visual advocacy

i believe that the question of designing socially responsible works often contradicts the purpose of the graphic designer. we are an army of artists who hire ourselves out to produce work for others to benefit from. we have been likened to the "prostitutes" of the art world and i think it is time that we revisit the definition of our artform and admit that everything we produce has to be fueled by our personal convictions. the very suggestion that design can be objective is preposterous. as kathy mccoy states, "the ideal of value-free design is a dangerous myth. in fact, all design solutions carry a bias, either explicit or implicit." it is one thing to sell ourselves to the corporate giants for profit - it is another thing to live in denial of our own convictions for the sake of profit.