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| Visual communication created to show the thoughts of graphic designers Blari Frame and Sangita Kumari |
What is Graphic Design?
The term ‘Graphic Design’ may be easily explained by breaking up each word. “Graphic”, describes anything that is visual. “Design” on the other hand, is creating something that has a function. In the words of AIGA, “Graphic design is a creative process that combines art and technology to communicate ideas”. (Poggenpohl, 1993)
A graphic designer is responsible for using a combination of images and type in order to make a person react. The idea of graphic design is to convey a message, either by educating, informing or advertising. Graphic design can be displayed in a variety of media and forms. Yet the most powerful way of communicating is through images.
Nowadays we are surrounded by the uses of graphic design that we don’t even stop to think about what we are experiencing. The most common uses of graphic design are posters, advertisements, products and their packaging, publications as well as signs.
History of Graphic Design
William Addison Dwiggins is the first person to coin the term graphic design in 1922, in order to describe his various activities in printed communications.
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| Cave Drawings found at Lascaux (France), c. 15-12,000 BCE |
However I feel that the use of visual communication began much before. In fact early forms of visual communication such as petroglyphs date back to cave designs drawn between 16,000 and 10,000 BCE found at Lascaux (France), Altamira (Spain) and other locations. The uses of repetition found in these cave drawings and the fact that they reproduced images over and over again simply reminds me of design today and how we still do the same things (such as symbols and signs). (Clottes, 2002)
Why man suddenly started producing images is still baffling historians to this day. However the use of writing was a necessity that man needed in order to record information. The Sumerian cuneiform, the Egyptians’ hieroglyphs, and then the Latin alphabet met this need. The use of writing was simply an important visual aspect for the growing populations. (Nguygen, 2008)
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| Sumerian Cuneriform |
In the 9th century, the Chinese came up with woodblock printing, and the movable type followed in the 10th. By the 15th century these techniques made their way to Europe, where later in the same century Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press. In fact I believe that the power to experiment with images and type began with the printing press and its ability and potential to print ink onto another medium.
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| Page printed by Gutenbergs Press |
The creativity and desire of man has led to the development of visual communication, with new discoveries taking place around us all the time. Graphic design has an extremely vast history and as the world continues to change so will the way we choose to visually communicate thoughts and ideas to the people around us.
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| Madison Avenue surrounded by visual imagery |
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| Moma Advertising in the subways |
Bibliography
Clottes, J., 2002. Meanings of Paleolithic Cave Art. [Online] Available at: http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/clottes/page7.php [Accessed 3 October 2014].
Nguygen, D., 2008. History of Printing. [Online] Available at: http://www.culture-4-travel.com/history-of-printing.html [Accessed 3 October 2014].
Poggenpohl, S.H., 1993. Graphic Design: A Career Guide and Education Directory. Illustrated ed. Michigan: American Institute of Graphic Arts.
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