what is graphic design? (intro to gd, wk 1)
TRANSCRIPT
Is Graphic Design:
A History
Visual Art
Commercial Art
Advertising
Visual Communication
A Profession
A Set of Computer Skills
?
Milton Glaser, 1973
Adolphe Muron Cassandre, 1935
Paul Rand
Emigre Magazine, 1985
Josef Müller-Brockmann
Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions;
there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple,
that's why it is so complicated.
—Paul Rand
... graphic design is a visual language uniting harmony and balance, color and light, scale and
tension, form and content. But it is also an idiomatic language, a language of cues and puns and
symbols and allusions, of cultural references and perceptual inferences that challenge both the
intellect and the eye.
—Jessica Helfand
A graphic designer is a communicator: someone who takes ideas and gives them visual form so that others can understand
them. Graphic designers perform this service on behalf of a company or other organization to help that entity get its message out to its audience and, in so doing, evoke a
particular response.
—from Timothy Samara’s Design Elements(our textbook)
Graphic Design is a profession ...
serving a clientdefined by work
with mastery of dedicated software toolsequipped to solve any “visual design problem”
and an established career path
... and a set of skills.
effective use of type and image to communicate an idea
engagement in the evolving signs and symbols of our environment
ability to critique and negotiate visual ideas in a team and with a client
ability to conceive visual ideas; knowing what is possible and how to get there
Graphic Design is the art of persuasion ...
meant to create desire for products, or persuade viewer to think in a certain way
establishing the public face of a company through branding
ultimately is ephemeral
... and an all-encompassing study of human symbols & signs.
man makes marks to communicate; the evolution of those marks reveal a history of the times
all marks are meant to communicate something for a reason, there is always a “client”we have own own symbolism; even advertising
reveals the desires and needs of our societya successful graphic designer is
tapped into the visual code of the times
Graphic Design is meant to inform ...
serving a function uniquely visualby conveying complex ideas quickly
creating better understanding across language barriers, to direct giving security
Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.
—Leo Burnett