Dwelling on the Good in Design
By Meredith Liu
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. –Philippians 4:8
When I was growing up, my mother would sometimes recite Philippians 4:8 to me before I left for school in the morning. At fifteen years old, I distinctly remember rolling my eyes at the scripture. It was hard to think of anything pure or admirable in my daily school environment, which was rife with all the typical things you get when you throw several hundred slightly depressed, pubescent people into an enclosed space forty hours a week. And I was certainly part of the problem; it’s not like I was this saint who rallied forth notions of truth and nobility and sparked a gospel revival in the halls of East Greenwich High School.
But my mom had a point.
People are attracted to goodness. In a broken world, they are drawn to what is true, what is noble, what is right, what is pure or lovely or admirable—anything excellent and praiseworthy. Our hearts long for God, and these glimpses of the way things ought to be pull us into all the goodness that God is.
Today I am a graduate student at an art and design school in coastal Georgia. Even though this school is a decidedly secular environment – and even though, like so many schools, it is full of depression, anger, and loneliness -- God has opened my eyes to see how He is Kingdom-building even still.
For one, my professors are constantly pushing us to be empathetic. Their goal is for us to emerge from this program able to bring order from chaos, designing solutions for people in need based on empathy and not condescension. We are trained to produce work that is authentic, aesthetically refined, and – well, excellent.
My incredibly talented designer classmates also continually demonstrate the pursuit for what is lovely, even though their work often touches upon very dark things. I see it in their humor and wit as well as their diligence to produce work with high-quality craft. I see it through their passion for social justice and their appreciation for aesthetic beauty.
I can see that God has instilled in them a sense of empathy and a drive to make the world better, adhering to the standard of goodness that God has imprinted on each of our hearts.
I think that art and design school in particular has a reputation for being a bit dark. I recall my aversion to attending an art school for my undergraduate degree because I didn’t want my perspective to be shaped solely by artists who – I felt at the time – willingly chose to steer away from what was honorable or lovely.
But something that I’ve come to notice as I’m pursuing my degree is that even the darkest pieces show evidence of the human pursuit for truth and goodness. Even work that rings with anger or brokenness simultaneously resonates with the human longing for order from chaos, beauty from ashes, or redemption from hopelessness.
What’s more, God doesn’t call us to ignore the darkness as Christians. He asks us specifically to wrestle with the afflictions of this world (Psalm 25:16-18, 2 Corinthians 6:4-6, James 1:2-4), knowing that He has already conquered sin and death through the resurrection of Jesus. In many ways, to acknowledge the existence of darkness is to more fully comprehend the value of the light.
In short, God can use designers to bring truth, nobility, purity, justice, and excellence into dark and chaotic situations. So my responsibility, as a Christian and as a designer in this secular environment, is to acknowledge the shared brokenness of the human experience but dwell mindfully on the goodness God calls us to seek.
Meredith Liu works on communications for The Carver Project and is an MFA Graphic Design & Visual Experience Candidate at the Savannah College of Art and Design.