“Design is always a participant in sociopolitical events”

“If looked at from above, Mystetsky Arsenal is a square in form. The logo is also associated with a picture frame and the black square of Kazimir Malevich who, even though considered a Russian artist, was in fact Ukrainian,” said Jonathan Barnbrook, the author of the Mystetsky Arsenal’s logo, one of the best known world graphic designers, owner of Barnbrook Design, Britain’s leading design bureau, during a presentation of the Mystetsky Arsenal corporate identity and the visual style of ARSENALE 2012, the first Kyiv-based international biennale to open on May 17.

“When I worked on the logo, I took into account the landscape of Ukraine and Kyiv as well as the Mystetsky Arsenal’s specifics. We also wanted the whole figurative line to be modern and, at the same time, to reflect the history of Ukrainian art. We want people to feel being attached to, and being part of, art,” Barnbrook explained. As the designer said, when he began working on the Mystetsky Arsenal logo, he studied more in detail the history of our country and Ukrainian art. Developing the visual style of ARSENALE 2012, whose motto is “Best Times, Worst Times: Renaissance and Apocalypse in Modern Art,” the designer created a visual description of the biennale’s four main ideas on which the works of more than a hundred artists from 30 countries will be focused: Indefatigable Spirit, In the Name of Order, Flesh, and Restless Dream.

In an interview with The Day, Jonathan Barnbrook spoke about the return of graphic design to social responsibility and critical reconceptualization of reality, the importance of life-philosophy groundwork, and the ideological purity of creative work.

You once said that the profession of a designer was once considered socially important – a designer could convey some important information to people or improve the living conditions. Do you think design can change society today?

“Something has essentially changed since I expressed this idea, and designers have begun to speak out loud again, and rediscovered the social importance of their profession. While earlier designers worked for the sake of comfort and created things to earn money, now that the world was rocked by many protest actions, including the Occupy London movement, designers have begun to instill a certain message and meaning in their works and to create with a specific goal that is far from the consumption market.

“Today, designers can go out on the streets and place their visual materials there, express their opinion in a public space and in the language of their creative work. They can thus change something in society. At present, designers are no longer working for wages alone, they are aware of themselves as, first of all, citizens of their states and only then as professionals in their trade. Hence is an increasing civic responsibility in creative work.”

In other words, design is becoming today more socially responsible and critical?

“Design comprises a lot of things. It is like music: popular, classical, avant-garde… The main thing in design is not what it is but the way it is utilized. Design is in itself always linked with politics, culture, and a certain ideology, but it can be utilized in an entirely different way and have a meaning entirely different from the one the author intended to bring about. The first principle in a designer’s work is to be honest and, above all, honest to his own self. The designer should be aware of what he is and what he is doing. He should not feel torn away from society. For this reason, design should be dealt with not only in the context of an esthetic space but also in the political, cultural, and social contexts. Design always participates in important events and is able to create a certain visual ideology.”

You once said that design needs ideological purity. What did you mean?

“I meant clarity, philosophical transparency, and design quality. I meant that every expression should be clear – this is what I call ideological transparency and purity of graphic design.”

Today, esthetization of the living space is one of the main items of the global anti-totalitarian program. What is your vision of the importance of graphic design in the context of the strengthening of democratic values, especially in the post-communist space, where there still are too many symbols and codes of that era?

“Every country has its own culture. There was a really great culture in the countries that formed the Soviet Union, including Ukraine. It is for this reason that the communist regime was in fact never able to keep all art and culture under its control. Naturally, there was such thing as socialist realism, but, on the whole, people understood that the regime was disastrous and fallible, one had no future. And these examples of Soviet unesthetic design are ample proof of this. Today, the post-communist space needs to diversify its visual design.”

Why do you think the contemporary art biennale, ARSENALE 2012, is important for Ukraine as a country that wants to make a name in the cultural and art context? What non-material dividends can this country reap in this case?

“ARSENALE 2012 is an important event not only for Kyiv but also for the entire Ukraine. It is a cultural and artistic event that can arouse the interest of a very wide circle of people, including foreigners. It is one more opportunity to make quite a name for yourselves in the world.”