OUGD501 - Study Task 1: Design & Authorship

Rowland Barthes seminal text 'The Death of the Author' questions the idea of power in a new light through the philosophical questioning of the world around us. He uses the Auteur theory, which states how we must understand the author to understand the text, this paces a hierarchical value on the author over the text and Barthes disagrees with the greatly as his explains throughout the text. Barthes states we should take this power from the author and take our own meanings from a text not follow what a particular individual suggests this is enforced in the statement "language knows a 'subject', not a 'person'" (Barthes, 1977, p145). 

With regards to society Barthes invites us to take power from the these authors hinting at a capitalist society that creates experts and everyone else should listen to these ‘authors’ inducing a subservient society ruled by the expert elite. Barthes explains this further stating ‘it is discovered the prestige of the individual, of, as it is more nobly put, the ‘human person’. It is thus logical that in literature it should be this positivism, the epitome and culmination of capitalist ideology, which has attached the greatest importance to the ‘person’ of the author. (1977, p143)

This can be referenced to graphic design as there are notable ‘authors’ that are held in high regard leaving there work less vulnerable to critique but more generally accepted on the understanding of their supposed merit and respect bestowed on them by society. Names such as Massimo Vignelli are relatively unquestioned within the design society as he is portrayed as an expert to which designers adhere. This reinforcement of his prestige further creates a divide which Barthes adds allows ‘the Author remains powerful (new criticism has often done no more than consolidate it) (1977, p143)

Taking from the text this translates to the central message that we should take from a text polysemic interpretations without regard or reference to the creator. Barthes clearly states this in his powerful argument of ‘the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author’ (1977, p148) in terms of graphic design we should not adhere to a particular style or voice on the assumption it is superior or held in high regard, we should question these decisions and produce our own voice to create new perceptions of the world.

Barthes, R (1977). Image Music Text . London: Fontana Press . p142-148.