DesignInquiry
Words on the Topic:
More than business as usual
Is work only something we are paid for? What of the hobbies we pursue at weekends? Could work be redefined as the activity we pursue with the most energy? What can the designer learn from being an amateur?
Amateur comes from the latin amator meaning lover, someone who loves what they do, or does it for love. The root of professional is someone who professes, publicly declares, like a priest taking vows, committing themselves to a vocation (vocal, a calling) for life.
“A specialist clockmaker, on the one hand, wants to get paid for his clockmaking efforts, but refuses to be paid for his work as an amateur filmmaker, which he calls his ‘hobby’; but…the movements he makes in the two activities…are so remarkably similar that you can mistake one for the other.”
(Gilles Deleuze, “Three Questions on Six Times Two, 1976”)
More than Business as Usual, the summer gathering of Design Inquiry 2006 is an open-ended event that aims to explore the interdependence of the terms “professional” and “amateur”. We’ll bring projects we’ve been developing in our “spare time,” take up a hobby for a week and talk about what amateurs can contribute to a profession.
Pierre di Sciullo (http://www.quiresiste.com/) designed a type-font for the Tuaregs. 'The Tuaregs dwell as settlers in the Sahara desert and in central Niger. They refer to themselves as ’Imoshag‘ or ’Imuhag‘. The Arabic term ’Tuareg‘ is interpreted in various ways, for example as ’highwaymen‘, ’infidels‘, ’those forsaken by God‘ or ’the knights of the desert‘.' …for a long time they were not allowed to use their language in print or writing. Now they can.
Read the story at: www.formundzweck.com and download the font here: www.chez.com.
Double Dutch and Dutch Doubles are produced on the occasion of the AIGA symposium ‘Spaced Out. Double Dutch: The Word of Image’ on July 20, 2004 and July 21, 2004 in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, USA. Copyrights of individual character designs are owned by the individual characters or glyphs as listed above. All rights reserved.
Read more and download the font here: www.hollandfonts.com.
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Dear reader,
i know you must be there but i don’t know who you are.