Abecedarian Ignorance & Craftsmanship
Lessons from My Exploration of Graphic Design So Far
Dear Fellow,
I am pleased to reach you again. I hope waiting for an extra week before hearing from me again wasn't too long and boring for you. On Monday, my friend asked when the next despatch will be sent out. Told her it would be out today, and she felt that time was running so fast. To her, the two-week gap felt like the previous one-week interval. Well, here we are. And I am excited to write to you again.
You may want to use your mobile dictionary or Google Dictionary to help you pronounce the first word in the title of this despatch. I hope the meaning of the word excites you as well. You may want to tell me about your reaction to the word’s meaning in the comments section.
Let’s get into the story already.
While in the camp for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Orientation Course, I served in the group called Orientation Broadcast Service (OBS). Other groups in the camp are the Nigerian Red Cross, Band, Martial Arts Squad, Man O’ War, and Quarter Guard Corps. I chose to serve with the OBS team because it aligned with some of my areas of interest—mass communication, content creation, and art.
The OBS team was responsible for documenting every event in camp—in pictures, videos, and audio files. We wrote and reported the news during the orientation course. We created content for the social media handles of the NYSC directorate of the state where I am currently serving. We planned and organised, coordinated by the staff overseeing the group, every event that happened in the camp.
Somehow, I was appointed the OBS President for that orientation course. That simply means I was responsible for ensuring that each OBS department effectively functioned and delivered on their tasks and assignments.
Although my primary department was News, I was attracted by the Graphic Design department. Maybe it had something to do with the graphic design course I was taking before I left home for camp. Not only did I grow fond of the guys there, I became critical of their work. For instance, different typefaces (fonts) across e-flyers or e-posters for the text (note) attached to the NYSC logo felt wrong. It felt unacceptable, I began to question the thinking behind the designs.
I’ve come to believe that there is always a thought behind every piece of art, whether a piece from an amateur or an expert. The quality of thought behind their creations sets apart the amateur artist from the expert artist—in other words, the level of their mastery of the principle of their craft makes the difference. There are principles for every craft that the amateur must master to become an expert.
I have met more graphic designers my age who do not know the principles of their craft by their names than those who do, even though they create mind-blowing pieces. That is not negligible, I think. My dislike for this reality reached the brim in camp, I took up the challenge to explore the rudiments of graphic design and enrol for courses in Canva Design School and augmented my learning with YouTube channels like Satori Graphics.
I’ve come to believe that there is always a thought behind every piece of art, whether a piece from an amateur or an expert.
I am not only drawn to imagine the thinking behind any graphic design piece. I am learning to spot the elements of graphic design (dot, line, shape, form, tone, texture, colour, text, and typography) and the principles of the craft (emphasis, contrast, white space, movement, proportion, balance, and alignment) in every graphic design piece (posters, handbills, book cover, product package, etc.). Every piece of design has in it any, some, or all of the elements listed, and likewise, at work in the piece, the principles listed.
I found this in Mortimer J. Adler’s and Charles Van Doren’s How to Read a Book:
“Montaigne speaks of ‘an abecedarian ignorance that precedes knowledge, and a doctoral ignorance that comes after it.’ The first is the ignorance of those who, not knowing their ABC’s, cannot read at all. The second is the ignorance of those who have misread many books.”
I crossed from abecedarian ignorance, but I am not anywhere close to doctoral ignorance yet when it comes to graphic design. Both of these ignorances—abecedarian and doctoral—are not to be desired. Know the ABC of your craft and do not misread the books on it.
Till I write to you again, may you never lose your wonder!
Your LetterMan,
Tongjal, W. N.
Know the ABCs, and don't misread books! That book! I was bombed at the first stumble of the two kinds of ignorance. In fact, your mention of it in your title also helped to draw me here.
I like the way you got to bring in How To Read A Book here. We can guess that's one of the books you're reading, and maybe "pressure" you for a review yet now.
It's good to have you write this to us, and even better hearing what your explorations have been like so far.
May you never lose your wonder!
I salute the passion of learning something new and something very relevant in these times. Meanwhile OBS people are usually fun people. I hope you made the airwaves and media links interesting.