Why I (still) love graphic design? _ Preamble

There is a post on this blog which is from 2018. "About Graphic Design" it is called > > >. In it I wonder whether I would still have chosen to become a graphic designer now, seeing how, once one gets over all those youthful illusions such as designing cultural posters and book jackets for a living, one realizes that the profession is really nothing but an appendage to the advertising industry; and then how corrupted and compromised the advertising industry has always been and has become more so over the years. Always corrupted and compromised, but in recent decades also horrifyingly devoid of creativity and humor. At least in my day, back in the 1970s and even the 1980s, there was that to cling to as a saving grace. The commercials held some room for quirkiness, idiosyncracies and humor. All gone now.

But anyway, at the end of that 2018 post, given that it is a wonderful profession at its core, no matter the vileness of its implementations, I advise my students to put their design skills to good use by acquiring a "nighttime job" and work for non-profit organizations and charities and such. Advertising to put bread on the table during the day, but then non-profit work at night to use your profession towards a worthy objective.

Non-profits? Charities? NGOs? Ouch! Didn't know much back in 2018, did I?

Now, today in the June of 2022, well into the third year of "the Great Reset" (and no, that is not a conspiracy theory or anything of the sort - the info is splattered all over the World Economic Forum's website, all there on public display for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear) what a different story it is. Jacques Seguela titled his famous book “Don’t tell my mother I’m in advertising – she thinks I play the piano in a brothel”. That was in the 1960s. Today, let me paraphrase this as follows: “Don’t tell my mother I work in the non-profit sector – she thinks I'm in advertising”.

Well, sure, there may be the odd charity or organization here and there that hasn't been taken over and compromised to its very gills. Sure. Exceptions. Who probably don't have a budget to hire a graphic designer anyway. As for the rest? Boy o boy o boy... I look at the ones here in Turkey over the past 2 years, and my God, have they flopped and buckled under and shown how bought and paid for they are. From innocuous little charities, to huge big NGOs and everything in between. Globalist mouthpieces, the lot of them, as it turned out. The non-profit industrial complex > > > is what Cory Morningstar calls them. And that about sums it up. So, as honorable clients for ethical graphic designers - forget it, they are out. You're better off in advertising, kids. At least you'll know what's what. Not have any silly illusions. Very important that.

So, what do I advise my students now? How do I convince them, or anyone else for that matter, that my - oh so beloved - profession is still worthwhile? Can still be put to good use? Not obsolete, actually?

Stay tuned...