How has technology changed graphic design? Throughout history, graphic design has been constantly developing in the way it looks and how it is created. Since the implementation and use of computers in graphical design the entire creational methods when making most forms of design has changed. Obviously we still use the older methods of creating imagery in today’s art, but because of the use of new technology the choice of methods is constantly expanding. Graphic design, being creative process, is constantly being influenced by technology. Since the creation of computers we have slowly become more and more reliant on them, not only in creative design, but in most aspects of life. To me the invention and implementation of computers is what is truly transforming graphic design. How have the methods in creating graphical design changed throughout history? I am still unaware of how different the methods used to create graphic design have changed so I will be looking into how illustration was created before the implementation of computers. What are the pros and cons to using computer software to create artwork? I want to look into some modern day artists who still use outdated methods to create their work. I also want to look into some articles that are for and against the use of computers I graphic design. I also wonder how much of an effect computers are having on the amount of people interested in creating artwork. Will modern methods of art creations phase out the older traditional methods? Print history also interests me so I want to find out when historical dates as to when print technology first came about. When did the implementation of computers and print technology begin to effect graphical design? To complete my essay I am going research into how print technology was used before computers had been invented and how much of a change computers created. I am also going to look into some artists who work without using modern technology in their designs. I want to find out how different the contemporary methods are nowadays and back before the implementation of print technologies and computers. Computer software is what sparked the computer to be used in design. I will look into when the first illustration software first got implemented and how it has developed to how it is today. How have the methods in creating graphical design changed throughout history? Graphical printing started back in the 7th to 9th century in the Tang Dynasty with wood clock printing. This was followed in 1241 with cast metal printing in Korea and wooden movable type printing in 1300. This was first implemented in china and during the 1300’s the Chinese county office had made around 100,000 wooden movable types
and printed 43 books. This leads onto the first paper that got created in Europe though many believe that the first paper originated in china in the 2nd century AD. After skipping forward a few years you hit the industrial age of printing which starts around 1841 with the first type-composing machine is developed. Moving forward to 1953 and Remington-rand develops the first high-speed printer for use on the Univac computer. This is the first time that we begin to see the use of computers effecting graphic design. Then we enter the early digital printing age. In 1984 HP invents the first laser printer and introduces both inkjet and laser printers for desktops. We begin to see printers becoming much more compact and available which intern begins to influence the creation of design software. Moving forward we see the first 3D printer get introduced in 1996. One of the earliest methods of printing was 'Woodblock Printing'. This was a method of printing text, images or patterns and was extensively used for decorative purposes such as creating wallpapers and fabrics. The process (when first created back in the 1300's) was very time consuming and costly. However, it became the first method of mass-producing using the same block of wood. An example of 'Woodblock Printing'.
In the 19th century we begin to see the separation and creation of graphic design from fine art. In 1849, Henry Cole started to push forward design education in Britain by pushing forward his ideas to the government on the importance of design. We later see
some of the most significant design products in the Arts and Crafts Movement, one of these being William Morris’ Kelmscott Press published books. He made a very lucrative business of creating his books and then selling them to the rich. This proved that the market was ready to accept design, which helped in spear heading the separation from fine arts. One of Morris’ main influences was the style of Art Nouveau. ‘Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that was most popular during 1890–1910’. Art Nouveau was later replaced with modernist 20th century styles but is still considered as one of the milestone transitions between the historicism and modernism styles of design. To me Art Nouveau is one of the major milestones in connecting and creating the genre of graphic design. Art Nouveau means ‘New Art’ and the style was constantly creating new outlandish themes and styles. One of my favourate illustrations that fit under the Art Nouveau genre is biscuits Lefevre, by Alfons Mucha. In my opinion this piece of artwork truly symbolizes the change where modernist styles begin to get used.
An example of Art Nouveau.
We finally see the name ‘Graphic Design’ appearing in print in an essay published in 1922 by William Addison Dwiggins. Even the signage of the London underground helps to symbolize the classic design of the modern era. The underground signs have now become one of the most familiar icons located around London and are now universally understood and recognized by it public not only as a symbol for transport, but all of London. The red, white and blue symbol designed by Edward Johnston in 1918 was created using a typeface that he designed. The early design has more recently been redesigned to create the symbol we know today. I am really interested by how a simple design has truly impacted Britain and become one of the most well known logos around. To me the logo is very minimalistic and really draws on the fact that it simplicity makes it easy to recognize. For the time the symbol even looked modern and stood out because of Edward Johnston’s inactive design ideas. What are the pros and cons to using computer software to create artwork? As the creation of new technology became integrated and implemented into design there have been lots of changes not only in the methods of creation but also by who it is created by. Recently software such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator has made it a lot easier to create your own artwork. Computer software has given practically anyone the tools to create professional artwork from their own home with the use of very few resources. Because of this most schools now offer art and design
courses that specialize in offering students the chance to express their creative intentions. Further back in history people relied on professionals to handle technical aspects when creating design, but this changed, with the implementation of computers in design came the ability for people to create their own illustrations without the need of professional help. Computer based software now brings the design straight to the computers. Typography is the key installment in graphic design, especially when conveying a message through text. As a result, technology has shaped the form of typography, whether it being downloading the fonts that others have created or sharing our own designs for others to see and use. The advancements made in technology also led to new techniques being used when creating effects such as photo manipulations and developments when using brushes or texture in a program like Photoshop. This intern lead to more people creating designs and more people being able to experiment with their creative visions. This meant that due to the almost effortless method of obtaining software amateurs began to take things into their own hands. By using the Internet you can also find informative videos and web pages that help to teach people how to use computer software. Because of the lack of training needed more and more people now use computers to create artwork, professionally or not. In my opinion this is a great thing. I have always been drawn to design through my interest in computers and technology. Without the use of technology like computers in graphic design I would have never been inspired to create my own designs. Here are some examples of artwork that is created using photographs and Photoshop.
An artist that uses Adobe Photoshop as a main method for creating his work is Paul Smith. Most of his work revolves around the manipulation of images to transform his work. Paul Smith captures a persona and tells a story through a singled image by manipulating his photos and he also works a lot with keying the same person into an image over and over again. He then has multiple copies of the same person that he then uses to tell a story. This process involves taking pictures of the same character in different positions within a frame and then collaborating them together. The method of creating designs like this is almost effortless once you have photos and a program like Photoshop. However, due to the fact that programs allow photo manipulation to be so effortless, takes the unique quality away from the outcomes because almost anyone can now create this kind of artwork. Without the use of computers, this method of photo manipulation would be far more exclusive, expensive and time consuming. I really like the work that Paul Smith creates because he finishes his designs to such a good standard. You can see, just from looking at his images, that Paul is a very skilled graphic designer because of his use in lighting, composition, contrast etc. I took inspiration from Paul Smiths work and I even created my own pieces of work in his specific style. I liked the use of multiple versions of the same person in a piece to tell a story. I experimented a lot with this type of photo manipulation on Adobe Photoshop and ended up creating 2 pieces in his type of work both displaying a different scenario and showing different emotions. Shown below are the 2 images I created after being inspired by Paul Smith and other graphic designers that work in the same field.
Will modern methods of art creations phase out the older traditional methods? For me the use of more modern design techniques is essential in the development in graphic design. However, I am left wondering if one day the older more traditional methods, such as painting or drawing, will become so underused that they will eventually become a rare occurrence. I feel that the main reason that computer software in particular is having such a large effect on design is because it is now so regularly available for the general public. I looked into the work created by a painter called David Hockney because he is a painter enjoying new technologies. There is an exhibition in London which showcases how David embraced new technology including his early use of Polaroid use of the colour photocopier, and more recently his iPhone and iPad. David Hockney was born in 1937 and has been considered to be one of the greatest and most influential artists in the 20th century. David's Polaroid collages are worldwide famous, but he his more recent work is also being well received. David uses an app on his iPad called 'Brush'. It can be rare to see a well-established painter so open to embracing and taking advantage of the new opportunities that are created by the use of modern technology in art and design. David said, “I love my iPad. It gives me the chance to carry around all the tools that I need to paint in a pocket sized device.� Hockney also believes that great artists from the past would also be just as enthusiastic as he is about this advanced and easy to use tool. Example of David Hockney’s iPad paintings.
There are still a lot of modern day designers who use off the computer methods of creating their artwork. However, it seems that in most scenarios the work is brought back into the computer when it is printed or photographed. Without such technology the way that artists created their work would be totally different. One of the main differences that we would notice is that becoming a designer/ artist would become a much rarer profession. When did the implementation of computers and print technology begin to effect graphical design? Graphical design, and design in general is constantly developing and changing. Throughout history we see the methods in which people create their artwork advance at different paces. Back when photography wasn’t even an option the only form of recording an event through a visual element would have been to paint or draw what you saw. Because cameras are now used so much to capture a scene and because it take a lot less skill in most scenarios, more and more people have become interested in creating their own artwork and design from their photography. As computing began to advance, we also saw a parallel advancement in computer graphics. We start to see these advancements when a computer called the TX-2 was invented. The TX-2 integrated a number of new man-machine interfaces. A light pen could be used to draw sketches on the computer using sketchpad software, created by Ivan Sutherland. By using the light pen it gave you the opportunity to draw shapes and lines onto the screen that can then be saved and then re-opened later. The light pen works by having a photoelectric tip, which is picked up when the screen and pen get close together. When the pen is placed in front of the screen it sends out a pulse towards the screen. The position of the pen in relation is then correlated by simply timing the electronic pulse with the current location of the electron gun, it was easy to pinpoint exactly where the pen was on the screen at any given moment. The computer can then place a point at that position and begin to read the next point.
The use of this sketchpad software helped to open up the gateway towards improving and advancing with computer based graphical software. Even today most software interfaces can be branched back to the sketchpad software. When you look at images that were created using the sketchpad software you can see how they could be linked to the basic line tool in most modern day software. However one limitation that the sketchpad program faced was drawing constraints. For example, if you wanted to draw a square box then you would have to do it precisely to hand which made it extremely difficult to make it even and equal in all dimensions. This software was later developed so that you specify the boxes dimensions and position on screen and then let the program create the perfect box. It took a long time for large companies to begin to get interested in computer graphics. But by the mid 1960's companies like General Electric, TRW and Sperry Rand began to start working and developing systems that worked with computer graphics. Soon after a company called IBM released the first commercial graphics computer. As the years developed computer graphics became so advances that it began to enter uncanny valley. This is when a computer-generated object (like a human or animal) looks so realistic that onlookers are almost unable to tell the difference between natural humans and commuter generated images. This amazes me. I find it hard to believe that we have managed to advance so far with computer graphics to the point where illustrators can create a more realistic human image that a natural picture. An example of this would be a video game called Final Fantasy 15, which is the latest game in the series. Throughout the series the graphics slowly got better and better until they have reached the point they’re at now. The graphics and lip-syncing in the game look practically life like. Some people argue that the game can have a bad influence on people because it looks so lifelike. They also believe that the games and movies could one day become so advanced that we wouldn’t even need actors anymore, due to the imagery being so realistic.
Conclusion In conclusion I feel that technology has become a defining aspect in graphical design. I feel that because of technology like computers we have been able to create so much more and express our creative intentions in so many new and wonderful ways. For me I find using computers to be the best and most effective way for me to create art. It has given people like me who can’t paint or draw the opportunity to show our creativity. And that’s a great thing.
Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_design#The_advent_of_printing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau http://designmuseum.org/design/london-transport http://www.paulmsmith.co.uk/ http://www.digitalmeetsculture.net/article/david-hockney-a-painter-enjoying-newtechnologies/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_graphics#Initial_developments