic level is related to the why level.
Now we will examine which tools are needed to fulfill the tasks of each level and how we proceed to acquire the necessary knowledge.
Tools of the What Level
We start with the what level in its relation to semantics. We define the what level as the one in which all objects are to be found, in a sense as a categorized collection without any narrative relation, i.e. pragmatics, except for the respective category to which the object belongs. By the fact that categorizing is already a pragmatic act that follows a narrative of an ideological kind (the idea that things need a taxonomic order), we have here one of the intersections I am talking about. But even in this case we stay with the what as pure semantics. Thus we can claim that categorization itself is a pure object of a media nature. This allows us to use the method of categorization to divide the object ( to be precise, the answer to the question "What is this?") into three categories:
Material objects, meaning any kind of thing or product or commodity to be used, as well as any media object in its material dimension, such as a text, image, sound, sculpture, choreography, play, film, in the sense of what it is ("this is a text, this is a picture!", etc.) and not what it says, in the narrative relation to why it is said.
Objects that move and evolve on their own, including humans, animals and plants. We should also include all astronomical objects in this category (and here is another intersection, that with the static objects...). These are objects that we call nature because they are created without any cultural input.
Objects that we can call ideas, first of all the idea of mathematics, the idea of taxonomy, and the idea of logic, about which we cannot say whether they were found or founded by man. These ideas interact and form the framework of the idea of natural science. In this way, they have had and will continue to have an enormous influence on the production of material and media objects, ultimately in terms of the Internet and artificial intelligence.
Most undergraduate studies in design concentrate primarily on the material objects and the material dimension of media objects. For this, tools are needed that focus mainly on the material dimension of how to do. On the technical level, the what, i.e. the object, requires the how of production, which focuses on materialization, both physical and digital: How to use a vector-based software like Illustrator, how to use a pixel-based software like Photoshop, how to use a grid- and typography-based layout software like InDesign, and so on. Other tools needed for media production such as photo camera, film camera and the corresponding software for image editing and video editing are also included in the study program. In addition to the digital technical tools, handicrafts are taught, such as silk printing, working with paint, clay, fabric, experimenting with unusual materials, etc.
Concentrating on these tools is understandable from a historical perspective, but today it represents a high risk for those who believe that these technical skills are the critical competence for success in the practice of contemporary design. This is no longer the case. In particular, design work focused on digital implementation is increasingly being taken over by sophisticated software under the control of artificial intelligence. The same is true for craft. Automated 3D printing techniques will more and more replace manual production.
In other words, the production of material and media objects and their design using already developed components (such as images, clips, sounds, etc.) is no longer the primary task of the designer. We still teach it because we are convinced that, for methodological reasons, someone who becomes a designer needs to know how technical production works, but it is highly doubtful whether a designer will still be working in this form in the coming years at all.
The design and production of objects that move and eventually evolve on their own is the field of science, especially at the intersection of AI programming and robotics. In a technical sense, a designer is at most working on the surface design of the robot or the human-machine interface.
Finally, the objects of ideas, which, as already mentioned, are to be seen on the one hand as the basis for the other object categories, and on the other hand lead us to the fundamental question of any syntax: How is a point, as the result of two intersecting traces, to be fixed in the multidimensional structure of a field consisting of nothing other than pure motion, so that between it and the points that arise in the same way, a permanent form will emerge?
Tools of the Why Level
The question of why something is happening presupposes the answer to the question of what it is. A simple example: You smell something. Your experience tells you it is smoke. So what you perceive is that something is burning. The answer to what you perceived requires the what of the physical source. For example, that a barn is on fire. Now involuntarily we will ask, "Why is this barn burning?"
In the same way, it works without a direct sensory perception, but through a medial perception, for example by reading or watching the news, which forces us to ask why. Why is there war in Ukraine? Why this conflict in Palestine? We see that the why immediately demands a how, in the sense of a political, psychological or technical explanation: How could this happen?
In communication design, we have to deal with an interconnection between what, why and how that is specific to our profession. This is our "What is it all about?" It is about the conceptual formula of designing a communication process:
What by whom, why to whom, how
What is the object to be communicated and by whom (who is the sender, a client or the designer himself)?
Why is it necessary to communicate the object of communication to whom (in other words, what is the problem between sender and receiver)?
How should it be communicated in order to satisfy the need, that is, to solve the problem?
The tools that we need to acquire in order to create a concept that can be used as the basis for a design that works according to the formula are given by a didactic methodology that we call "Authorship and Performance". This methodology is taught in the lecture "Coincidental Aesthetics", which is part of the main course.
Tools of the How Level
The explanatory how, which remains in the structure of logical reasoning, is a subset of the why and not the how of methodological procedure in terms of the syntactical dimension. The first how examines an event that has already occurred. This how is the starting point of human sciences such as sociology, psychoanalysis, anthropology, ethnology, etc.
The how we are dealing with is the how of an event that is going to happen in such a way that at the end there will be an object, a physical, media or interaction object, designed to transcend the what and the why by giving appropriate answers to these questions. This is how it happens: By going as deep as possible into the possibilities of how the result is questioning the what and why in such a fundamental way that the general answer, from which all sub-answers are to be derived, is given by the system of how, how to create an individual syntax and how to use it. This is the fundamental answer to all questions regarding what and why - not at least in the design of the 21st century.
This may sound a little too abstract for you. So let us try to give you a practical idea (not abstract anymore, but maybe a bit too pathetic) by relating the how, the why and the what to the basic questions of every existence. The main question we have to ask ourselves is: "How do we want to live?"
I think it is obvious that we will only be able to give an appropriate answer by fulfilling the how day by day in our concrete existence; how we behave with ourselves, how we behave with others, how we perceive everything around us and how we react to it. All questions of what and why are in fact derived from this.
The how we have to work accordingly is the how of creating a narrative (which necessarily contains physical, medial and interaction objects) whose quality lies in the way the events are told. What is said and why it happens is, in a sense, only an accessory.
The how (how to do it / how to proceed / how to develop a relationship to the what and why) is what you will learn here through the practical tasks of the Formative Design lecture. The reason why you need to learn it should be obvious now, because this methodical process of design will lead you to your own visual language - how you will be perceived, how the aesthetic quality of your design will have an impact.