GDE750 – WEEK 7

Exploring visual examples that deal with identity and voice

This week I looked for examples of design that connect to identity, cultural voice or regional expression. I wanted to avoid obvious commercial case studies and instead find work that engages with place and social meaning.

I explored the work of The Designers Republic because they feel rooted in Northern identity in a way that connects with my topic. Their approach is direct, unapologetic and often quite confrontational. Even though their work is not about dialect, it is about communicating a sense of place that refuses to be polished for a global audience. This helped me see that identity based design can hold its own without translating itself into generic visual language. That idea will be useful when I discuss the risks of sanitising dialect through typography.

I also spent time looking at British visual culture through the photographs of Martin Parr. His images are loud, colourful and full of regional character. Parr shows Britishness without romanticising it, which links closely to how dialect operates. We do not polish dialect. We live in it. Parr helped me think about how visual documentation can hold tone and authenticity without becoming overly curated.

I began with Stuart Hall’s work on representation, because his explanation of how meaning is produced rather than simply reflected has become one of the clearest foundations for my project. Hall argues that language is never neutral and that identity forms through the systems we use to communicate meaning (Hall, 1997). Reading this again helped me understand why dialect matters so much. It is not just a way of speaking but a cultural system that produces belonging. This made me rethink how the visual form connects to this idea. If meaning comes from representation, then removing dialect from design is also a form of cultural removal.

I paired this with Crystal’s discussion of language loss from Language Death. Crystal explains that when regional language varieties disappear from cultural life, the communities behind them lose visibility and voice (Crystal, 2000). This gave me the emotional and cultural grounding I needed. It made the research question feel urgent rather than theoretical. The disappearance of dialect in design is not just a design choice, it is a cultural risk.

Most of this week has been about pulling out relevant ideas and making sure the examples support my argument instead of distracting from it. I am starting to feel that the critical report has enough depth to move into more focused writing soon.

TUNE OF THE WEEK