Two concepts underlie the modern subject of non-Western design and differentiation. What do we mean by non-Western graphic design? In this analysis, graphic design is considered within the span of the past one hundred years — during the Industrial Revolution, the expansion of machines, the economic boom, the discovery of the unknown lands of print, radio, and television, vast communications throughout the world via the media, and finally the appearance of computers, the explosion of information and messages. The meaning of West must also be clarified. Where is exactly the West? For instance, is the Eastern Europe totally considered as West? Is our definition based on geographical divisions or do we mean the cultural territory, or perhaps both of them? Or maybe we should answer the essential question of whether there exist boundaries in the present virtual world that justify the divisions or not.
In order to further illuminate the subject, let us consider West after the Second World War; hence, the European Union and North America, or in other words, the capitalist society that possesses the major portion of the world’s wealth. The West owns the media and their advertisements, imposes its educational model on the whole world, designs various systems that other countries use and set as a model. Through publication of books, proliferation of social media, prevalence of satellite channels, etc. the West imposes its taste on the entire world and introduces itself as an exemplary model of democracy, economics, culture, and art. Acknowledging such phenomena does not connote a full approval of the West; however, it is a reality to which the supporters, critics, and even the opponents of the Western culture admit.
The second essential concept is differentiation. The idea of differentiation is in tandem with identity, an insolvable, controversial concept that becomes increasingly complicated with the expansion of the virtual world. The Polish posters were once unique and distinct from other posters due to Poland’s closed political system and the absence of Internet communications. However, today the cultures are mixed and blended in a way that it is getting more and more difficult to differentiate the works of people from different countries. In today’s world, how can an Eastern graphic designer isolate him/herself from the huge influence of Western design while working on a poster, cover, website, magazine, visual identity, etc.?
It is hardly possible to talk about independent identity when Italian food is cooked in Japan, Indian yoga is practiced in the United States, Japanese Feng shui is implemented in Egypt, politicians from different countries wear suit in formal meetings, and the latest news are immediately or sometimes live broadcasted through social media and satellites. Likewise, it is difficult to examine independent graphic design with unique, distinctive identity. How can independent identity be envisaged when the differences are confined to the use of letters, images, and symbols of a certain culture?
During the past two centuries, Eastern artists are introduced to the world through Western writings. In other words, we look at ourselves through their eyes and from their point of view. They have carried out archeological excavations, written history books, documented the details of our culture, and interpreted our social behavior, symbols, art, and culture in terms of their own frame of reference. And of course, in the meanwhile, they have forced many ideas upon us. Today, we analyze our own work –including the works of graphic design– according to Western standards and models and therefore care a lot about their awards and praises. Although much effort has been made to understand the meaning of native culture in the East, Western guidelines still dominate our understanding. Even now, we have an eye on European and American schools for graphic design training and it is evident that the viewpoint of our students, who will become the future teachers, would be formed on Western foundations. Thus, considering the unrestrained growth and pace of the visual world, it seems that in the near future we would have similar works with a light native flavor. In the same manner, the diversity between the works of the current generation of the non-Western designers and their Western peers is much smaller compared to the previous generation: an undeniable reality that might seem unpleasant to the non-Westerns.
However, before the global village becomes uniform, there is yet hope to see works with different tastes. Even now, the social behavior of French and German people is different while their countries are so near within the European Union, let alone the culture of people from Texas, USA and those from South Korea. If designers manage to discover the essence of these diversities and transfer them to the scope of graphic design, there would be hope for deep distinctions -of course, if the increasing pace of the visual world gives the opportunity.
In the current issue, we have attempted to introduce works with strong native taste whose designers have delved deeper into the indigenous culture; works that exhibit cultural streaks and distinctive characteristics, in spite of the excessive pressure for uniformity.