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IAT 102 Graphic Design

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General Info

Break

Brief intro to Graphic Design

Prehistory of Visual Communication

Intro: Lab Activity and Project #1

What is Graphic Design?

As a practice, it has been around for thousands of years…

Dictionary Definition

graph·ic |ˈgra-fik|adjective

1: of or relating to the pictorial esp. involving drawing, engraving, or lettering2: of or relating to the art of printing 3: formed by writing, drawing, or engraving

de·sign |di-ˈzīn|verb

1: to conceive or execute a plan2: to draw, lay out, or prepare a design

Applications of Graphic Design

Logotype

Logotype

Logotype

“Los Logos”, Gestalten, 2002

Logotype

Logotype

Posters

Shepard Fairy

Armin Hofmann, Switzerland

Jan Lenica, Poland

Books

Fonts

Fonts

Information

Information Design

Harry Beck, London Tube Map, 1931

Movie titles

Interfaces

... and many more:

... and many more:

- Webdesign- Package Design- Magazine Design- Game Design

Why is Graphic Design important?

Graphic designers use visual means to lead users through information.

Why is Graphic Design important?

Graphic designers help humans better understand information in the world.

…while making it pleasurable during the process!

Graphic Design has a “Function”

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Graphic Design is “Form”

Old thinking

“Typically, graphic designers provide the spit and polish but not the shoe.”

(Form)

Graphic designer often served as the ‘lubricant’ for other disciplines:

product design

architecture

fashion

and as the ‘gloss and glitter’ of the media industries:

publishing

film

television

internet

Old thinking

Graphic designers today have become producers, creating products, furniture, garments, textiles, typefaces, databases, magazines, novels, music, critical essays, films and videos.

(Form and Function)

New thinking

Involves thinking and creative process related to idea generation and informed design decision-making.

Design Process

Graphic Design is grounded in fundamental principles that underpin good and efficient design.

Design Principles

Human perception: most humans - those with normally functioning eyes and brains - perceive and comprehend information similarly.

Understanding basic principles of cognitive psychology

How Graphic Designers Think

“Building Blocks” essential to good graphic design:

Shape and Form

Spatial Awareness (layout and grid systems)

Typography: understanding what type is and how to work with it

Dynamics, Emphasis and Contrast

Using Colour for emphasis, orientation or decoration

Graphic design’s relation to technological change

The formal aspects such as character, idea & quality of design changes as technology changes.

Historically, designers are employed to represent technological change & to make it understandable to non-specialists.

Design (style) reflects changing cultural values in relation to technological change.

As technology changes, the way design is produced, reproduced, distributed and understood also changes.

Prehistory

Images taken from: Megg’s History of Graphic Design and Jubert’s Typography and Graphic Design

Early Calendar (30,000 - 20,000 B.C.) found in Dordogne, France

A sequence of incisions on animal bone. The incisions are believed to have been used to record phases of the moon (interpretation is open to debate).

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1st Writing Tools? - over 200,000 years ago

Above: Paleolithic bones incised with a series of lines.Below: Pieces (churinga) of carved stone and wood with abstract patterns, Australia.

1st Animation - Grotte de Lascaux (means “Cave of Lascaux” in French)

Cave painting from Lascaux (c. 15,000 - 10,000 B.C.)

Random placement and shifting scale signify prehistoric people’s lack of structure and sequence in recording experience.

Cradle of Civilization (c. 6000 B.C.) - current day Iraq

1st Writing (c. 3100 B.C.) - pictographic pre-cuneiform tablet (clay)

Early accountants: shows number of cows (“V” with curve on top) and sheep (cross within a circle)

Early Grids (c. 3100 B.C.) - early Sumerian pictographic tablets

The archaic pictographic script contained the seeds for thedevelopment of writing. Information is structured into grid zonesby horizontal and vertical division.

Better Writing, Better Grids (c. 2360 B.C.) - cuneiforms

Cuneiform writing contains phonetic + syllabic elements which provided a flexible way of communication. This led to marked improvements in agricultural production + science advancement.

Cuneiform tablets (c. 2700 B.C.) - detailapprox. 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches.

Egyptian stone relief hieroglyphs (c. 1450 B.C.) - detail

Written hieroglyphics were simplified, but they maintained their pictographic origin.

Samples of Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Egyptian writing systems - a visual evolutionary history

Hieroglyph for “scribe” - depicted the Old Kingdom palette, the drawstring sack for dried ink cakes, and a reed brush holder.

Evolution from hieroglyph to script

c. 2700 B.C. hieroglyphicc. 1500 B.C. hieroglyphic manuscript handc. 1300 B.C. hieratic script c. 400 B.C. demotic script

Egyptian papyrus sample (c. 1400 B.C.)

Chart of Ancient Alphabets

Early writing systems - evolution of form

The Koran (Muslim)

Arabic

East Indian Sanskrit

Chinese writing of prescription formulas (1108 A.D.)

Gutenberg’s moveable Type in Europe (1453-1455 A.D.)

metal type

fin