This document provides an overview of graphic design by discussing its history as both visual art and commercial art used for advertising. It also examines graphic design as a profession that utilizes visual communication and computer skills to solve design problems. The document explores graphic design as a means to inform and persuade audiences through the effective use of images and type to convey ideas. It suggests graphic design both humanizes society and reveals cultural symbols and signs that have evolved over time.

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

2. Is Graphic Design:
A History
Visual Art
Commercial Art
Advertising
Visual Communication
A Profession
A Set of Computer Skills
?

3. A History

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

6. Visual Art

7. Mel Bochner, 2007

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

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

11. Everything visual

12. Lascaux caves
Japanese Ad, 1806
Book of Kells
Robert Crumb
Harold, date unknown
Found Magazine

13. “Commercial Art”

17. J. M. Flagg, 1917

18. Lester Beall, 1939

20. Advertising

26. 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

27. ... 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

28. 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)

29. “Visual Communication”

54. 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

59. ... 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

60. 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

65. ... 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

67. 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

70. ... and to beautify.
creates civic pride
elevates aesthetic pleasure and creative thinking
humanizes

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

72. Big Questions

73. What is the goal of an education in graphic design?

74. Can graphic design be taught?

75. Can graphic design be learned?

76. When does one become a graphic designer?