Graphic design is the art
of communication, stylizing, and problem-solving through the use of type, space
and image. The field is considered a subset of visual communication and communication design, but sometimes the term
"graphic design" is used interchangeably with these due to
overlapping skills involved. Graphic designers use various methods to create
and combine words, symbols, and images to create a visual representation of
ideas and messages. A graphic designer may use a combination of typography,
visual
arts and page layout techniques to produce a final result.
Graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the
communication is created and the products (designs) which are generated.
Common uses of graphic design
include identity (logos and branding), publications (magazines, newspapers and
books), print advertisements, posters, billboards, website graphics and
elements, signs and product packaging. For example, a product package might
include a logo or other artwork, organized text and pure design elements such
as images, shapes and color which unify the piece. Composition is one of the most important
features of graphic design, especially when using pre-existing materials or
diverse elements.
History
While Graphic Design as a
discipline has a relatively recent history, first coined by William Addison Dwiggins in 1922, graphic
design-like activities span the history of humankind: from the caves of Lascaux, to
Rome's Trajan's Column to the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages,
to the dazzling neons of Ginza. In both this lengthy history and in the relatively
recent explosion of visual communication in the 20th and 21st
centuries, there is sometimes a blurring distinction and overlapping of advertising
art, graphic design and fine art. After all, they share many of the same elements,
theories, principles, practices and languages, and
sometimes the same benefactor or client. In advertising
art the ultimate objective is the sale of goods and services. In graphic
design, "the essence is to give order to information, form to ideas,
expression and feeling to artifacts that document human experience."
The advent of printing
During the Tang
Dynasty (618–907) between the 7th and 9th century AD, wood blocks were cut
to print on textiles and later to reproduce Buddhist texts. A Buddhist
scripture printed in 868 is the earliest known printed book. Beginning in the
11th century, longer scrolls and books were produced using movable type
printing making books widely available during the Song dynasty (960–1279).
Sometime around 1450, Johann Gutenberg's printing press made books
widely available in Europe. The book design of Aldus
Manutius developed the book structure which would become the foundation of
western publication design. This era of graphic design is called Humanist or Old Style.
Emergence of the design
industry
In late 19th-century Europe,
especially in the United Kingdom, the first official publication of a printed
design was released which marked the separation of graphic design from fine
art.
In 1849, Henry Cole
became one of the major forces in design education in Great Britain, informing
the government of the importance of design in his Journal of Design and
Manufactures. He organized the Great
Exhibition as a celebration of modern industrial technology and Victorian
design.
From 1891 to 1896, William
Morris' Kelmscott Press published books that are some of the most
significant of the graphic design products of the Arts and Crafts movement, and made a very
lucrative business of creating books of great stylistic refinement and selling
them to the public. Morris created a market for works of graphic design in
their own right to create a profession for this new type of art for aspiring
individuals who wish to earn a living through these skills. The work of the
Kelmscott Press is characterized by its obsession with historical styles. This
historicism was, however, important as it amounted to the first significant
reaction to the stale state of nineteenth-century graphic design. Morris' work,
along with the rest of the Private Press movement, directly influenced Art Nouveau
and is indirectly responsible for developments in early twentieth century
graphic design in general.
Twentieth century design
The name "Graphic
Design" first appeared in print in the 1922 essay "New Kind of
Printing Calls for New Design" by William Addison Dwiggins, an American book
designer in the early 20th century.
Raffe's Graphic Design,
published in 1927, is considered to be the first book to use "Graphic
Design" in its title.
The signage in the London Underground is a classic design example
of the modern era and used a typeface designed by Edward Johnston in 1916.
In the 1920s, Soviet constructivism applied 'intellectual
production' in different spheres of production. The movement saw
individualistic art as useless in revolutionary Russia and thus moved towards
creating objects for utilitarian purposes. They designed buildings, theater sets,
posters, fabrics, clothing, furniture, logos, menus, etc.
Jan
Tschichold codified the principles of modern
typography in his 1928 book, New Typography. He later repudiated the
philosophy he espoused in this book as being fascistic, but it remained very
influential. Tschichold, Bauhaus typographers such as Herbert
Bayer and László Moholy-Nagy, and El
Lissitzky have greatly influenced graphic design as we know it today. They
pioneered production techniques and stylistic devices used
throughout the twentieth century. The following years saw graphic design in the
modern style gain widespread acceptance and application. A booming post-World
War II American economy established a greater need for graphic design, mainly
advertising and packaging. The emigration of the German Bauhaus school of
design to Chicago in 1937 brought a "mass-produced" minimalism to
America; sparking a wild fire of "modern" architecture and design.
Notable names in mid-century modern design include Adrian
Frutiger, designer of the typefaces Univers and Frutiger; Paul Rand, who, from the late 1930s until his death in
1996, took the principles of the Bauhaus and applied them to popular
advertising and logo design, helping to create a uniquely American approach to
European minimalism while becoming one of the principal pioneers of the subset
of graphic design known as corporate identity; and Josef Müller-Brockmann, who designed posters
in a severe yet accessible manner typical of the 1950s and 1970s era.
The growth of the professional
graphic design industry has grown in parallel with the rise of consumerism.
This has raised some concerns and criticisms, notably from within the graphic
design community with the First Things First manifesto.
First launched by Ken Garland in 1964, it was re-published as the First Things First 2000 manifesto
in 1999 in the magazine Emigre 51 stating "We propose a
reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of
communication - a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the
exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is
shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be
challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual
languages and resources of design." Both editions attracted signatures
from respected design practitioners and thinkers, for example; Rudy
VanderLans, Erik Spiekermann, Ellen
Lupton and Rick Poynor. The 2000 manifesto was also notably
published in Adbusters,
known for its strong critiques of visual culture.
Applications
From road
signs to technical schematics, from interoffice memorandums
to reference manuals, graphic design enhances transfer of knowledge and
visual messages. Readability and legibility
is enhanced by improving the visual presentation and layout of text.
Design can also aid in selling a product or idea through effective
visual communication. It is applied to products and elements of company
identity like logos,
colors, packaging,
and text. Together these are defined as branding (see also advertising).
Branding has increasingly become important in the range of services offered by
many graphic designers, alongside corporate identity. Whilst the terms are often
used interchangeably, branding is more strictly related to the identifying mark
or trade name for a product or service, whereas corporate identity can have a
broader meaning relating to the structure and ethos of a company, as well as to
the company's external image. Graphic designers will often form part of a team
working on corporate identity and branding projects. Other members of that team
can include marketing professionals, communications consultants and commercial
writers.
Textbooks are designed to present
subjects such as geography, science, and math. These publications have layouts
which illustrate theories
and diagrams.
A common example of graphics in use to educate is diagrams of human
anatomy. Graphic design is also applied to layout and formatting of
educational material to make the information more accessible and more readily
understandable.
Graphic wayfinding signage systems
have become important for large public spaces such as airports and convention
centers. These systems often depend on graphic design to communicate
information quickly and economically through a color or symbol that can be read
and followed from a distance (as opposed to large amounts of text). Such
environmental graphic design systems allow people to navigate unfamiliar spaces.
The term "architectural graphics" was coined by Jane Davis Doggett, pioneer designer of airport
wayfinding systems, but the term more commonly used in 2014 is environmental
graphics.
Graphic design is applied in the entertainment
industry in decoration, scenery, and visual story telling. Other examples of
design for entertainment purposes include novels, comic books, DVD covers, opening
credits and closing credits in filmmaking,
and programs and props on stage. This could also include artwork used for t-shirts
and other items screenprinted for sale.
From scientific journals to news
reporting, the presentation of opinion and facts is often improved with
graphics and thoughtful compositions of visual information - known as information design. Newspapers, magazines,
blogs, television and film documentaries may use graphic design to inform and
entertain. With the advent of the web, information designers with experience in
interactive tools such as Adobe Flash are increasingly being used to illustrate
the background to news stories.
Skills
A graphic design project may
involve the stylization and presentation of existing text and either
preexisting imagery
or images developed by the graphic designer. Artistic pieces can be
incorporated in both traditional and digital form, which involves the use of
visual arts, typography, and page layout techniques for publications and
marketing. For example, a newspaper story begins with the journalists and
photojournalists and then becomes the graphic designer's job to organize the
page into a reasonable layout and determine if any other graphic elements
should be required. In a magazine article or advertisement, often the graphic
designer or art director will commission photographers or illustrators to
create original pieces just to be incorporated into the design layout. Or the
designer may utilize stock imagery or photography. Contemporary design practice
has been extended to the modern computer, for example in the use of WYSIWYG user
interfaces, often referred to as interactive design, or multimedia
design.
Visual arts design
Before any graphic elements may be
applied to a design, the graphic elements must be originated by means of visual
art skills. These graphics are often (but not always) developed by a graphic
designer. Visual arts include works which are primarily visual in nature
using anything from traditional media, to photography or digital art.
Graphic design principles may be applied to each graphic art element
individually as well as to the final composition.
Typography
Typography is the art, craft and
techniques of type design, modifying type glyphs, and
arranging type. Type glyphs (characters) are created and modified using a
variety of illustration techniques. The arrangement of type is the selection of
typefaces, point size, tracking (the space between all characters used),
kerning (the space between two specific characters), and leading (line
spacing).
Typography is performed by
typesetters, compositors, typographers, graphic artists, art directors, and
clerical workers. Until the Digital Age, typography was a specialized
occupation. Digitization opened up typography to new generations of visual
designers and lay users.
Page layout
The page layout aspect of graphic
design deals with the arrangement of elements (content) on a page, such as
image placement, and text layout and style. Beginning from early illuminated pages in hand-copied books of
the Middle
Ages and proceeding down to intricate modern magazine and catalogue
layouts, structured page design has long been a consideration in printed
material. With print media, elements usually consist of type
(text), images
(pictures), and occasionally place-holder graphics for elements that are not
printed with ink such as die/laser
cutting, foil stamping or blind embossing.
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of
making artworks by printing on paper and other materials or surfaces. Except in the case of
monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece,
which is called a print. Each piece is not a copy but an original since it is
not a reproduction of another work of art and is technically known as an
impression. Painting or drawing, on the other hand, creates a unique original
piece of artwork. Prints are created from a single original surface, known
technically as a matrix. Common types of matrices include: plates of metal,
usually copper or zinc for engraving or etching; stone, used for lithography;
blocks of wood for woodcuts, linoleum for linocuts and fabric plates for
screen-printing. But there are many other kinds, discussed below. Works printed
from a single plate create an edition, in modern times usually each signed and
numbered to form a limited edition. Prints may also be published in book form,
as artist's books. A single print could be the product of one or multiple
techniques.
Tools.
The mind is an important graphic design tool.
Aside from technology, graphic design requires judgment and creativity.
Critical, observational, quantitative and analytic thinking are required for
design layouts and rendering. If the executor is merely following a
solution (e.g. sketch, script or instructions) provided by another designer
(such as an art director), then the executor is not usually
considered the designer.
The method of presentation (e.g.
arrangement, style, medium) may be equally important to the design. The
appropriate development and presentation tools can substantially change how an
audience perceives a project. The image or layout is produced using external traditional
media and guides, or digital image editing tools on computers.
Tools in computer graphics often take on traditional names such as
"scissors" or "pen." Some graphic design tools such as a grid are used in both traditional and digital
form.
In the mid-1980s, the arrival of desktop publishing and graphic art software applications introduced a
generation of designers to computer image manipulation and creation that had
previously been manually executed. Computer graphic design enabled designers to
instantly see the effects of layout or typographic changes, and to simulate the
effects of traditional media without requiring a lot of space. However,
traditional tools such as pencils or markers are useful even when computers are used for
finalization; a designer or art director may hand sketch numerous concepts as
part of the creative process. Some of these sketches may even
be shown to a client for early stage approval, before the designer develops the
idea further using a computer and graphic design software tools.
Computers are
considered an indispensable tool in the graphic design industry. Computers and software applications are generally seen by creative professionals as more effective
production tools than traditional methods. However, some designers continue to
use manual and traditional tools for production, such as Milton
Glaser.
New ideas can come by way of
experimenting with tools and methods. Some designers explore ideas using pencil
and paper. Others use many different mark-making tools and resources from
computers to sculpture as a means of inspiring creativity. One of the key
features of graphic design is that it makes a tool out of appropriate image
selection in order to possibly convey meaning.
Computers and the creative
process
There is some debate whether
computers enhance the creative process of graphic design. Rapid production from
the computer allows many designers to explore multiple ideas quickly with more
detail than what could be achieved by traditional hand-rendering or paste-up on
paper, moving the designer through the creative process more quickly. However,
being faced with limitless choices does not help isolate the best design
solution and can lead to endless iterations with no clear design outcome.
A graphic designer may use sketches to explore multiple or complex ideas
quickly without the distractions and complications of software. Hand-rendered comps are often used to get approval for an
idea execution before a designer invests time to produce finished visuals on a
computer or in paste-up. The same thumbnail
sketches or rough drafts on paper may be used to rapidly refine and produce the
idea on the computer in a hybrid process. This hybrid process is especially
useful in logo
design where a software learning curve may detract from a creative thought
process. The traditional-design/computer-production hybrid process may be used
for freeing one's creativity in page layout
or image development as well. In the
early days of computer publishing, many "traditional" graphic
designers relied on computer-savvy production
artists to produce their ideas from sketches, without needing to learn the
computer skills themselves. However, this practice has been increasingly less
common since the advent of desktop publishing over 30 years ago. The use of
computers and graphics software is now taught in most graphic design courses.
Nearly all of the popular and
"industry standard" software programs used for graphic design since
the early 1990s are products of Adobe
Systems Incorporated. They are Adobe Photoshop (a
raster-based program for photo editing), Adobe
Illustrator (a vector-based program for drawing), Adobe
InDesign (a page layout program), and Adobe
Dreamweaver (for Web page design). Another major page layout tool is QuarkXpress
(a product of Quark, Inc., a separate company from Adobe). Both QuarkXpress
and Adobe
InDesign are often used in the final stage of the electronic design
process. Raster images may have been edited in Adobe Photoshop, logos and
illustrations in Adobe Illustrator, and the final product assembled in one of
the major page layout programs. Most graphic designers entering the field since
about 1990 are expected to be proficient in at least one or two of these
programs.
Crowdsourcing in graphic design
Jeff Howe of Wired Magazine first
used the term "Crowdsourcing" in his 2006 article, "The Rise of
Crowdsourcing." The phrase "crowdsourcing creative work" (CCW)
was conceived at the Workshop on Crowdsourcing and Human Computation at CHI 2011. Creative work spans creative
domains such as graphic design, crowdsourcing architecture, apparel design,
writing, illustration. Tasks may be assigned to individuals or a group and may
be categorized as convergent or divergent. An example of a divergent task is
generating a large number of designs for a poster. An example of a convergent
task is selecting one poster design.
Modern graphic design subfields
Interface design
Since the advent of the World
Wide Web and computer software development, many graphic designers have
become involved in interface design, in an environment commonly referred to as
a Graphical User Interface (GUI). This has included web design
and software design, when end user interactivity
is a design consideration of the layout or interface. Combining visual
communication skills with the interactive communication skills of user
interaction and online branding, graphic designers often work with software developers and web
developers to create both the look
and feel of a web site or software application and enhance the
interactive experience of the user or web site visitor. An important aspect of
interface design is icon design.
User experience design
User experience design considers
how a user interacts with and responds to an interface, service or product and
adjusts it accordingly.
Experiential graphic design
Experiential graphic design is the
application of communication skills to the build environment. This area of
graphic design requires practitioners to possess knowledge of creating large
scale physical installations which have to be manufactured and withstand the
same sort of environmental conditions as buildings. As such, it is a cross-disciplinary
collaborative process involving designers, fabricators, city planners,
architects, manufacturers and large project building teams.
Experiential graphic designers try
to solve problems that people encounter while interacting with buildings and
space. Examples of practice areas for environmental graphic designers are wayfinding,
placemaking,
branded environments, exhibitions and museum displays, public installations and
digital environments.
Occupations
Graphic design career paths cover
all ends of the creative spectrum and often overlap. Employment
within Graphic Design involves workers performing specialized tasks, such as
design services, publishing, advertising, and public relations, while receiving
a median pay of $44,150.000 per year. The main job responsibility of a Graphic
Designer is the arrangement of visual elements in some type of media. The main
job titles within the industry can vary and are often country specific. They
can include graphic designer, art
director, creative director, animator and
the entry level production artist. Depending on the industry
served, the responsibilities may have different titles such as "DTP
Associate" or "Graphic
Artist", but despite changes in title, graphic design principles
remain consistent. The responsibilities may come from, or lead to, specialized
skills such as illustration, photography,
animation
or interactive design. Today's graduating graphic
design students are normally exposed to all of these areas of graphic design
and urged to become familiar with all of them as well in order to be
competitive. Graphic designers will face strong competition when applying for
positions, in which organizations are looking for candidates with convincing
talents and a college-level education; field requirements consist of having
strong portfolio and a Bachelor’s degree. Due to the increase in technology,
employment rates within computer systems design are expecting a 35% increase,
while traditional designs, such as publications, are facing slower rates of 16%
or less.
Graphic designers can work in a
variety of environments. Whilst many will work within companies devoted
specifically to the industry, such as design consultancies or branding
agencies, others may work within publishing, marketing or other communications
companies. Increasingly, especially since the introduction of personal
computers to the industry, many graphic designers have found themselves working
within non-design oriented organizations, as in-house designers. Graphic
designers may also work as free-lance designers, working on their own terms,
prices, ideas, etc.
A graphic designer reports to the art
director, creative director or senior media creative. As a designer becomes
more senior, they may spend less time designing media and more time leading and
directing other designers on broader creative activities, such as brand development and
corporate identity development. They are often
expected to interact more directly with clients, for example taking and
interpreting briefs.
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