The design research journal devotes its 59th issue to contemporary forms of graphic design transmission.
Issue no. 59 of Azimuts, commissioned from the IRD (Images, Récits, Documents) laboratory, is about graphic design and, more specifically, the ways in which it is passed on or conveyed. The notion of transmission is at stake, in the present but also in time and space, undoubtedly because there is a journey to be made. The environments in which transmission takes place need to be questioned, as well as its verticality. Why not rehabilitate sharing and communication, and take into account the social environment of visual productions? Signs, text and image obviously play a part in shaping the modes of visibility or invisibility that graphic design goes through. By examining the technical, manual, mechanical and digital tools used in a system of inscription, as well as the learning processes involved in acquiring the graphic gesture, what possibly turns this act into a praxis may be grasped. Graphic thinking may be at work in the practice of graphic design, perhaps because it is already informed in many individual and collective teaching and didactic situations. Ultimately, the agentivity of graphic design is first and foremost what operates on the identity of the writing subject.
Jean-Claude Paillasson
Azimuts is a design research journal founded in 1991 by the student-researchers of the post-graduate program of the École supérieure d'art et design de Saint-Étienne. A unique publication in the design editorial landscape, the journal is a place for reflection, exchange, and criticism on the issues of contemporary design and art, as well as a field for experimentation and graphic and typographic research. Azimuts magazine gathers the points of view of personalities from the world of design, culture and research in general. The issues are organized around thematic dossiers on design and, more generally, on material culture or its criticism. The "Varia" section welcomes contributions that are not part of the dossier, and the "Anthology" section allows readers to discover or rediscover texts and documents that are difficult to access (out of print or never translated into French). The "Reviews" section is a space for free criticism of current research and publications on design in the field.
