Analysing Graphic and Visual CommunicationAnalysing the 3 Areas of Design

Thomas Stansfield3/25/2010

Introduction

Graphic design is a creative process that uses art and technology to express and communicate messages and ideas through the form of typography and image arrangement. It is used readily in today’s society in the usually in the form of advertisement or just about everything. There are 3 main areas of design environmental, product and graphic/visual design I will be discussing the differences and equalities about the 3 main areas of design throughout the body of the essay.

The creation and the manufacturing of an idea of any design area is the same for all, which is a brief, to analyse what is needed, research the topic area of your design, idea generation, and test and idea refinement. These steps can be repeated multiple times to truly create a perfect design, whether it is for a Graphic, product or environmental design.

The true goal for design is to create efficient and effective designs for anything that entice and are effective at what they do. Say if a designer has to try and create a shoe they have to try and make it effective but keep it cheap affordable and enticing/well presented. In the different areas looking better is more needed than being effective, while in others being effective comes first.

Environmental DesignEnvironmental design is the design and creation of buildings, streets, parks and just about anything outdoors and for living in, the main goal is to create a practical and interesting design that will fulfil its needs but yet be nice to live in/be in. In environmental design the practicality is taken into account before all else in the Design process, such as building materials, placement, situation of the structure and the interior functionality. The general looks and of environmental design has to work around the practicality and never any other way, as environmental design is usually permanent and due to this fact barley strays from the norm.

This picture above is of a rotating house located near New South Wales, it is a brilliant example of ingenuity, placement of house and rooms, and cost effectiveness. The theme of this house is to give a brilliant view 360 degrees and to be almost self heated by the sun, the house does this by rotating with the sun to heat up certain rooms, or rotating all the time causing the house to never be heated in one spot only evenly heated thus creating a cool atmosphere. Also the theme was created from a single idea and expanded on using the design process, by analysing the cost and where it could be done etc.

All living areas and bedrooms are placed so they get a view and sun if needed, this is done by having the rooms on the outside situated around a central staircase leading to a second story observatory, also the rooms are evenly spaced by being made wedge shaped thus neatly fitting into the hexagonal house.

The house is also cost effective as it is at the average price for a house of that size, quality and placement, and us such is a perfect example of environmental design. This is so as they used washing machine engines (electric) to move the house, this creates a small power bill and price of the spinning rig.

Product designProduct design is the design and creation of objects and furniture, the main goal in product design is to create a practical and exciting product which has full functionality and saleability. The best thing a product designer can do is a product so effective it becomes essential in the house hold or/and the household. A product designer has to consider a lot of things when creating a product, is there a need for it, will have a practical price and what materials and look should be incorporated into the finished design. In product design the cost effectiveness of the product is more crucial than any other type of design and therefore must have great consideration.

Graphic/Visual DesignGraphic design is the creation of posters, advertisements and websites through the means of graphic recreation by computer or sketch. The main goal is to create a piece of graphic design, say a poster that efficiently puts its message and is eye catching and interesting, also the poster mustn’t be cluttered and have an effective use of text and amount of this is known as typography. The graphic designer must consider their target audience and the images (if any) and arrangement of the text and other variables on the piece. Graphic design is the most variable of the areas of design in the fact that it can easily be changed and manipulated as most of it is down with efficient computer programs.

These images above are of video/computer games and are a great example of graphic design, all video game covers seem to have the same “code” or composition of which the layout the video game covers. In video game covers they have few text and large amount of pictures and usually contain the protagonist of the game in the middle, in which there are leading lines pointing towards the middle. This makes a striking mysterious effect and makes people want to know more of the video game, and persuades/forces people to read the back. Some video games go even simpler and just use typography as their main form of advertisement of their game, and thus shrouding the game in my “mystery”. While there is a strong typography element, there is a serious lake of text and is quite uninforming, even game posters/advertisements say barely anything on games and because of this they are trying to cause impulse buys.

Games covers are effective this way because there audience is usually well informed and tries to stay in touch with what is what and which product is which, but this means that games have a smaller target audience than most other Medias.

ConclusionThe 3 types of design are completely the same when it comes to the way in which a designer, whether it be environmental, product and graphic goes around turning the idea, into a finished product. Though the main differences are the speed of which they create the idea and the limitations they have and what they have to take into account when turning an idea into their final design.

In environmental design, there is next to no trial and error, as time and money does on permit it but instead an intense amount of planning and time is spent in the idea generation, analyse and research part of the design process while on the other hand a lot more time is spent in the test/reworking part in product design compared to environmental and generally can be produced quicker given the same resources. But I believe that graphic design can be easily created and reworked as imagination and skill is the only thing that restricts what a graphic designer can do, but because of this graphic design is highly competitive in skill levels.