György Kepes talks about the relationship between human touch and functionality in book design. In Kepes’s paper, he mentioned that people are losing joy in creation due to mass production causing ideas to be conformed (Kepes 1949). However, in today’s digital age where the heavy usage of the internet, social media, etc. shows that we are reliant on mass communication and mass production. It is something that we are accustomed to. What then is the effect of mass production and mass communication in today’s design? Are our ideas conform because of mass production or because of mass communication and then are we able to share and transfer ideas easily?
We can take a look at an example of today’s book design to see if György Kepes’s theory is true where mass communication and mass production causes creation to be normalised. Kepes mentioned that book design should have a visual connection between the interior and exterior of the book. This is shown clearly in the example below [see Figure 1 and 2]. My Mother Says is a light-hearted book showcasing a series of old wives’ tale. The interior of the book is accompanied by amusing photographs depicting examples of old wives’ tales. The exterior of the book includes the title in written typography, written by the niece of one of the designers. Overall the book has succeeded in designing with a visual connection between the contents and cover of the book.
However, I do not agree with György Kepes where he mentioned ideas are being conformed with the influence of mass communication and mass production. My Father Says [see Figure 3 and 4] is a book that comes alongside with My Mother Says. It is an irony as the pages are all in blank except for one sentence “Listen to your mother” [see Figure 4] which is a common saying within the Asian household. Thus this proves that even in the modern era where supposedly we are to be influenced by mass communication to be standardised, we can still design freely and creatively to our expectations.
Bibliography
Kepes, Gyorgy. Graphic Forms: the Arts as Related to the Book. Harvard University Press, 1949.
My Mother Says. Singapore. Plus Collaboratives, 2014. Print.
My Father Says. Singapore. Plus Collaboratives, 2014. Print.
Joen Koh Bao Hui 
it might be difficult to discuss the validity of Kepes’ ideas (whether we agree or disagree with him) based on a single example. it is however possible to use his ideas to evaluate or think about one specific example (whether that object fits into Kepes’ definition of ‘functional’ design based on his terms), which is what we tried to do in our class discussion that week. take note of the difference and use texts appropriately. your example is an interesting one that may be further analysed. consider how both its form and content may or may not be ‘functional’ in a broader sense (which according to Kepes, benefits society)…
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