Critical Daily    Critical practice in graphic design

An event from the series Critical Window organised by Open Design Network and Open Design Studio. Authors of these animations were students from Department of Visual Communication from Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. They were created during my course Critic - Critical Practice in Graphic Design. Students were told to pick a critical issue related to graphic design, create their own message and visualise it in form of animation. This topic was chosen in order to reflect the 15 years of the Department of Visual Communication at AFAD.

The technology is easily accessible and therefore the number of designers-autodidacts is rapidly increasing. Nevertheless, the teaching of graphic design in Slovakia is still poorly represented and position of educated graphic designer is often unclear and unstable. The public is not sufficiently informed about the benefits of working with professional designers and big competition with young and cheep "creatives-autodidacts" forces professional designers to adjust the prices of the services and quality with the offer on the market.

I think it is necessary to critically reflect on this phenomenon and educate the public first and then increase the awareness about the need for education in graphic design. These people need to know the benefits of cooperation with the design graduates.

Authors: Katarína Blahutová, Elena Čániová, Aurélia Garová, Vladimíra Labudová, Máté Macsicza, Lucia Mlynčeková, Lenka Navrátilová, Martin Pyšný, Gabriela Rusková, David Soboň, Silvia Žoltická

Critical window is original format of short critical visual reflections made by graphic designers and projected onto the street from three windows of the culture and co-work space called Foajé on Štefánikova street in Bratislava. They used to reflect the current critical political or social issues that resonate in Slovakia. Sometimes they are related with the public events organised inside the Foaje showing the personal critical attitude of their authors towards certain topics of these events.