CTS - Can graphic design save your life?
In the welcome collection, there was an exhibit of graphic designs used in health care worldwide. Highlighting how various graphic designs have been used to encourage, persuade and inform viewers of particular health related situations. A display in the exhibition stated:
‘Graphic design plays an important role in helping both the medical profession and the public understand the body. It also helps inform choices about health and treatment.
From 16th-century dissection guides for surgeons to contemporary digital apps for students, medical illustration has long been highly effective at visualizing the technical inner workings of the body. Using flaps, pop-ups and layers to mimic dissection, these useful tools memorably depict anatomy, which accounts for their enduring popularity to this day.
Other approaches to exploring the body include Fritz Kahn’s strikingly metaphorical poster which shows the inside of the body as a factory hard at work, and Peter Grundy’s cheerfully irreverent infographics which distil complex information to the essential.
Graphic designers have been involved in generating targeted health campaigns that use formats such as graphic novels and animation to disseminate information. Whether in 1960s comics advocating safe sex or in wearable technology that monitors daily activity, graphic design can help people take greater ownership of their own bodies.’ (Welcome Collection, 2017)
Der Mensch als industriepalast (Man as industrial Palace) produced in 1926 by the illustrator Fritz Schuler and conceptualized by Fritz Kahn. Fritz Kahn was a doctor and writer who wanted to visually display how the human body functioned. He achieved this with the assistance of artists and designers as well the use of his scientific drawings.
Having studied Biology as an A level, using my knowledge of the human body I could understand which parts of the body he was illustrating and found it visually pleasing. As it displays the functions of our organs clearly.
Another display in the exhibition explained the use of graphic design in hospital environments’:
‘Hospitals can be confusing and unsettling places, but graphic design can be both practically and emotionally beneficial, helping patients and visitors orientate themselves and feel safe.
Ambulance markings indicate urgency, while information systems that accurately tell people in A&E what to expect, and when, can reduce stress around waiting times. Highly visible and consistent wayfinding systems not only assist journeys from A to B, but also capture the hospital’s ethos of being helpful, which in turn inspires confidence. Easy-to-understand infographics enable effective communication between patient and medic, and are designed to be inclusive.
In the mid-20th century influential designers proposed that design could make the world a better place. This ideal is made visible in contemporary hospital design, such as graphic murals for children and washable signage in paediatric hospitals, which have turned wards and corridors into user-friendly spaces that are much less intimidating. Graphic design in hospitals does more than instruct and inform – it can help people feel better’. (Welcome Collection, 2017)
Before coming into this exhibition, I was not fully aware of the impact of graphic design in health sectors. As I walked around and got to see what was being presented I gained a new insight appreciation for graphic design. Even during the time when Ebola was discovered, the display of graphic design managed to communicate the awareness of the disease to the illiterate. I felt as though I had underestimated the value of graphic design which is probably like any person who walks past a poster in a hospital because I had not paid attention to it, like how I had in the exhibit.
(All images were taken by myself)