What is Graphic Design Graphic Design Essentials Graphic

What is Graphic Design? Graphic Design Essentials

Graphic Design is the business of making or choosing marks and arranging them on a surface to convey an idea.

Graphics can be: 1. Like letters of the alphabet WORDS 2. Or a pictorial sign system IMAGES

Usually words & images are used together in varying degrees

3 Main Roles of Graphic Design

1. Identification To say what something is, or where it came from (company logos, packaging and labels)

2. Information & Instruction To indicate the relationship of one thing to another in direction, position and scale (maps, diagrams, directional signs)

3. Presentation & Promotion To catch the eye and make its message memorable (posters and advertisements)

EARLIEST GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Visual communication in its widest sense has a long history that can be traced back to prehistoric men

PRINTMAKING / MASS PRODUCTION • Printing resulted in a far more democratic distribution of knowledge, opinion, and imagery—a truly revolutionary development • Resulting in graphic art for the public

14 th Century Albrecht Dürer: 17 th Century Rembrandt Van Rijn Francisco Goya

Posters and Publications: The Art Gallery of the Street • By the second half of the 19 th century, the range of mass-produced graphic illustration had expanded to include posters, literary journals, soft covered books, advertisements and political leaflets.

18 th Century Henri Toulouse-Lautrec 19 th Century Aubrey Beardsley Alphonse Mucha

Graphic Design as a Profession As a profession, graphic design has existed only since the middle of the 20 th century, until then, advertiser’s and their agents used the services provided by commercial artists

TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY GRAPHICS • Increasing numbers of artists from the end of the nineteenth century to the present were enlisted to create advertising publicity for consumer goods, services, and institutions • At first, some of the resulting advertisement graphics followed the fine-art styles of the day added a sense of sophistication to turn-of-thecentury ads

Is Graphic Art also Fine Art? Intention Communication Approach Origin of Idea Artist Graphic Artist Self-expression Communication Poetic and personal Clear and precise One’ self From a client They are two sides of the same coin=ART

The Language of Graphic Design

Elements of art �Visual tools used to create an art �The various visual elements are the vocabulary with which the visual artist composes. These elements in the overall design usually relate to each other and to the whole art work. 1. 2. 3. 4. LINE SHAPE FORM COLOR 5. VALUE 6. SPACE 7. TEXTURE

Principles of Art 1. Balance 2. Focus/Emphasis 3. Gradation/Contrast 4. Harmony/Unity 5. Movement 6. Pattern 7. Proportion 8. Repetition 9. Rhythm 10. Variety

The NEW Elements • Computer software organizes visual material into menus properties, parameters, filters, and so on, creating tools that are universal in their descriptive power – Computer programs such as Adobe Photoshop has given us NEW DESIGN elements/universals: • Transparency • Layering

TRANSPARENCY • A condition in which two or more surfaces or substances are visible through each other – construct thematic relationships – Compositional device • Soften edges, establish emphasis, separate competing elements

LAYERING • Compositing through the ability of having different levels in one digital document