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

Josef Müller-Brockmann
Adolphe Muron Cassandre, 1935
Paul Rand
Emigre Magazine, 1985
Milton Glaser, 1973

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

Lascaux caves
Japanese Ad, 1806
Book of Kells
Robert Crumb
Harold, date unknown
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 client
defined by work
with mastery of dedicated software tools
equipped 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 society
a successful graphic designer is
tapped into the visual code of the times

Graphic Design is meant to inform ...
serving a function uniquely visual
by conveying complex ideas quickly
creating better understanding across language
barriers, to direct
giving security

... and to beautify.
creates civic pride
elevates 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?