John Dewey (1910) introduced the term ‘critical thinking’ as the name of an educational goal, which he identified with a scientific attitude of mind. More commonly, he called the goal ‘reflective thought’, ‘reflective thinking’, ‘reflection’, or just ‘thought’ or ‘thinking’. [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-thinking/]. Critical thinking is a crucial skill to have for designers in today’s world. As a start to be a critical thinker, designers need to be able to effectively identify, analyse, and evaluate content and skills, making real world connections. It is the ability to recognise a problem and then in turn find suitable solutions. That’s is primarily what designers do.
The study of history helps us make important connections. It is not merely about the date and year but about asking the WHY question leading to a better understanding of the causes and effects of an event or time in the past. We need to study and learn history to be able to contextualise design, to be able to draw comparison and make connections. To be able to do that in a more fruitful way, we ned to look at the world a whole and not just a certain region.
Design as a field is not inherently ‘local’ nor is it regulated like the fields of law and medicine tend to be. It’s a service that easy to export, or import, and increasingly it is finding a way to globalise and expand its horizon.
Owing to the digital realm and the rise to the digital economy, our world is becoming smaller each day. There is no stopping for say a web designer in Karachi to be working for a client in North America, or for a design strategist in Toronto working on a brand strategy and design in Malaysia. Globalisation is evolving and so must we as designers and design educators.
Most design history courses today are taught and design aesthetics are reflected upon from a Western perspective. The bulk of art and design history books primarily focus on the European and North American regions. Little is documented and little effort is made to impart any information from the ‘other’ regions of the world. Even if we do see these being talked about in the design history context, it is more to do with how the Western artists and designers were inspired by what was happening at the time in the said region and not for what they stood for in regards to local context, history and aesthetic exploration. One such example is ‘Japonisme’ [a French term that refers to the popularity and influence of Japanese art and design in western Europe in the nineteenth century]. This kind of points to a stand of superiority and privilege.
It is time designers and to-be designers looked at history more globally. Designers possess the power to shape visual communication, and with that power comes great responsibility. Design can never be neutral. For us designers to be aware of the meaning and impact of our work, we need to be rooted in the study of diversified historical perspectives and aesthetics.
The interconnected world we live in, whether it’s due to the digital economy, the diminishing world borders or immigration policies, we designers should look forward to a world where we will be increasingly communicating beyond boundaries and cultures. Let the study of history make us be more aware and conscious of the language we use as we do that.
