MDes Theses

Hester Barnard

Readymade Design: A Critical Response to Discourse and Convention

David Cabianca, Supervisor
April 2011

This thesis responds to institutional limits on graphic design by exploring the parameters of convention and expectation. Graphic design exists within a culture of conventions: It recycles knowledge, affirms pre-determined processes, and conforms to de facto rules. This thesis brings these practices to the surface and problematizes their latent pervasiveness. This thesis attempts to make visible and tangible the institutional conventions which are guided by social, political and legal mores of graphic design practice. The significance of the exploratory work of this thesis is dependent on an understanding of current graphic design discourse. The work functions as a "ready-made" that acts as a conceptual snapshot of conventional practice.