Studio Brief 1 - Wayfinding - Subjectivity and Objectivity debate

Subjectivity vs Objectivity in Wayfinding

Crouwel and objectivity

Crouwel believes that designers should be objective in their role in the process of communication. Being objective work to be long lasting and have more value. He suggests that designers should only use tested ways of design with no experimentation for the sake of it, which he says can make objective work dry. He states that an objective designer does not respond to trends and has a focus on their own speciality rather than being multidisciplinary. He says that subjective designers have a greater sense of responsibility towards society and become immersed in solving the problem given to them. This can mean that designers go into specialities that they may not be as strong in which can lead to amateur work. By being subjective, he suggests that this means the designer chooses a perspective to portray an idea through making it a personal choice, which suggests subjective designer can only take on work that they have an opinion on. He says that a designer should only communicate what is wanted with the message being the most important thing.

Van Toorn and subjectivity

In contrast Van Toorn says that the rise in industrial developments means that objective designers ‘program’ rather than ‘inform’. This type of work means the designer does not question the purpose of the work or consider the responsibility of creating the message in the best way. He suggests that objective design persuades and conditions views rather than supports the message. Every message, he says, has meaning and a goal which makes the process of designing subjective. A designer’s interests and opinion will always influence their work. Every design is targeted at someone the role of the designer is to convey the content without interfering with it. Objective work uses the same response to different problems meaning the identity of individual pieces is lost. Van Toorn elevates the designer as a communicator of ideas who holds power and enables critical debate on work. He believes that there is naturally a subjective relationship between the designer, message and outcome. Depending on the designer they will interpret and represent a message in different ways, making git impossible to be neutral. Objective designers who use the same grids create work where everything looks the same, becoming structured and uniform. He states that there are other ways of communicating a message and that a subjective choice occurs when choosing the most appropriate one.  By repeating the same ways of designing it means that the same things are produced, meaning people become used to it and see it as the only way of solving a problem, leading to similar work.