The technical information in these slides is meant to give students an idea of the challenges graphic designers deal with on a daily basis. Activity: Select a word or phrase for students to illustrate using one common symbol, such as Help Desk or Management. This symbol will need to convey the information to those who speak any language. Graphic designers are trying to tell you who they are, what you need, where to find it, who to call, what’s in style, how to dress, when to show up, or why what they sell is important. We, as consumers, are manipulated daily by advertising. We hear which product is “better, cheaper, faster” through TV, radio, billboards, Internet pop-ups, and emails. We are so bombarded that the industry has had to test new ways to grab their audience. Great ads are one reason many people watch the Superbowl. Ask the class for examples of effective advertising, as this often is a favorite subject for our students. The printing press made it possible to reach a mass audience. The industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries created the need for marketing and advertising. In the 20th century travel, communication, and technology continue to feed the need for graphic design.
Graphic Design has existed since the first civilizations created hieroglyphics, or images that represent words. The ancient yin-yang symbol expresses a balance between opposites that are believed to make up the universe and explain existence. This incorporates interdependent concepts like male/female, action/inaction. The swastika meant good luck or good fortune in Asia. While today is is associated with the Nazi regime, it is still used commercially in Asia in its original association. A symbol means nothing until it is linked in consumers’ minds with a particular entity.
With our global world, these symbols need to be recognizable within a wide variety of cultures and languages. In 1974, the American Institute of Graphic Arts was commissioned to develop transportation symbols for travelers around the world. Today, these symbols are a familiar part of signs at airports and other public buildings. Paul Rand is one of the most influential American graphic designers. His corporate logos are simple, clear, distinctive, and memorable. A logo means nothing unless it conveys a concept (such as service, quality, and dependability) and is familiar to the public.
Spacing is important in the readability of an ad, as well as for page layout considerations. Margins (negative space) are important in attracting attention. Too much positive space tends to lose the viewers attention. Typeface is an exact form of each letter that can be mass produced. D ü rer constructed well-balanced letterforms within a square, paying attention to the thick and thin visual weight of the serifs, ascenders, and descenders. Originally, the letters were laboriously carved in wood or cast in metal and set by hand prior to printing. Today, with the modern computer, we all have access to a wide array of fonts. Dobkin combined commercial typefaces and handmade letterforms for the organization that monitors human rights around the world. By fragmenting and layering the words of victims, she communicates the terror these menacing words convey in an effort to gain support for the organization. The information inside the leaflet would need to be presented clearly.
The layout of your text is asymmetrical to attract attention. The spread (two facing pages) is fundamentally symmetrical to avoid confusion. Communication begins by attracting and engaging the viewer’s attentions. A layout includes dimensions of the page, width of margins, sizes and styles of type, style and placement of headings or footers, images, and many other elements. Some designs seek to present information clearly and quickly. Compare the original schedule on the left with the extraneous lines, symbols and explanations, and a serpentine eye movement with the one on the right. It was redesigned by Ani Stern and her instructor, Edward Tufte. The schedule is now in a linear format with an easy to follow format. A traveler in a hurry can glean necessary information without having to read unnecessary details.
In the 15th century, printers designed “broadsides” that were single sheets handed out or posted to inform the public of political, religious, or cultural events. They were the direct ancestors of leaflets, advertising, magazines, and posters. The development of color lithography, described in Chapter 8, brought posters to the forefront as an art form. This eye-catching form of advertising was not available for newspapers or magazines, and there were no televisions or computers. The posters were so popular that they were frequently stolen. Instructions were secretly circulated with methods to remove them without damage. Toulouse-Lautrec was one of the most famous artists for this art form, using bold silhouettes, dramatically cropped compositions and flattened space, influences from Japanese prints that were so popular in the 19th century. In posters, images and words were inseparable.
Not only does Maeda not use traditional media, he relies very little on commercial software. He prefers to write his own code, and urges designers and artists to learn programming skills. This cover design is simple, utilizing translucent shapes, a straight line, and an arc. As co-director of SIMPLICITY, an experimental research program at MIT, he stresses ease of use for technology and design. His example for the success of this concept in advertising is the Apple product, iPod, launched in 2001. It was not until the advertising campaign know as iPod Silhouette was launched that sales skyrocketed. Posters, billboards, and television commercials with black silhouettes of young people dancing to music with a white iPod was set against a simple neon background. The image of unselfconscious enjoyment stood out easily and appealed to a broad public.
The worldwide web and CD-Rom and DVD technology add the potential for motion and interactivity—reactions to choices made by users. A Web site called “Graffiti Archaeology” takes photographs of graffiti and sets them in a structure that makes visible the evolution of graffiti sites over time as the writers paint over each others’ work. When a site is selected, all of the available images for it are loaded onto the screen, with the most recent layer on top. A timeline at the bottom shows the layers of photographs hidden underneath. Designed by Cassidy Curtis, viewers are invited to navigate, scroll, and zoom backwards in time. Creating visual clarity from vast quantities of data is a challenge Paley undertook in TextArc, a program that displays the entire text of a book on a single screen. The entire text appears twice, in two concentric spirals. Words that appear more than once are set in an oval field, with frequently used words displayed more brightly. Users can quickly gain some understanding of the content by merely loading the text into the software. Selecting a word from the field causes orange lines to radiate to the text in the spiral. TextArc can also simply read the text from beginning to end, and illuminate key words and relationships as they scroll past. In spite of the advanced technology, these designers are still working with the principles of visual elegance and communicative clarity that have been at the core of graphic design since anonymous scribes first developed writing.
The technical information in these slides is meant to give students an idea of the challenges graphic designers deal with on a daily basis. Activity: Select a word or phrase for students to illustrate using one common symbol, such as Help Desk or Management. This symbol will need to convey the information to those who speak any language. Graphic designers are trying to tell you who they are, what you need, where to find it, who to call, what’s in style, how to dress, when to show up, or why what they sell is important. We, as consumers, are manipulated daily by advertising. We hear which product is “better, cheaper, faster” through TV, radio, billboards, Internet pop-ups, and emails. We are so bombarded that the industry has had to test new ways to grab their audience. Great ads are one reason many people watch the Superbowl. Ask the class for examples of effective advertising, as this often is a favorite subject for our students. The printing press made it possible to reach a mass audience. The industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries created the need for marketing and advertising. In the 20th century travel, communication, and technology continue to feed the need for graphic design.
![[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],© 2010, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Chapter Ten Graphic Design](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/getl9epptchap10-101201171215-phpapp01/85/Getl9e-ppt-chap10-1-320.jpg)
