W H AT I S G R A P H I C D E S I G N ?

Is Graphic Design:

A History

Visual Art

Commercial Art

Advertising

Visual Communication

A Profession

A Set of Computer Skills

?

A History

Milton Glaser, 1973

Adolphe Muron Cassandre, 1935

Paul Rand

Emigre Magazine, 1985

Josef Müller-Brockmann

Visual Art

Mel Bochner, 2007

I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, Charles Demuth, 1928

Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue, Piet Mondrian, 1921

Everything visual

Book of Kells

Lascaux caves

Japanese Ad, 1806

Harold, date unknown

Robert Crumb

Found Magazine

“Commercial Art”

J. M. Flagg, 1917

Lester Beall, 1939

Advertising

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)

“Visual Communication”

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

... and to beautify.

creates civic prideelevates aesthetic pleasure and creative thinking

humanizes

Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.

—Leo Burnett

Big Questions

What is the goal of an education in graphic design?

Can graphic design be taught?

Can graphic design be learned?

When does one become a graphic designer?