What is graphic design?
Well, we're all designers, so we should know shouldn't we? If only life were that simple.
Remember that essay, dissertation or thesis where you had pull a definition of design from somewhere? Design Talkboard has decided to see how many different definitions of the term we can find. We have chosen 5 quotes that we feel sum up what graphic design is all about. Tell us what you think about our suggestions, by voting or joining in the discussions, such as What is Graphic Design? in the design talk forums.
Or submit your own suggestions. Like much good design, they don't have to be original suggestions - or even modern - let's just get a good collection together.
You may also want to read our discussion of different graphic design job descriptions within the design industry.
Design Talkboard's
- Top 5 definitions of graphic design
(in no particular order).
- "Since prehistoric times, people have searched for ways to give visual form to ideas and concepts, to store knowledge in graphic form, and to bring order and clarity to information. Over the course of history, these needs have been filled by various people including scribes, printers, and artists. It was not until 1922, when the outstanding book designer William Addison Dwiggins coined the term ‘graphic design’ to describe his activities as an individual who brought structural order and visual form to printed communications, that an emerging profession received an appropriate name."
MEGGS. Philip, B.A - History of Graphic Design
- "Graphic design is a popular art and a practical art, an applied art and an ancient art. Simply put, it is the art of visualizing ideas."
Jessica Helfand - AIGA What is graphic design?
- "The practice or profession of designing print or electronic forms of visual information, as for an advertisement, publication, or website."
Dictionary.com
- "The process and art of combining text and graphics and communicating an effective message in the design of logos, graphics, brochures, newsletters, posters, signs, and any other type of visual communication. Today's graphic designers often use desktop publishing software and techniques to achieve their goals."
About.com
- Graphic design is the most universal of all the arts. It is all around us, explaining, decorating, identifying; imposing meaning on the world... Without graphic design's process and ingredients - structure and organisation, word and image, differentiation - we would have to receive all our information by the spoken word. We would enter another Dark Ages, a thousand years of ignorance, prejudice, superstition and very short lifespans.
Quentin Newark - What Is Graphic Design?
Agree or disagree with our choices? Vote for your favourite, have your say, or give your own definition of design in the talk forums. To do so, you will need to register a new account, unless you are already a talkboard forum member, in which case you can login.
Some related topics you may be interested in.
Graphic design jobs descriptions – A primer on the many different roles and job descriptions for designers in the modern creative industry.
Graphic Design Training – Reviews of design software tutorials on CD, DVD and on the web.
History of desktop publishing – An article examining the early days and development of DTP and its efects on designers.
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