Decoding the Definition of Design

On my first day of Intro to Graphic Design (a college course offered at Brigham Young University – Idaho), the instructor prompted discussion by suggesting the question: what is graphic design? It’s not abnormal for teachers to do this, so students began suggesting a variety of answers. “Visual Communication!” someone called out. “And what is that? my teacher responded. Fiddling to find the words to describe her thought process, the student winded down to the conclusion that visual communication is something communicated visually. Prime.

The next student: “Creating images like illustrations.”

And the suggestions kept coming, “Designing logos and letter head for businesses.”

“Using computers to create visually appealing stuff.”

The list goes on.

Answer after answer, the professor would stop students and respond with follow up questions “So how does this make graphic designers any different than painters, print makers, or illustrators?” he would say, “Is that all?”, “Can you give me an example?” In part, playing the devils advocate and also assuring the students that he himself was just as curious to know the answer, my teacher kept questioning the answers.

I became a little frustrated. What is the answer? Well this professor concluded we would hopefully discover the answer through completing the course.

What I’m trying to illustrate is that graphic design is hard to define. Sure, you can find it’s entry in a dictionary, but what does the definition really mean? What do graphic designers do? How is their work effective? What constitutes a good design?

Graphic design serves as a component in so many things and covers so many areas that it’s hard to verbally describe. Simply defined, any of the suggestions my classmates gave would surely suffice. However, my intention in developing this blog is to define graphic design. And more than that to determine what makes good graphic design.

I’m writing to students hoping to discover more about the technique of graphic design whether it’s used in advertising, logo design, book covers, t-shirts, products, packages photos, you name it. I want this blog to become of source for people interested in graphic design with little experience or who just want to know more. I hope for you to gain insights on the creative process behind producing graphics and laying out designs.

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Here is a video with voice over from Paul Rand giving a bit of insight into what graphic design is.

Design “is the synthesis of form and content” –Paul Rand

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Along the lines of defining graphic design, Veerle a graphic design blogger issued a contest back in 2008 challenging designers to create a poster depicting what they think graphic design is. I was looking through the winners of the ‘What is Graphic Design Poster Contest’ and wasn’t all too impressed with the majority of them (that goes to show how quickly the design field changes). But below are my two favorites and the reasons why they make a good example of graphic design. I’ll talk about a few of their strengths and weaknesses.

9th Prize - Submitted by Glen Craig

When beginning a design project there are several things that need to be taken into consideration. Just as you would in beginning a writing piece, you need to think of your audience and purpose. These posters were designed with the intent to give somewhat of a definition of graphic design to Veerle, the contest host who would also, as she put it, be “the judge and jury” in critiquing the submissions.

9th Prize:This design to the left, I also believe is targeting other graphic designers (a group Veerle, too, is a part of). He appeals to them by creating the image of MAC shortcuts used in design programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. He also makes a creative play with this images by labeling them as points in the design process, specifically emphasizing how a project is altered by clients to depict the graphic designer/client conflict.

This was a smart concept for the audience. Other graphic designers can relate to the tension of creating a project that is something the designer feels is design worthy and how the client feels about it.

15th Prize: This next one, I really like. It has very strong resonance with me. I don’t need to see the tip of the sharpened pencil to know that it’s pointy. It’s evident from the shreds of pencil left over. It’s also easy to apply the sentence right away without additional explanation. The artist is saying that graphic design portrays an message well. This is one of the most important components of design. Enough said.

15th Prize - Submitted by Dan Mall