For your first assignment, read the article What Is Graphic Design? (click on the link below). Post a response on the blog under the category What is Graphic Design?.
Write two complete paragraphs in response to the article. In the first paragraph, discuss what the article made you think of and/or how it contributed to your understanding of visual communication and graphic design. In the second paragraph, pose a question that you’d like to ask the author—and propose a possible answer to your question.
Name your post What is Graphic Design? and be sure to also include your name.
howard klein
lskngliegnoiwehgoiwehgoiewghoiwhgoiewhg
Meilan Zheng
hello
Christopher Wong
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Hello!
Jillian Cumsky
Ismael Khalil
Hello
Katrina Del Rosario
dkfkjdfooifopojf
orr shalom
poop
hello
well this is lots of fun
Mikhayla Bibi
it works!
Yanmei Lin
Ni hao~
Jasmine Coley
hiii
david avgi
Lauren Borchert
I found the article “What is Graphic Design” very enlightening. Not only did it help me better understand the intricate nature of design; it also helped me grasp the possible opportunities that a career in graphic design presents. The immense detail that goes into every structure, brand, logo and sign, both virtual and physical is very interesting. I have always thought of myself as a visual learner and after reading this article, I have a much greater appreciation for those who create the harmonious visual ascetics to which we are exposed. It’s so interesting to know that even the specific type that is used has a much deeper meaning and represents its own specific message. This article also helped me realize that design and all its components do not function independently. Each line, letter and streamlined logo, in addition to the environment in which it is placed, are completely interrelated and reliant upon one another.
The question I would like to ask the author, Juliette Cezzar is “Do the artistic aspects of design determine the functionality of its creation or does the functionality determine the outcome of the art?”
Could it be that since all aspect of design are somewhat interdependent, that the answer would be determined on a case by case basis? You would think that and artist presenting a work in a gallery had a prioritized the layout and utility of his or her work differently than the Art director for a large design company. A copywriter or someone in marketing management would seek different outcomes, strategies, layouts and visual appeals than someone working with motion graphics. Another possible answer to this question would be that it is indeed a case by case situation; however the main principal behind any particular design is to most effectively relay and emphasize its message.
Mikhayla Bibi
I started off at Baruch as a Marketing major, but found myself trying to schedule in as many art history and politics courses as I could in between my business classes. The result was a change in my major during my senior year and an application for an AdHoc major. The way AdHoc works and creating your own major is having to write a paper to the dean and heads of the departments explaining why you believe this study should exist. I chose to study politics through the lens of art history; it’s called Arts and Politics.
All I could think of while reading Cezzare’s article was that I wish I had this when I wrote my proposal. “Design is something that’s meant to be experienced in an instant” was my favorite line. It’s everywhere. Design is intricate and endless.
I’d ask Cezzare, if graphic design requires the designer to not just be skilled in their work, but to be creative as well?
And I’d answer yes. In order for something to be timeless or connect to all people rather than simply the designer, one has to be creative. The designer is responsible for creating a relationship between what’s viewed and the viewer and that isn’t simple. I love the fact that everything we see from posters to restaurant signs to a simple page in a magazine have all had the hand of a graphic designer.
Alice Lin
As a marketing student studying advertisement and communication, graphic design was an interest of mine. When someone mentions graphic design, the first thing I think about is the visual of the media. I first think of the print then the color then the direction and location of where the visual will be placed. Quite honestly, the last thing I think of is the text on the print or media. This article speaks on the importance of text and how different typefaces can express different meanings.
Graphic design for text takes into consideration the typeface, color, size and location of the text itself. The question I have for Cezzare is if there are any other considerations when it comes to motion graphics?
As someone who has edited a few videos, I would say there are a lot to consider when it comes to motion graphics. Things such as the direction of where the text is on screen or which direction the text enters or exists the screen. Aside from direction, the time and length of text shown on screen is important so that the audience or viewers are able to see the text but at the same time make sure that it does not linger on screen.
Olivia Dellston
As we discussed last week in class, graphic design is a form of art, however, it is a problem-solving discipline. Projects in this field have clear objectives and are not carried out solely for entertainment purposes like other forms of art can sometimes be. Graphic design is not as free or abstract as other art forms. The reading explored many different useful applications of graphic design and made me think of how much of everyday life involves some type of graphic design.
A question I would pose to the author of this text is “Would our society be able to function without graphic design?” This question was actually given to us on my first day of graphic design in my senior year of high school. When I was initially asked this question I responded that yes, we could function just fine without graphic design. My teacher disagreed with me and after she explained her position it made complete sense. Graphic design is essential in many aspects of our society. Street signs and maps help us know where we are and where to go. The different uses of colors and fonts display what types of businesses are around. The use of images helps the illiterate be able to find their way around our society. Without graphic design we would live in a very hard world.
Yanmei Lin
As an Accounting major and Graphic Communication minor student, when people look at my resume, they often ask me if my minor has anything to do with my major. I have asked this question to myself many times already, the answer, obviously, was no, it is just my interest and nothing more. However, as one of my classmates, Lauren Borchert, mentioned in her post, I also found the article “What is Graphic Design” very enlightening. It gives a better understanding of that graphic design is, also, it gives me some ideas of the possible job opportunities in this field. My parents are both very old-fashioned, when I told them what my minor is, they repeatedly told me that “All artists are starving to death.” I think now I can show them some evidences to disprove their argument. This article also helps me to realize that we are living in a world that is surrounding by graphic designs. Not just the ads, billboards and posters, but also, books, pages, and lines are also full of design. It made me think of the day that I arrived in New York for the first time. Although I did not know the language, I was amazed by this city. When I think of it now, actually, I was amazed by all the designs that made by all different designers.
One question came to my mind while reading the article by Cezzare’s article was that “does a graphic designer often have to make compromises?” since a graphic designer needs to make a project for his/her customer, if customer was not satisfied with the finish project, what is the next step looks like? I guess, designer needs to take their work back and verifies his/her work adjusting to customer’s opinions. This step might be repeated for several times until the customer is fully satisfied. But the question is, at this stage, this work is no longer fully design by the designer, because the designer made a lot of compromises, how would they feel about the final product.
Crystal Deng
This article made me realize how prevalent graphic design is in the world. Graphic design goes beyond the concept of just pictures and is a complete visual experience of many different levels involving many things including colors, font, and even motion. I was also unaware, prior to reading this article, of the many different levels of employment in regards to design jobs. As an accounting major, the jobs and positions available within the accounting industry remain rather static. However, in design these titles continue to grow as the industry evolves. While I am not a graphic communications minor, I believe having the ability to understand such a rapidly developing industry is important, because learning to understand what appeals to people visually is important in learning what appeals to people in general. Even in preparing something tedious like spreadsheets, the type of font and colors utilized can make information much more attractive.
I suppose, one question I would have for the author is “how have individual tastes regarding graphics changed over time and how do you predict it changing in the future?” In order to understand people’s preferences, it is important to know how their tastes have changed over the course of time. I know in the past, people have had a preference for more realistic takes on art, while modern art leans more towards the abstract and conceptual side. With these changes that have taken place so far, how do we seeing graphic design changing in the future? There’s always the fictional 3-d holographic take of future advertisements portrayed in film, but maybe that’s soon to become reality.
Katrina Del Rosario
Katrina Del Rosario
After reading the article, I have a better understanding of graphic design. Juliette Cezzar explains the basic definition of graphic design, the various formats of communication design from posters, advertisements, motion graphics to signage, and the careers available for individuals who want to pursue their interest in graphic design. Before attending Professor Klein’s class, I thought graphic design only involved designing posters for companies and creating websites. I was not aware that it expanded to different formats and scales such as user interface design, in which individual layouts of pages are meticulously thought out by designers. It is interesting to know that content and design correlate with each other, in which, depending on the format, one comes after the other. For example in books, content comes first before the design aspect such as the book cover. In magazines, the design aspect is usually a priority rather than the written content. What stood out to me from reading the article is the emphasis on experience from both the designer and the customer. As a designer, you want your visual and textual content to be experienced, whether in a fixed time frame or according to the pace of the customer. The jobs available for graphic designers are endless. There are positions available for designers who are interested in a specific department such as UI/UX designer, animator, and web designer. As a graphic designer, you get to work with different departments within the company such as marketing coordinators and copywriters.
After reading the article, I would like to ask Cezzar: When designing a poster, billboard, signage, etc., is the design aspect solely given to the graphic designer or does the marketing coordinator’s inputs on a design equally as important as the graphic designer’s?
In my opinion, I both the marketing coordinator and the graphic designer’s inputs are equally important when designing a visual or textual content. The graphic designer is responsible for executing the company/marketing coordinator’s vision for the design without loosing his or her creative integrity by incorporating his or her vision onto the design.
Su Myat Thin
Before the first class of the course, i understood graphic design as creating the art by using computer especially picture. After i reading this article, I’ve gained some knowledge of “What is Graphic design”. It’s not only use in picture but also in the use of texture in advertisement. And the practice of graphic artist or experience with virtual and textual context in order to enter business environment. As a business major, it is really necessary to understand the concept of graphic design and how it is work into advertisement layout. Hence, I have better understanding of the ideas about graphic design and how it is connected in the job field.
One question i would like to ask is: How do graphic designer communicate to customers in order to meet customer’s need and satisfied? It’s really hard because some customers just want to make design and have no idea about what is graphic design is. Since graphic can make a lot of things such as color, front, texture, magazine and book, the only possible answer would be: ability to listen and make deal.
Nick Gonzalez
The article “What is Graphic Design” is an intellectual provocative piece meant to introduce the concept of graphic communication and offer a more in depth idea on how a career in the field evolves from an entry level position into the eventual creative head of a department. My first thoughts after reading through the article were about graphic design’s relation ship with advertising. The idea how in different situations the advertisements pace isn’t necessarily set by the the advertiser like in a television commercial but it is often set by the people who are exposed to it while reading a magazine or a newspaper. In that same vein when creating an ad that appears in publication its important to remember that someone who is actively looking for the product being advertised will find it regardless of the type of ad you print. However because the pace is set by the reader the design must be striking enough to stop someone flipping through who doesn’t know they need the product yet.
A question I have for the author would be in regards to the corporate perspective that was presented. How do you know if your work is worth anything? In order to reach the next level in job title often its based on performance so normally Id assume it depends on how much a product sales increased based upon your design but what if you make a great design thats abstract and great but doesn’t resonate with your customer base? Does that make you a bad graphic designer due to the lack of public appeal or if your work is considered good by your colleagues is it deemed so?
The article is a nice introduction into graphic design. It talks about what is graphic design; sometimes it is not obvious that we are looking at a piece of design- for example “wayfinding” within a building. It stresses the importance of “usefulness” of graphic design, since most of the time there is a utility in a design, such as making reading a book more pleasant or more easy, aiding navigation, enhance emotion etc. As the author says, “No part of [graphic design] has been created without considering the others, or without thinking through how a target customer will encounter and then develop a relationship with that brand.” Graphic design is a powerful tool partly because it works on a subconscious level a lot. It creates an emotional response and a bond.
My question for author would be: should a designer make compromises when it comes to appealing to wide public for commercial purposes (whose tastes are usually not very extravagant, adventurous, or artistic), or should he try to push the boundaries and push his artistic ideas?
Jana Knauerova
The article is a nice introduction into graphic design. It talks about what is graphic design; sometimes it is not obvious that we are looking at a piece of design- for example “wayfinding” within a building. It stresses the importance of “usefulness” of graphic design, since most of the time there is a utility in a design, such as making reading a book more pleasant or more easy, aiding navigation, enhance emotion etc. As the author says, “No part of [graphic design] has been created without considering the others, or without thinking through how a target customer will encounter and then develop a relationship with that brand.” Graphic design is a powerful tool partly because it works on a subconscious level a lot. It creates an emotional response and a bond.
My question for author would be: should a designer make compromises when it comes to appealing to wide public for commercial purposes (whose tastes are usually not very extravagant, adventurous, or artistic), or should he try to push the boundaries and push his artistic ideas?
Jesse Collado
I’ve always had a simple idea of what graphic design is, but after reading the article I have a better understanding on what exactly the study of graphic design is and what opportunities those who study graphic design have. While i was reading the article all i kept on thinking how graphic design goes way more in depth than I had imagined. It’s not just creating a design on a poster or magazine but like the article states its design thats meant to be experienced through visuals and textual content. Its an art that we see around us everywhere we turn and I realized how much goes into design.
I was very interested in wayfinding and questioned how exactly one who works in graphic design were to do this type of design? I see these types of designs all over the city and now I just think.. how did the designer know to put this exact design in the exact spot the way it is? I’d imagine it must take an extensive amount of time and research in just figuring out where one would put such a design to begin with let alone creating the design itself. But It just sparked my curiosity a bit in regards to what designers actually have to do before hand when creating environmental graphics and how important the placement of these graphics really is.
Graphic Design, also known as Communication Design is comprised of different mediums of art. It dates back to the mad men era of prints, posters and advertisements.
It has since evolved into new forms such as digital, and motion graphics.
It is a form of communication that is both physical and virtual, where a design is meant to be experienced through visuals and textual content. Design is such an important aspect, where you deliver that message that can happen from any scale of art form.
This article was thorough and in depth of “What is Graphic Design?”
Really, what is graphic design to someone who isn’t familiar or even in that case ‘creative’? Maybe they have their own opinion as to what they think graphic design really is. I truly believe that yes, there are many definitions to what really is graphic design. But to me it means a beautiful way to send your message.
– Kate Follett
As I know, graphic design and advertisement have a huge relationship, and typeface is really important to a brand. After reading the article, I notice graphic design is everyone’s necessity since every thing connects with us are such a graphic design, such as the magazine we read, the poster we see on subway, the wrap of a chocolate bar, etc. Graphic design is a use to express a message or a package of products, so it has to be created as simple but clear, that people can get the message in a second. Also, there are different types of designs I learn from the article. At the end of the article, the author clears her readers that there are lots of positions are related to graphic design, so it is a smart choice to learn about graphic design.
I would really like to ask the author, Juliette Cezzar: “As an designer, when you are offered a project from a client who request you to follow his/her ideas, you would listen to your client or make your own design which you think would help the product the most?” If I’m the designer, I would insist in my own design since I am supposed to have the professional knowledge and skill to get my client’s job done. And that is the reason why people need to hire a designer. I ask this question because nowadays, most designers lose their control on their work, and the word of “create” is no longer relate to designers.
After reading the article, I learned that graphic design is more than just looking at images presented in an appealing way. Graphic design is an art form, and is essentially its own language with the communication involved. It is involved in our lives more than we realize, located everywhere we go. It can vary in its presentation, with better designs proving to be more successful.
A question I would like to ask Juliette Cezzar is “What do you need to know about graphic design to work with animation?” The reason I ask is because I know the process of animating images can be difficult depending on the circumstances. Basically, I’d like to know how tough animation can be even with professional knowledge of graphic design.
– Ismael Khalil
Before I read this article, my understanding of Graphic Design was just simply using images and arrange them in atheistic way and only related to design. However, my understanding has completely changed after reading this article. I learned that Graphic Design is broadly used in different aspects in our daily life. It is a subject which combines both written and graphic work and how to utilize the arrangement of both work to reach the design goal.
Questions I would like to ask the author Juliette Cezzar is “How to accommodate the need of the client and the creative side of the graphic designer and which side has more say of the final work” and “For environmental graphics, can this be seen a kind of limit to the creativity of the designer since the variety of environment can really affect how designers illustrate their work”.
Amy Liang