GraphicDesign& Everything

Yesterday, Lucienne Roberts and Rebecca Wright of GraphicDesign& put a call out for people to record everyday occurrences of graphic design in the context within which they found them. In a pop-up lab at the Design Museum, they received tweets of photographs of graphic design to go towards a research project titled Everything, which endeavours to prove how interconnected graphic design is with, well, everything.

In the spirit of this venture, I joined Twitter, and started snapping away, setting myself the task of recording every item of graphic design, professional or amateur, that I personally interacted with throughout the day. I did ignore some examples I came across: for example, on reading the Guardian, I only photographed the adverts that actually made me stop and read them. But other than that, I tried to capture every piece of graphic design that caught my attention for more than a passing glance.

After sending a couple of photos to @gdand_, it soon became apparent that this was going to be a mammoth task. I think I got most items throughout the day, apart from being too focussed on getting a Guardian and some croissants while in the Co-op to get my camera out while shopping in the morning. However, because I did only manage a couple of tweets to GraphicDesign& before their 5pm deadline, as I ended up going for a family walk where there wasn’t a 3G signal, I’ve documented the results here.

1–3 Cat feeding and morning tea
4–7 Ablutions
8–10 Dressing
11–13 Driving to the Co-op (for safety reasons, photos were only taken while stationary)
14–24 Breakfast and washing up
25 Strimmer battery
26 Checking the Tour de France map in my office
27–29 Posters (and a street sign) in my office
30 Checking the Guardian website
31 Branded cutlery at lunchtime
32–34 Drive to Orford (Claire was driving)
35–36 Orford car park
37 The bin I disposed bagged dog waste in
38–39 Amateur graphic design
40 A Union Jack
41 Beware
42 Footpath
43 A lighthouse in the distance (yes, this does constitute graphic design)
44–45 & 47 More footpath signs
46 Realising the pushchair my grandson was in was branded
48 Condiment packets on the table of the tearoom we stopped at
49 Toilet sign
50 Tourist posters
51–52 Dead fish being sold
53 On the way to the Indian takeaway and pub
54 Indian takeaway
55–58 The Fat Cat pub with just enough time for a pint while waiting for the takeaway
59 The Sun in the Indian takeaway
60 Watching the Tour while eating the takeaway back at home