Dear Graduates,

Graduates of Bezalel: Designers, illustrators, artists in the realm of visual communication.

Visual communication is truly magical. Expression and communication by visual means are a wonderful and fascinating process. You are the ones who know how to march on the straight  and narrow path and, simultaneously—by means of acrobatic tricks—to walk on the road less traveled.

In order to communicate and convey a message, we must restrict ourselves to the common denominator, to the conventions of language. At the same time, in order to innovate and stand out, to make ourselves heard and have an influence, we must break out of the mold—kick and smash the confines, the ghettos, of convention.

Today, you know this very well. You have studied your profession.

Now, you just have to decide what to do with it, with this profession.

Do something important, using all that you have learned here. Not only something effective, beautiful, or profitable. Something important.

Change the world. Ask yourselves how you can change the environment, culture, or the world around you, and make it better.

You are the ones who can have an influence. Good visual communication can disseminate information, mediate content, and change complex and off-putting processes, making them user-friendly, inviting, and easy to understand. Good visual communication can play on one’s emotions, bring a smile to the lips of another, and move a third person to tears. It can encourage thinking. It can change opinions.

We taught you design. However, we also tried–with the necessary humility– to instill certain values in you. We tried to suggest that you view the world around you seriously, and assume responsibility. That you try to be better citizens. Better designers. And also, that you be human beings.

(One spatial comment: I believe that if one is able to create art that is from within a specific place, he or she will also be successful outside of that place. Those of you who understand that we are obligated to create art from within the Israeli context–the languages, history, tradition, climate, culture, and mentality–will establish a form of design here that is new, unique, and different. The type of art that easily becomes significant and gains prominence on the international scene.)

And now, the path is open. Remember to preserve the passion to create, the enthusiasm, the striving for excellence, and the zeal for quality. Continue, always, to yearn for more. Be daring. Do what is illogical, what won’t work, what nobody has done before you.

Remember always: There is an alternative .

Yours,

Professor Adi Stern
Head of the Department