Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Original:
1998
GRAPHIC DESIGN
(Year 11 and Year 12 Art and Art & Design)
This document is part of a series of documents developed to assist teachers with the delivery of a range
of studio areas.
The materials presented are adapted for use in Art and Art & Design from documents developed by the
Education Department for Unit Curriculum.
Revision of document:
Jodine McBride
Art Work:
Celeste Rossi
for their input into developing this document for use in the postcompulsory Art and Art & Design
subjects.
Special thanks to Robin Pascoe, Senior Curriculum Officer at the Education Department for facilitating
use of the materials and members of the Art syllabus committee for assistance in developing the
documents.
It is hoped that teachers will find the information on the particular studio area and associated briefs of
use in the delivery of both Art and Art & Design.
Students studying Graphic design need to understand and learn the disciplines associated with the
graphic field. They need to draw upon their experience in the real and visual world. Students should
be encouraged to look at what is occurring in the industry and learn associated skills and techniques
that will help develop their skills in this area. While the encouragement of technology is highly
recommended students should endeavour to use hand skills and drawing techniques to develop and
produce a high degree of their work. Students should be given the opportunity to produce work in a
two and three-dimensional format.
Graphic design pertains to an image of picture whereas design is a process. Images and pictures
involve knowledge, logic, analysis and deduction. This combination of artists and scientist, left
hemisphere and right, occurs when we are senders of visual messages. Graphic design allows students
to creatively problem solve through intuition, knowledge, experimentation, working through
arrangements, projects and processes which lead to associations, appreciation and further
developments.
Students need to be aware of our design world that is how design criteria have shaped the environment
and culture. Graphic design is a conscious and intuitive process which relates decision making to
materials, technology, function, form, style, aesthetics, economics, environment, all to satisfy a
specified visual need.
The visual language of graphic design is used to communicate a body of information or an idea. The
success of a graphic design piece is how effectively the viewer experiences that body of information or
idea. Graphic design is not a form of self-expression; it is a visual translation of a message. It is an
idea made visible and indelible, making the connection between the eye and the mind, sight and
insight.
Historically graphic design has only emerged as a distinct discipline in its own right over the last sixty
years or so. This newly acquired independence from traditional arts and their constraints came about
primarily as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Commerce and industry created a competitive market
environment that generated the need for communication to capture consumer needs and wants.
Graphic designers draw together elements of art and craft, commerce and industry. William Morris
founded a firm whose products challenged the quality of mass-produced goods. His firm produced fine
quality fabrics, furniture, stained glass and books which married art and craftsmanship with quality
execution. While William Morris challenged mass production and the standards it implied, the
Bauhaus School taught the integration of beauty and utility. Walter Gropius expressed it as: 'Our
object was to eliminate the drawbacks of the machine without sacrificing any one of its real
advantages... our ambition was to rouse the creative artist from his other worldliness and to reintegrate
him into a workaday world of realities and, at the same time, to broaden and humanise the rigid, almost
exclusively material mind of the business man.
Along with the growth of commerce, industry and technology, populations grew and concentrated,
creating distinct visual problems. While commerce and industry pose many of the visual problems
solved by graphic designers, society also poses visual problems in areas such as education, culture,
public spaces and social services.
On an idealistic level, graphic designers are not scribes translating the verbal or written into visual
language, they will add to the message a credibility which is achieved because the medium is
predominantly understood and used as the source of information upon which a decision is made.
Graphic designers generate ideas and tactics to influence decisions. This makes the difference between
propaganda and graphic design, one of ethics. In this way, graphic designers support or reject bodies
As individuals we are subjected to between fifteen hundred and two thousand visual messages per day.
Consider that a department store carries around three hundred thousand different articles. We are
exposed to a greater number of visual messages than at any previous era in time. Imagery has
overtaken the written word in the communication of messages and ideas to the point where eighty per
cent of all information is acquired visually. To illustrate this, U.S. News and World predicts that by the
year 2000 two-thirds of the adult population in the USA will be functionally illiterate. One hundred
and fifty million people will not be able to understand or comprehend the written word. No longer are
graphic devices used in multi-language situations, but in non-language situations. Our reliance on
visual rather than written content is no longer a trend, it is a reality.
Pictorial representations preceded words giving rise to a visual language that is maintained and
extended. This visual language, so predominant in our environment, creates a visual literacy, which
largely determines the types of images used by graphic designers to communicate their message. The
role of the graphic designer is to communicate effectively in an already saturated visual world.
The visual environment as with any environment can be polluted. The largest contributing factor to
visual pollution is graphics that are poorly designed and executed.
Symbols
Signage
Packaging
Posters
Books, catalogues, brochures
Dunlop
Advertising
Television graphics
Cinema graphics
Other areas while involving graphic design concepts belong to other sections of the design spectrum.
These include:
Cartography
Textile design
Exhibition design
Ceramic graphics
Line
Shape
Tone
Texture
Type
Colour
Through perception of our visual world, students learn about the history of graphic design and to
describe, analyse, interpret, and evaluate. They learn to make aesthetic judgements and express them.
Regardless of whether or not students continue with graphic design, the skills acquired through
appreciation have a wide application in life.
Mechanism can be introduced where personal judgements, personal opinions are arrived at only after
the process of observation, analysis, and description has taken place.
Drawing
Basic shapes
Basic perspective
one point two point three point
Size
Overlapping
Form
Shading
Contour
Gesture
Geometry
Emphasis
Record
Investigation
Experiment
For the graphic designer, three main factors determine a symbol and its Mimmo
effectiveness:
Shape
Representation
Context
The shape of the symbol determines the practicability of the graphic mark, which still has to be
instantly recognisable even when reproduced in a small size and in one colour. This faithful
reproduction of a symbol in a variety of applications is the cornerstone of most corporate identity
programs.
In all cases, a shape can be described and translated and therefore responded to. A pictorial or
illustrative symbol tells a story; an abstract or geometric symbol communicates a dynamic impression.
Graphic designers assess the graphic mark in relation to what it represents by general consent.
The application of symbols into the visual environment requires careful management to ensure it
communicates the qualities it was designed for. From the use of a symbol on a letterhead to the
association with a sports event, the symbol's significance is affected.
The purpose of signage is to provide orientation and direction. With increasing travel and traffic,
signage for pedestrian and vehicular traffic is required to give people information. The integration of
colour, form, symbols and typography, meeting criteria of legibility that is set by factors of distance,
fighting, height and size impart information.
Most signage incorporates symbols as an element in the design. A range of symbols form universal
signage systems to accommodate people of all cultures. Consistency and education are keys to the
effectiveness of most signage programs, however, this is particularly true for safety signage.
! Location
! Economy
GRAPHI CS
How would you recognise a fireman if it were not for his uniform? Packaging is visual identification
to achieve recognition. Packaging evolved from two considerations:
Every product, through graphic design, has an identity that establishes the product's desirability,
function and value for the customer/user. Confirming what is inside, together with establishing a link
between producer and consumer, forms the basis of a packaging brief. Since a major consideration of
packaging involves discerning one package from another, mass target and producers who assimilate
packaging into needs and preferences of consumers address niche markets.
Further considerations for graphic designers involved in the packaging area include:
1. Legibility.
2. Construction. While some packaging needs to facilitate easy unpacking, other packaging needs to
provide security to guard against or eliminate tampering, contamination or leakage.
3. Economy.
4. Ecology ( economy and ecology derive from the word 'eco' meaning house).
5. With mobility of both people and products, directions and instructions need to communicate
effectively. Colours and symbols in the form of pictograms are employed to direct, warn and
instruct. Pharmaceutical and chemical products need special attention since their misuse is still a
frequent cause of death.
The poster is perhaps one of the most well-known and understood of the graphic design areas. It distils
elements of graphic design into a potent form of communication.
The influence of the Japanese prints introduced the unity of pictorial and typographic elements. With
the introduction of lithographic reproduction techniques, in the 1850s, the poster became a popular
form of communication. Artists like Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Matisse, Forain, amongst others,
promoted the poster as art for the people.
Drawing is more about a process of 'seeing' than the making of marks. If we wish to draw something
we must 'see' it, we must process visual information differently to understand it. Teachers need to
increase students' skills in drawing to enable them to understand the basic elements of graphic design
and to communicate visually.
As Matisse so aptly described the process: 'When I eat a tomato I look at it the same way anyone else
would. But when I paint a tomato, I see it differently'.
The fundamentals of representation, serve equally whether drawing a landscape or designing a poster.
However a landscape will intensify or change one's perception of reality, which is a primary function
of art, and the poster will convey to an audience a body of information, which is a primary function of
graphic design.
Teachers need to communicate the difference between the two 'drawings'. Students need a basal level
of drawing skills not for drawings as an end product, but as part of the design process. The mastery of
the basics is a requirement for all graphic designers. We visualise or illustrate our thinking and ideas
through drawings. Communication through drawings provides the elementary vehicle for graphic
design.
Emphasis is placed on understanding each other's message, so our thinking can be shared. The drawn
elements in a finished graphic piece are considered as illustration or diagrammatic and like
photography are often crafted through different techniques or brought in from another source. The
situation of I can draw/I can't draw is circumnavigated by this emphasis.
Further to the 'can't' draw issue is the following excerpt from a curriculum framework R-12 - Education
Department of South Australia.
'Some writers on the stages of development have equated adolescence with a stage of artistic
repression, which is characterised by the child's rejection of making art, but this is now believed to
occur only if children are not given adequate and sympathetic training at this crucial time.
Adolescents who have been guided past this stage are then also ready to develop awareness of formal
qualities, learn historical and technical knowledge, and develop practical, critical and evaluative
skills. If given sequential and consistent experience, all children are capable of producing works of
individuality and of talking and writing about their work and the work of others.'
Typography deals with controlling and distributing type and space to maximise the reader's
understanding of a text.
Typestyle
Type hierarchy
Space
There are hundreds of existing typestyles and more are being developed. From script to block, from
condensed to extended, each has their own feel. The setting of words in different typestyles is used by
designers to determine a feeling that supports communication. For example the word dog can be
written as:
Type is meant to be read. The graphic designer should anticipate the reader and ensure that the type
will be tailored and arranged in a type face and size to suit. Sometimes, however, material is intended
to be noticed, typography is therefore designed to survive inattention, especially in highly competitive
environments.
Type is divided into two groups Serif and Sans Serif. Serif are type faces with a serif whereas sans
means without.
Aa Aa
Serif Sans Serif
Nearly all typefaces have a family of bold, medium, light and italic forms; further variations may
include condensed and extended forms. Through the use of families of type as well as the introduction
of other faces, hierarchy can be established. For example, a headline in bold capitals or phrases in
large italics give emphasis.
The graphic designer needs to analyse a body of text and allocate levels of importance. Traditionally
the larger the body of information, the more points of entry is required to engage the reader. Magazine
design, through highlighting with size, space, and typestyle, can deliver information as primary,
secondary and tertiary text. The structures are placed to engage a reader whether the reader is flicking
through, browsing or reading.
Second to typeface is space. Space between letters is kerning, between lines is line spacing. Space
around text is used to maximise legibility. The body of the text can be centred, ranged left, ranged
right or justified (ranged both left and right).
The subtleties of typography are such that there are degree courses devoted to the subject. For students
of graphic design in lower secondary schools, a working knowledge of typography should include:
Spacing
GRAPHI CS
An arrangement of elements within a field or image area is a layout. Composition expresses rhythm,
proportion, movement, tension, organisation, and aesthetics.
The graphic designer working through the design process together with a format determines which
elements are to be composed.
Elements include:
Shapes
Space
Illustration
Fine Art
Photography
Typography
Diagrams
Charts
Plans
Maps
Colour
Line
Texture
Singularly or in combinations, the above elements are positioned and sized according to the purpose of
the piece. The variations are numerous and hours of work can go into establishing the layout. With
practice, many arrangements can be done mentally, many variations can be visualised before a design
is committed to paper.
For example, a headline is placed and sized to impart its message from a distance, thus the message is
placed in such a way as to maximise the visual impact. In most cases composition is based on
traditional arrangements to meet the requirements of function and aesthetics. The understanding of the
rules, which determine traditional arrangements, together with experimentation, leads to a successful
layout.
The rules of traditional arrangements involve the use of a grid. A grid is physically drawn in a field
and then the various elements are placed within the grid.
Once the elements have been arranged, the visual format is apparent even though the guidelines have
been removed. The application of the grid system arranges, and at the same time relates, all elements
such as text and illustration from the front cover of a book to the back.
This consistency reflects a clarity and simplicity, which engages the reader. What elicits excitement,
surprise and provides compelling graphic design, more often than not, is found in the elements
themselves such as illustration, photography and colours.
Once established, the maintenance of a grid may involve the editing of text or writing the text to fit a
grid. Graphic designers direct photography and illustration to fit a layout, as well as to fit the brief.
Thumbnails
These note the basic composition that forms the basis of a layout. Students should be encouraged to
use working drawings before producing highly refined visuals. Like ideas, working drawings should
number more than one. Sketches in fine art, or drafts in writing are numerous. Even Pablo Picasso did
up to twenty sketches for one piece. The most effective way to do layouts is by trying variations; keep
a copy of each variation as a guide to the next one; or as confirmation that one particular layout is the
most appropriate solution.
The focusing muscles of the eye move about 100 000 times a day. To give the leg muscles the same
exercise would involve walking 80 km (50 miles) a day. The retina inside the eye covers about 650
mm2 (1 sq in) and contains 137 million light-sensitive cells: 130 million rod cells for black-and-white
vision; and 7 million cone cells for colour vision.
Physically, light is a band of electromagnetic radiation. Each colour has a different wavelength and
frequency. There are 9 000 000 colours (LOVIBOND), however, our optics perceive colour as a blend
of red, blue, green and yellow, similar to the printing of any colour image which is made up of four
colours: magenta, cyan (blue), black and yellow.
Colours, like symbols can provide similes, analogies and metaphors. For instance, green in traffic
lights signifies go, red translates as stop, whereas red in many living things means danger, such as the
back of a red-back spider.
In the main, computers in graphic design aid in the production or implementation phase of the design
process. In graphic design most initial ideas are still being done using pencil and paper.
Once ideas have been generated, the computer may be used as a tool to produce graphic design pieces.
Currently, the use of computers predominates in the area of typography. Using popular typefaces the
designer can change size, leading and layout instantly. Characters can be manipulated letter by letter or
large sections of text can be altered, edited or added to.
Overall, the technology available in the areas of typography, picture reproduction and manipulation,
and printing removes much of the labour involved; however, like public transport, computers are
valuable only when you know where you want to go.
The book is unique as a prolific format communicating a large body of information. Pages divide
information into double-page spreads, isolating information but still relating it to the whole. From
spread to spread a visual rhythm that is sympathetic to both the reader and the subject matter is directed
and controlled by the graphic designer. The book cover or jacket becomes both a label and a poster for
the book.
Organising information both down and across pages makes book design challenging. Magazines is
perhaps the most exciting of the graphic design areas.
BRAINSTORMING RESEARCH
At this stage the designer finds out exactly what the clients requirements are. They extensively
research old and new ideas about the purpose and function of the product. They may interview, read
and look at other products or companies that are similar. A good designer will find out about the image
the client wants to project. They collect and scribble out ideas about the product and images associated
with the product and the client. In general they become familiar with the who, what and why of the
graphic design function.
THUMBNAILS
Once all the preparation has occurred ideas begin by generating small anecdotal type sketches, this is
called visual investigation. Thumbnails are small quick sketches of an image or object drawn using a
variety of angles and ideas. Thumbnails help you to make decisions about your images and ideas.
These are normally completed in a black and white medium so has not to confuse the basis of a good
design by enhancing it with colour. Several small sketches are made on one or several pages outlining
and showing ideas visually. These ideas should show variety in layout, design, design elements and
principles. Set time limits on these sketches so as not to block creative thinking.
COMPREHENSIVE/COLOUR COMPREHENSIVE
Comprehensive layout is the most complete detailed sketch, generally made on illustration board or
tissue. The layout clearly shows style, size and techniques to be used in the final printed piece. The
comprehensive is drawn to appear like the finished piece.
The design brief takes the form of a written statement, which states the problem to be solved by the
designer.
The designer carries out research to understand the problem and identifies the various factors related to
the problem. This active involvement creates familiarity and is the first step in solving the problem.
Possible Questions
Do I understand the brief.?
To whom is it going?
Economic consideration?
Ecological consideration?
Deadlines?
Social considerations?
Physical/ergonomic factors?
Generation, investigation of ideas is the most exciting part of the design process. It can take the form
of brainstorming. A group of people brainstorming can ignite individual ideas. Brainstorming was an
exploration technique first suggested by Alex Osborn in 1938 and is defined in Webster's dictionary as:
'Practicing a conference technique by which a group attempts to find a solution for a specific problem
by amassing all the ideas spontaneously contributed by its members'.
1. Incentive: The investment of time and effort in thinking must be worthwhile for all involved.
Workability is impaired if it is not established at the outset.
2. Time: Choose a future time for creative thought. This allows everyone to think about the
problem alone before collaborating.
3. Structure: The fun of bouncing ideas back and forth should be informal. Ideas should be noted.
here should be no destructive arguing at this stage-creativity and criticisms are incompatible.
Often the wilder the ideas or more off-beat, the better. Impractical suggestions may trigger
practical ideas.
4. Quantity: The greater the number of ideas, the better. Ideas also help to define the initial aspects
of the problem.
5. Think Alone: After the benefit of initial ideas, individual thinking can result in more, better and
newer ideas. Throughout this phase it is appropriate to consider that most ideas are not private,
or self-generated.
! written lists, which can help students to refer to the initial brief and to expand it with
further associations.
! putting yourself in the position. Familiarity with the brief enables aspects of the problem
and possible solutions to become apparent.
'It would seem apparent that there is no one creative process and there may well be as many creative
processes as there are creative people.'
Visualisation
Imagination
Experimentation
Structures
Priorities
H. HERBERT Fox
The creation of an ideas list allows ideas to be accepted or rejected after careful evaluation and
examination. Comparisons are made between solutions; some solutions are modified or combined or
enlarged. Communication skills are important here. The ability to verbalise and visualise the possible
solutions will be the same as those used to rationalise the chosen design to a client.
Once the possible solutions have been paired down, they may need further development to include the
more physical and practical aspects. Visualisation is used to solve these issues. Teachers need to
develop students' skills in the production of a model of the intended design. The visual should
communicate effectively what the solution is to facilitate the next stage.
Possible Questions
How is the idea to be presented to the audience?
How is the idea to be presented to the client?
How can the ideas be improved?
Can the ideas be simplified?
Can the ideas be more economical?
Environmental issues?
Can the graphic design piece be more aesthetic?
Is the graphic design piece imaginative?
How can I visualise those elements effectively?
How many solutions should be developed?
Still-life Landscapes
Bookcovers Calendars
Stamps Bookbinders
Poster design Decorative boxes and packaging
Logo design Metro signs and graffiti
Packaging Symbols
Newspapers People
Social comment Fashion
Desktop publishing and layout Advertising an event e.g. Olympics
Advertising Famous people
Special edition pages Images of people in action
New money currency
Use more abstract titles to develop ideas and get the students thinking of images and ways to use
them graphically e.g.;
Implementation
Here the design needs to be produced, to accommodate the manufacture or printing of the graphic piece.
Teachers need to develop in students a working knowledge of both 'finished art' and production
Possible questions
Typesetting requirements
Artwork requirements
Printing Requirements
Deadlines
Quantity
The technology, process and complexity of the implementation stage for graphic designers are immense.
Designers should have an intimate knowledge of the capabilities of each area and the limitations they
pose, however, they may never be required to operate a six-colour printing press or computer typeset
whole documents. In response to the involved and complex area of implementation, expertise is brought
in from the ancillary service industries and staff of the graphic design industry. This need is
compounded when graphic designers work on more than one project at a time, which is the rule rather
than the exception. These associated occupations include:
Copywriters
Illustrators
Finished Artists
Computer typesetters
Studio managers
Photographers
Photographic retouchers
Print managers
Scanning and negative preparation
Paper merchants
Printers
Print finishers
Teachers of graphic design in secondary schools should assess to what depth and complexities of the
implementation stage students should be exposed. For example, in the area of typography the basic
specification of size of type can include the following units of measurement
Points
Didot Points
Anglo-American Points
Because of the rapid changes in technology and procedures in the implementation stage, excessive
specialisation should be avoided in favour of a broad understanding and knowledge.
The combinations and permutations of delivering a concept provide many possible solutions.
Compromises or trade-offs are made to navigate through points or factors necessary in answering a brief.
Teachers must guide students not only in the development of ideas and designs, but also in the letting go
of some ideas and designs if ultimately they do not meet with the criteria of the brief. The
temperamental or anguished artist 'thing' is often due to a view point that ideas are self-generated, or
designs are personal, or simply we get too close to a problem or solution. The objectivity of a teacher
will enable a student to have an overview. The teacher may refer back to the initial brief, perhaps
pointing out some factors which undermine the intentions. By using simple logic and looking at cause
and effect, many students will understand what decisions are valid.
Objectivity is often lost when working on one thing for a long period of time. We get too close, or get
wrapped up in things to the point where we simply can not see the wood for the trees. Teachers can
create objectivity by allocating time constraints. Through a program, teachers may introduce more than
one type of learning experience into a unit.
On one hand, the vision of a designer enables work to be successful amidst: 'It can't be done'. On the
other hand, listening to others when offering interpretations of the work can enhance a solution. The
graphic designer needs to understand that the client is right. The commissioning and acceptance of
graphic design is the domain of the client. Allowing the client to be right may introduce us to ideas or
methods not known to us. The nuances of these skills are as important as the nuances of determining
space in a layout.
VISUAL INQUIRY
! Go on the Yanchep drawing excursion. Draw selected images and scenes.
! Take photographs for reference. Work in a variety of drawing media exploring what effects each
can create when drawing from the environment.
! Select a special area of focus and do several analytical drawings.
! When back in the classroom, develop and explore your drawings further. Develop
experimentations using colour.
! Explore compositions and develop ideas for studio work.
! Look at painting styles and techniques used by graphic artists and designers. Develop layout studies
in conjunction with your own ideas and techniques. Experiment with lettering techniques, you may
use the computer to help you with lettering.
STUDIO
! Draw out selected three images.
! Experiment with compositional layouts and lettering effects.
! Explore final colour selections using appropriate -media and style.
! Draw out design and paint images.
! Add lettering on selected mount format.
! Frame work and present for final presentation.
APPRECIATION
! Look at the work of twentieth century painters and graphic designers.
! Look at stamps and how artists have created images for various themes.
! Look at how various designers and painters have used design elements to create a sense of place in
the their images.
! Experiment with and develop techniques that you particularly like.
! Refer to the work of at least one artist in your developmental work and in your studio work.
51313_1.DOC