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Kendall 1 The Evolution of Graphic Design Due to Technology What is graphic design? What do graphic designers do?

What is involved with graphic design? But the more important question is, is graphic design considered an art? There are many opinions and thoughts on what graphic design is and there are also many opinions and thoughts of what art are too. Art is such a broad topic and often cannot be narrowed down to one particular definition or overall idea and theme. So with this said, can graphic design be either? Graphic Design has been a around for years, as has art. Without graphic design there would be no movie posters for new movie premiers, no logos for new companies and brands, and no newspapers ads for your favorite things, a long with many other things. Numerous things you look at through out your day, has graphic design incorporated into it one way or another. Art covers a large range of ideas and rules. There are elements of art, which are line, shape and form, value, space, color, and texture. And then there are the principles of art, movement, unity, harmony, variety, balance, contrast, proportion, pattern and rhythm. (Lovett, John. The Elements of Design. John Lovett Website. Australia, 1999. Web. 09 Mar. 2013.) Art is made up of all of these

Kendall 2 characteristics. Whether it is a sculpture, a pottery piece, a drawing, a painting, or an advertisement, they all include one of these rules to be considered art. In order to conform an opinion on what graphic design is and how it ahs changed with technology it is important o understand how graphic design has changed over the years. Throughout the years has graphic design still been considered art? Has the technology change its meaning today? In the early days of graphic design, everything was done manually by hand. Every circle drawn to ever letter written was all rendered by the designer, themselves; all the paintings, drawings, idea generating, literally everything. (Carter ,Rob, Day, Ben, Moggs, Philip. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) Often wondered how old books were printed when there was no computers or typewriters? Well using a letterpress printed them. Every letter to character written had to be manually set by hand. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) Now days, however, we use a simple tool called a computer that does it for us. Because we have computers now does the product change? Well a little, maybe in quality and it is now a little easier but the same idea is being generated, thus resulting in more or less the same product. That was art then, so isnt this art now? Whether is designed on the computer or by hand, the product involves one of the previously stated rules making it art. There are many elements that graphic design covers. Image based design, type based design, and then a combination of both, image and type based design,

Kendall 3 and there is also symbol and logo based design. (Poggenpohl H. Sharon. Graphic Design: A Career Guide and Education Directory. AIGA. The American Institute of Graphic Arts. 1993. Web. 09 Mar. 2013). Graphic Design changes with technology. Because of print technology, graphic design is now a whole new evolved field from what print use to mean. Ever wonder how books began? How people were able to read the, and where they got them? Before painting, books were in fact copied by hand, page by page. People called scribes, filled the duty of book copying and because of this, very few books existed, and the books that did exist were written mostly about religious subjects. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) One of the first printing techniques used before the 15th century was called the woodblock print, which is also more popularly known as relief priming. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) This printing technique is very similar to what we know today, as a rubber stamp. The only difference being the art in which needed to be printed was carved of wood rather than rubber. With a woodblock print an artist cannot achieve very distinct details but rather subtle larger detail and the art piece was also only monotone, meaning one color. There was no way of achieving multiple tones when using this technique. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) Typography is a key element in graphic design and has been around for a very long time. When writing something, it has not always been so easy to just sit

Kendall 4 down at a computer and type away at a letter, etc. People use to have to use the Punch and Mold method. Individual characters (letters) were carved out of steel and then a brass replica was made. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) Then molten lead was poured into the new replica and when hardened, an exact duplicate was created. Although this process took a very long time to make and render, it was in fact, much faster than copying a book by hand, because it was reusable. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) Once Gutenberg popularized this method, it took off. Not only were characters and symbols created on a single block but soon common words were created also to save time when laying out everything to print. All individual characters on their block were put together, side by side, to be printed. Once down all type had to be put together, back in order, allowing an easy going second time around. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) In these early years a printer couldnt just be a printer like we know of today but also had to be fluent in the work with metal, had to know the characteristics of type, they also had to be the designer and editor, as well as the publisher. With the new faster printing technique taking off, the demand for books increased. No longer were books to be printed on parchment (sheep hide) and vellum (calf skin) but a cheaper element was needed. Paper was invented. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.)

Kendall 5 "Intaglio printing came next. An artist artwork was carved into a copper plate. The ink would be squeezed into all carved indentions and then onto the paper, revealing the printed art piece. Surprisingly enough some intaglio printing is still used today in the world of printing money and postage stamps. Intaglio was an important step forward in the graphic design world because now larger prints could be created and fine detail could be achieved and attained. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) Lithography was just around the corner. Artists drew on pourus stone using a greasy pencil. The printer applied ink to only the greasy areas of the stone and created a divide (the drawn artwork part) because ink and water do not mix. And then like the previous methods, this was transferred to a sheet of paper, revealing the created artwork. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) Unlike previous printing techniques lithography allowed the designer to use multiple colors, however each color had to be applied each on a separate stone. The designer must then make sure that the stones matched up perfectly with each other to allow for proper printing. Paper was now fed through the press by hand but by a machine, speeding up the process dramatically. Because of the industrial revolution, a surplus of products was needed, and they needed to be advertised. This helped fuel the printing industry. Because there were no magazines and TV and other ways to advertise, the only way that was

Kendall 6 present was through the reprint of posters and handbills. With the surplus in printing, paper was now being printed on rolls, allowing for another speed up process, stride that was made. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) Here came the rotary press, which is very similar to what we have today. Because of the use of its flat plate and the wrap around style, the printing speed was increased even more. This simple rotary press led to a much larger rotary press that was designed to print newspapers. Eventually powered by steam, printing was on a role. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) The typewriter came next. We all remember playing on our old grandparents typewriter, listening to the clicking and lacking of the keys as we played office and school. Well the typewriter was actually a very neat and groundbreaking invention in the use of technology today. Originally made of wood, it had an attached keyboard that was soon attached too all kinds of machines, cutting down on the time being used. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) And finally, here comes the computer. Software was used to help set up type for designers and actually led up to programs we know of today as word, etc. There was a function called the vanitype that contained all of the type within the computer. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) What was nice about the Vanitype was, that this

Kendall 7 was the first time that changes could be made to type before printing. No longer was a trial and error method needed for type. Again another huge step forward. Only being able to hold up to four fonts at a time, the vanitype was still a huge advancement. Just like the stone lithographer from the past, each color is still printed onto a separate plate when using the computer printing technique. Dry ink printing was another huge stride. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) Electronically charged particles of toner are fused onto paper by the use of heat, which is used in your printer you have in your home today. With the invention of the Macintosh, designers have tool control of type and images all on one desktop, leaving Macintosh the number one designer choice of use today. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) All type created with the computer are of vector drawing, done on the commuter. This type can be scaled to any size at anytime and is just as ways as a click of a button. (Carter ,Rob, et al. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.) As you can see graphic design has changed drastically over the years especially when it comes to the subfield of typography. Because of technology new advancement shave been made and quite great ones I might add. Something that use to take days to create can now only take as much as hours. Just as the world has changed around us, graphic design has too and I feel, it has for the better.

Kendall 8 Everything that has helped graphic design get to where it is today has been based off of the previous piece of technology making each advancement stronger and more suitable to what is needed. Every advancement made in this field because of technology is another advancement made in the world around us. Why sit back and watch the world change, why not change with it? Graphic design is keeping up with the trends.

Kendall 9 Works Cited Lovett, John. Design and Colour. John Lovett Website. 1999. Web. 09 Mar. 2013. http://www.johnlovett.com/test.htm Poggenpohl H. Sharon. What is Graphic Design? The American Institute of Graphic Arts. 1993. Web. 09 Mar. 2013. http://www.aiga.org/guidewhatisgraphicdesign/ Carter Rob, Day Ben, Meggs Philip. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. 5th. New Jersey, Hoboken 2012. Print.

Comments: 1. Consider introducing your authors you are sighting and then providing page #s when complete with the thought and where it came from. 2. Consider adding a few more works to sight within the paper and not rely so heavily on one source. 3. Make sure your header with last name and page # is in the header not the actual text. 4. Consider making changes to the introduction to instead use more of a attention grabber and exciting. (i.e. Remember those movie posters you see as you walk to your seat at the movie theater? How about those flyers for a club or for Warp Tour?)

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