New Work / CRITICAL DAILY
(Slovenčina) Nomináciu na ocenenie Národnej ceny za komunikačný dizajn 2020 v kategórii Nové horizonty získala aj participatívna platforma Critical Daily. Je open-source archívom, ktorý slúži na pridávanie, vyhľadávanie a komentovanie projektov venujúcich sa kritickej praxi.
Its contributors are graphic designers who have their own critical projects in their portfolio or who want to draw attention to interesting projects in this field. Critical Daily could also be called a blogzine, because thanks to a specially created script you can generate projects from the website’s online interface into an offline form of an easily reproducible and low-cost personalizable print zine.
CD-app.
The positive tendency to promote activism in society is seamlessly reflected in all areas of Critical Daily. It also has a significant impact on the world of design, which is an extremely receptive part of it. The profession of graphic designer has therefore gone far beyond its limits in recent decades. It has transformed from a craft, a service or the role of a mediator of information to that of an initiator of discussion or an indicator of change. The personal and professional lives of us graphic designers are interwoven with the media on a daily basis to such an extent that the boundaries between creation, work, leisure and interaction on social media are sometimes blurred. The influence of the media society thus makes design one of the important opinion-forming media.
CD-blog.
CD-blog.
CD-blog.
Critical Daily aims to bring a platform to the design scene that critically informs society and reflects current events through graphic design. However, it does not aim to replace existing private or public media. It is a complementary medium and its importance lies primarily in promoting, developing and informing critical practice. By concentrating contributions on the subject in one place, the subject is made more widely accessible to designers who have no experience of it. They can thus be inspired by the contributions and incorporate critical practice into their work. The display of contributions is also generated by the Critical Meter algorithm, which was created partly ironically because there are no objective criteria for how to measure criticality. As users, you can customize this meter to your own idea of criticality. The quality and relevance of submissions is ensured by the editors – design educators, professional designers, graphic design theorists and historians – who are an imaginary filter of quality and, by their evaluation, also influence the possibility of submissions being published.
Since its inception in 2018, more than 200 contributions have been published on the platform by more than 70 contributors. Its main editor and the author of the project is Katarína Balážiková, a graphic designer and teacher at the Department of Visual Communication at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, where she teaches a course called “Criticism – Critical Practice in Graphic Design”. Zuzana Duchová, Lenka Hámošová and Gabriela Ondrišáková, who are also contributors to the articles, are involved in the editorial control of the content. The contributors also include graphic designers Anna Ulahelová, Barbora Krejčová, Branislav Matis, Hana Hudáková, Ivana Palečková, Ivan Galdík, Roman Mackovič, Šimon Chovan, Barbora Šajgalíková, Lucia Kolesárová and a large number of students of the Department of Visual Communication at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava.
There is currently no similar medium that is created by graphic designers, that is editable, that supports discourse on critical practice, that is both visual journalism and an open archive of critical projects of this scale and form, which is why I personally find it hugely innovative. The platform is also accessible in the form of an app, which is currently available for all Android devices. However, it will soon be available for iOS devices as well.
CD-zine.