Tuesday, May 16, 2006

1000 Postcards

Architecture and The Mail is a project through The Architectural League of New York that encourages collaboration. The premise is simple:

We will produce a series of 1000 unique postcards, each depicting a single unpublished image from a relatively unknown designer, and we will send them to a selected group of 1000 influential architects, urbanists, academics, curators, journalists, and critics, who will have the opportunity to respond. [... making unlikely connections, and creating unforeseen acquaintanceships. While this is admittedly a utopian proposal, our aim is to connect fresh ideas with those individuals who contribute to the development of independent careers in architecture.]



Utopian indeed, but the premise is great.

As a graphic designer, I've always found interest in the field of architecture. For many reasons. But mostly, I've always found architects to be more passionate/knowledgeable about their profession than graphic designers are about theirs. Most architects (from my viewpoint) are steeped in architectural history, its movements, styles, current events/projects, and the overall soap opera of their profession in general.

Not so in the 2-dimensional world of design. Our job is not as important as architecture. Not even close. This of course, is only my opinion.

On a more objective note, architects generally suck at graphic design. And that's okay, because it's not really their job. What's not okay is that they attempt it anyway - for presentation purposes, etc. The remedy, I think, is more collaboration between graphic designers and architects. More collaboration would be ideal.

While I'm not exactly sure if this collaboration is the goal of The League's project, through loopholes, I plan to edge my way in and submit a few pieces. Interesting things could happen if architecture tapped into those un-jaded "unknown" free-thinking, fresh-idea-possessing graphic designers. No?

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