A newcomer to Istanbul Gelisim University (IGU), Faculty of Fine Arts (GSF), Graphic Design Department, Dr. Instructor An interview was held with its member, Erdem Çağla, on his academic life and developments in the digitalized world.
Could you briefly introduce yourself?
I was born in Istanbul in 1993 as the son of an artist, designer, art director, cartoonist father and an industrial engineer mother who graduated from the Department of Applied (Marmara University) Graphics. I grew up with my father, Faruk Çağla. I graduated from Rüştü Uzel Vocational High School Graphics and Photography Department and Atatürk University Public Relations and Publicity Department. In 2014, I started my career as an official-judicial expert in fields of expertise such as advertising, printing, graphic design, photography, copyright in courthouses in Istanbul, in civil and criminal courts. Between 2006 and 2017, I provided advertising, web design and graphic design services to our customers in our own office with my father. I completed my master's degree and proficiency in art in the Graphic Design program at Istanbul Arel University. I gave lectures in Visual Communication Design, New Media and Communication, Graphic Design departments at Istanbul Arel University and Haliç University as a lecturer at DSU. Currently, I have started to work in our school and continue my academic studies and expert activities.
When did your interest in the Graphic Design profession first begin? Could you briefly talk about the emergence process of this interest?
I spent my childhood in advertising agencies and printing houses where my father Faruk Çağla worked. After the manual techniques of graphic design were left behind and started to be done with the Macintosh, the first computer was bought in our house in the 2000s. My father was doing office work at work during the day, and at home in the evening, he was doing the work he took as a freelance. I was constantly turning on his computer when he went to work. He was uncomfortable with this, one day they came home with the computer guy, he bought me a computer. My father said, "Now use your own computer, don't play with mine, don't mess with my desktop." I had just started experimenting with Photoshop, my father liked the work I did with the limited information I learned on my own. My father creates logos, brochures, magazines, catalogs, etc. on the computer. I was always with him while he was designing promotional elements such as Inevitably, I became familiar with graphic design. Therefore, my interest in graphic design started at this time.
I was about to finish primary school, while my father was thinking, 'What job my son chooses, which job he can do, whatever job he does, he can continue his life without financial difficulties', he asked our assistant about the subject, and he said, 'Whatever his father does, his son should do that job'. With the increase in internet speed and the rapid development of technology, web design and flash animation have become very popular. Since my father understood that it is difficult to learn coding after the age of 45, he sent me to web design and then graphic design training when I was 13. In order to make a website, you need to learn graphic design first and design an interface, so I think that graphic design and web design are intertwined.
I first designed a portfolio site for my father in 2006. In 2006-2007, before I finished primary school, at the age of 13-14, I started to make money by making professional web site and graphic design. This is how I got my start in graphic design when I was still a kid.
How do you highlight your students' interest in the profession, is there a special approach you prefer in design education?
Students generally prefer design departments with interest and love. This makes them open to innovation. By constantly making practical applications in the lessons, I enable the student to learn graphic design and contribute to their creative thinking. This increases interest and motivation.
What advice would you give to people who want to improve themselves in the field of graphic design?
Our masters, who have been/have been doing this profession for much longer than us, used to be able to practice their profession for 10-15 years without updating themselves with their current knowledge. Nowadays, this situation has changed, the designer has to constantly update himself and be fed visually. In particular, a wide range of graphic design, interfaces and advertising designs are needed, ranging from the internet of things to mobile technologies, from virtual reality to artificial intelligence. In the past, while huge budgets were transferred to newspaper, magazine and television advertisements, YouTube replaced television; social media and news sites took the place of magazines and newspapers. Therefore, the channels where the design was published only changed shape. What does not change is creativity, producing original ideas and making aesthetic designs. I recommend my graphic design graduate colleagues to choose a field such as mobile, digital, print, game, character design and specialize in that field. Knowing a little bit of everything is not very good at something
Knowing is essential.
Are there any viewpoints about art departments that you find biased? How do you interpret?
Families of students who are interested in plastic arts departments such as painting, sculpture and ceramics may not want these departments to be preferred due to financial concerns that may occur after graduation. But in the graphic design department this bias is negligible because graphic design is an industrial and commercial art that will always be needed and will be needed.
What do you think about the future of the graphic design field? Could you briefly comment on the "Metaverse" and similar innovations brought by the digitalized world?
As I mentioned above, the application areas of graphic design only change shape. Things are rapidly shifting towards digital. Printed business will decrease even more, but consumption-based food, packaging designs and outdoor advertisements will remain forever. Even after 200 years, the emblem and logo will still exist. Since there will be a need for graphic design in the Metaverse world and NFT technology, designers who want to take their place in this new world that will begin to be established, go beyond the classic patterns and plan new design styles, user experiences instead, and find themselves in three-dimensional design, modeling, visualization, character design, game interface design, motion graphics. they should develop in the field of design and artificial intelligence.
We thank its member Assoc. Dr. Erdem Çağla and wish him success in his work.
