Graphic Design: But not as we know it – a bitingly satirical project from Amy West

Words by James Cartwright, Monday 09 September 2013

Though it saddens us to say it, there’s not really a whole lot of satire going on in the world of graphic design. The design community tend to take themselves reasonably seriously, which means we don’t often get to have a good old laugh due to a designer’s witty observations or humorously-minded project.

Amy West has just changed all that though with an acerbic piece of work based on the internet’s obsession with trends and style over substance. Grafik BS was a fake studio set up by Amy with the intention of catching out those with a superficial understanding of design and pointing the finger for a big old laugh. “A fake Behance page for the studio received hundreds of appreciations, positive comments on the style of the posters and even a job application for a position in the studio. The experiment proved that there is an online community practising design with the understanding that the entire process consists solely of applying style to anything,” said Amy.

Lucky for us we never posted any of Grafik BS’ work until now. Though come to think of it, I DO like the style of those posters…

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