ENGLISH IN GRAPHIC DESIGN
Pislegina Arina
2nd year design student, UdSU
Foreign language adviser Mingazova F.K.
Introduction
English is known to be the most popular language in the world today. Except the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, Ireland and Australia, such countries as Nigeria or New Zealand use English as the first official language. In other countries, for example, India, Pakistan or Shri Lanka English is widely used in business, administration and education. Many countries, especially Russia and China, include English in their study programms and demand mastery of this language from workers in different fields.
Design is one of the fields where the knowledge of English is essential for a number of reasons. First of all, English proficiency helps designers organize communities and special global art space and platforms which allow people to intercommunicate and share their ideas, emotions and new design trends. It is possible because people in every country with advanced working art-field use English as the international language for professional cooperation. Due to this, an English-speaking designer can work with clients from all over the world; he has more chances to be involved into large-scale projects of established companies, or to get more orders if he works a sa freelancer.
Here I attempt to explain why English gained such a big popularity in Russian design in general and why it plays such an important role in work of graphic designers.
English in daily life as a part of our audio-visual world
The English language penetrates into the Russian language and culture not only through borrowing, tracing, word-formation and syntactic models, but also through “code switching”. This is the process of assimilating the English language, which begins to function as a means of expressing the characteristics not only of foreign cultures, but the Russian culture too[1]. Its strong influence on development of Russian design is evident.
English became to be a part of everyday life for many Russians. Students have to study English to pass their exams; adults have to know English to find а well-paid job in Russia or abroad or to be involved in international programms. As a matter of course, English goes beyond the spheres of work and education. Russians are exposed to English through mass media, cinema, theatre, music, fashion. More and more people become aware that mastering English is a good way to become a part of global community through travelling and tourism.
Graphic designers’ challenge in this situation is to help people feel more comfortable in an English-speaking environment by making products with the use of English. It means that when a graphic designer works on a project, he can use English texts every time and be sure of positive reaction. Book covers, pen-cases, pencils, bags, logotypes of companies, posters or web-sites with advertising – these are examples of objects a graphic designer works with. Many Russian companies include English in their logo, for example «Natura Siberica», «Splat», «Oggi», «Gloria jeans», «Faberlic» and others.There are examples when companies use elements of Latin in Cyrillic structure of logos, for example, «Das Колбаs», «Иzюм» or «МЯСО OR FISH» [4]. In the opinion of many Russians, products which have some English phrases or words seem to be more attractive than other production. Another explanation for the use of foreign language inclusions is the fact that in the Russian market of goods and services the percentage of foreign products is bigger than that of domestic products [3].
One more reason why Russian people think that the use of Еnglish in graphic production is an indicator of high quality can be the influence of foreign mass media. There is a big volume of scientific research on how mass media create our audio-visual-world [5-7]. Actually, the information impact of the langauge is very large. The language we use is our method of discovering this world, that is why visual and audio information we are exposed to through mass media forms our mode of thinking and style of perception of the world [2]. Russian teenagers and young people are keen on different singers and actors from English-speaking countries. They look to their life and wait for films and concerts with their participation. That is why youngsters are sensitive to commercial advertising featuring their idols with whom they identify themselves.
It may seem strange that Russian designers depend on tendencies imposed by such kind of advertising. Popular idols look at young people not only from TV screens, but also from western magazines, animated video clips and other products created by graphic designers. The English language is used widely – in texts, in headings, on magazine covers and even as elements of decor. Moreover, often stars offer their fans to buy clothes they represent. These cool fashionable clothes are decorated with English phrases and words. Now if a young person wants to buy a new t-shirt and hopes to look great in it, they try to choose a garment with an English print on the front. Thus mass media featuring the stars make good advertising not only for the products they sell, but also for the language they use as the way of communication and as a graphic element in aesthetics of their products. If Russian graphic designers want their production to look fashionable and expensive, they should analyze the trends in which western magazines use English in their decor and structure, and the kinds of word-prints they use in their production.