• The history of graphic des ign f rom 1900 to date

• The art sty les and movements that have infl uenced graphic des ign

• How and why graphic des ign is used

• The core pr inc ip les of graphic des ign

• Composi t ion and layout

• Colour theory and colour management procedures

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

GRAPHIC DESIGN

1900-1950: Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Bauhaus and De Stijl were some of the popular art movements in this era.

Events going on during this time were: The Titanic sunk, World War I was happening, the great depression happened around the 1930’s and World War II begun at the end of this era.

Popular graphic design artists included: Beggarstaffs (art deco), Edward Penfield (Art Nouveau), Gustav Klimt (New objectivity), Alexander Rodchenko (Contrustivism) and Forunato Depero (Futurism)

1950-2000’s: The Psychedelic, Graffi ti and street art, Pop Art and Postmodernism were popular art movements within this particular era.

Events going on during this time were: Colour TV was invented, Vietnam War begun in 1965, the fi rst Macintosh was introduced (1984), the Cold war ends and the Internet was invented.

Popular Graphic design artists included: Banksy (graffi ti and street art), Max Bill (international typographic style) and April Greiman (Postmodernism)

THE HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN FROM 1900 TO DATE

Reference: Jan Rosicky. (2011). Graphic Design Timeline. Available: http://gdh.2rsolutions.cz/. Last accessed 7th Feb 2014.

Art Deco : Style: Geometric/angular shapes, chrome, glass, shiny fabrics and mirror t i les, styl ised images e.g. cars, nature

motifs (shel ls and fl owers), theatrical contrasts. Infl uences: Cubism- experimenting with space, angels and geometry, art nouveau- deco copied nature motifs

but discarded it ’s long fl owing shapes and replaced them with bolder materials. Popular people from the movement : Ei leen Gray, Raymond Templier, Clarice Cl iff and Rene Lal ique. Reference: N/A . (2012 ) . Per iod S ty le . Ava i lab le : h t tp : / /www.bbc .co .uk /homes /des ign /per iod_ index . shtml . Las t accessed 7 th Feb 2014 .

Art Nouveau : Style: Curvy l ines, Whiplash l ines, Vertical l ines and height, Styl ised fl owers, the ‘female form’ and exotic

woods, glass and stones. Infl uences: Arts and crafts movement- They shared the same belief in quality materials and craftmanship.

More infl uences: Rococo style and Botanical research. Popular people from the movement: Charles Rennie Macintosh, Alphonse Mucha, Victor Horta and Emile Galle.

Reference: N/A . (2012 ) . Per iod S ty le . Ava i lab le : h t tp : / /www.bbc .co .uk /homes /des ign /per iod_ index . shtml . Las t accessed 7 th Feb 2014 .

Graffi ti and street art : Style: Tradit ional- Paint ing on the surfaces of publ ic or private property, commonly with a spray can or rol l on

paint. Stenci l- Paint ing with the use of a homemade stenci l , normally cardboard or paper. St icker- Making homemade st ickers of an image or message to be stuck on public places, tradit ionally to promote pol it ical agenda. Wood blocking- Artwork painted on small port ions of plywood and attached to street s igns with bolts . Reference: C a s s a n d r a N a j i . ( 2 0 1 0 ) . What i s S t reet Ar t? Vanda l i sm, graffi t i o r pub l i c a r t - Pa r t I . Ava i lab le : h t tp : / /a r t radar journa l . com/2010 /01 /21 /what - i s -

s t reet -a r t -vanda l i sm-graffi t i -o r-pub l ic -a r t -par t - i / . Las t accessed 7 th Feb 2014 .

Infl uences : Graffi ti is recognised to be closely related to the hip-hop culture. [1] “As long as there has been written communication there has been a form of Graffi ti. In fact Graffi ti can be traced back to the very earl iest forms of written and drawn communication such as cave paint ings and carvings. ” [1] Vic Rupsin. (2012). THE POSIT IVE EFFECTS OF GRAFFIT I AND STREET ART. Avai lable : http: / / rups in. tumblr.com/peog. Last accessed 7th Feb 2014.

Popular people from this movement: Bansky, David Choe, Blek le Rat, Retna, Moose and Edward Kobra.

THE ART STYLES AND MOVEMENTS THAT HAVE INFLUENCED GRAPHIC

DESIGN

THE ART STYLES AND MOVEMENTS THAT HAVE INFLUENCED GRAPHIC

DESIGN (EXAMPLES)Art deco Art Nouveau Graffiti/street art

Example: London Tube map

Creator: Harry Beck, Beck designed the map in his own time and wasn’t even a graphic designer by trade, in fact he worked as an engineer on the trains.

Why was it created: The London tube map was created to help the 2 and half million commuters navigate around London everyday. The map shows where the stations are, what stations link to each other, and gives a good starting point on how to plan your journey.

When was it created: He submitted his idea in 1931 and in 1932 his map became successful and resulted in 500 copies. Full publication in 1993.

How it was created using graphic design: The map includes information of 250 miles of track and 273 stations. Colour coding was an important factor. Beck took the original map which were curved lines and ‘modernised’ the map by straitening the lines to make them both clearer and easier to read for the commuters plus also making the map look more user friendly and aesthetically pleasing.

HOW AND WHY GRAPHIC DESIGN IS USED

ProjectDystopia. (2011). LONDON TUBE MAP: Who Created The London Underground. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xmOpyv5NuI. Last accessed 27th Feb 2014.

What is Graphic Design?: The process and art of combining text and graphics to achieve a part icular message in the des ign of logos, graphics , posters , s igns and other types of v isual communicat ion. The fi ve elements of graphic design are lines, shapes, mass, texture and colour. And these

are the ‘building blocks’ for desktop designers.

L ines: Used to div ide or uni te e lements on the page, can be used to show di rect ion or movement to an image or text , provide an anchor to hold e lements on a page.

Shapes: The 3 bas ic shapes used in graphic des ign are the Tr iangle , C i rc le and the Square with the most fami l iar in graphic des ign be ing the square. Shapes are mainly used to border text , create out l ines, backdrops for images or text and a lso to create graphics/ logos f rom scratch.

Mass: Mass is s ize . The s ize of text , shapes, the document, images and graphics is a very important factor in graphic des ign. For example, Mass can be used to change the hierarchy- the bigger the text the more important i t i s and therefore you would want i t to stand out next to the rest of the des ign.

Texture: For the des igner the texture is the fee l of the fi nal outcome. For example, wi l l the poster have embossed text so you can fee l and v isual ly see the diff erence as apposed to a fl at text or image? Also textures can be v isual , fami l iar textures used in des ign inc lude: Fabr ic , stone and wood.

Colour: Colour is used to make the des ign aesthet ical ly p leas ing whi lst a lso adding emotion to the des ign. For example- us ing blues are more calming and connote a sadder fee l whereas, i f you used the colour red, i ts qui te a hot co lour and would connote a more angry, ser ious fee l to the des ign. Not only is co lour used for text , i t can be used to change the whole fee l of images, shapes and graphics through the use of edi t ing and fi l ters .

THE CORE PRINCIPLES OF GRAPHIC DESIGN

Nikou Tabaee. (2011). Principles Of Graphic Design Basics. Available: http://www.slideshare.net/nikoutabaee/principles-of-graphic-design-basics. Last accessed 10th Feb 2014

THE CORE PRINCIPLES OF GRAPHIC DESIGN (EXAMPLES)

Rules of thirds: The rules of thirds is a guidel ine which appl ies to the process of composing images, graphics and text on a design. The theory is that i f you place points of interest in the intersections or along the l ines that your photo becomes more balanced and wi l l enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more natural ly. Appl ied to graphic design, rule of thirds would be used to take the pictures properly that would then be placed on a design.

Visual Center and Balance: I t ’s the idea of placing important elements or the focal point of the design within the visual center of a piece. The visual center is s l ightly to the r ight of and above the center of the page. Appl ied to graphic design, this technique could be used when placing an important graphic to your design.

Grids and Balance: in graphic design, grids to have a visual idea/reference on where you want to place your text, image or logo for example. One popular use of a grid is when making a leafl et. A grid would be used to show where the diff erent paragraphs for the text are going to be placed.

Alignment: Al ignment is what order or on what guidel ines you want you text, images etc to be ‘al igned, i t controls the posit ion. Al ignment can be used to create more interesting, dynamic layouts.

Focal Point: The focal point gives viewers of a design something to look at. I t adds to the sense of direction and the aesthetics a focal point example could be a large bit of text, a brightly coloured image or a unique design/logo.

COMPOSITION AND LAYOUT

Cameron Chapman. (2011). A Graphic Design Primer, Part 3: Basics of Composition. Available: http://www.noupe.com/design/a-graphic-design-primer-part-3-basics-of-composition.html. Last accessed 10th Feb 2014.

COLOUR THEORY AND COLOUR MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES

Complementary/primary colours: The straight line across the colour

wheel, is the the colour’s complement, the colours are basically opposites. For example Yellow is opposite purple so therefore they ‘complement’ each other. The complementary colours are used to offset the main colour and are thought to complete each other.

There are also split complementary colours which means when you pick the complimentary you choose one of the colours by the side of it giving it a more subtle look.

Nikou Tabaee. (2011). Principles Of Graphic Design Basics. Available: http://www.slideshare.net/nikoutabaee/principles-of-graphic-design-basics. Last accessed 10th Feb 2014

COLOUR THEORY AND COLOUR MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES

CYMK: Referred to the ‘four colour process’ CYMK stands for the colours- Cyan, Magenta, Yel low and Black. CYMK is used part icularly for large format print ing and works by part ial ly or entirely masking colors on a l ighter, usual ly white, background. The ink reduces the l ight that would otherwise be refl ected. Such a model is cal led subtractive because inks "subtract" brightness from white .

RGB: The RGB (red, green, blue) color mode is most often used when working with l ight - images that wi l l be displayed back-l i t on a television or computer monitor, as is the case with video and web design. Because of the way that l ight is emitted, red, green and blue are the primary colors when working with l ight.

Pantone matching system (PMS): PMS is used to accurately match colored inks on coated, uncoated, or matte stocks. Each of the 1,114 pantone (or "spot") colors is assigned its own formula to ensure color consistency from one print. RGB and CMYK color models create a whole spectrum of colors by combining their primary colors, and because of this i t can be diffi cult to reproduce a color exactly from one print job to the next.

Adrienne Turcotte. (2009). Color Models in Graphic Design. Available: designertoday.com/Articles/5946/Color.Models.in.Graphic.Design.aspx. Last accessed 10th Feb 2014.

ADOBE RGB VS SRGB COLOUR

The types: In d ig i ta l photography, the two co lour space ava i lab le are RGB and SRGB, th is two modes can be found in the camera set t ings .

What i s co lour space: Co lour space i s the range o f co lours that you see in one photo. For example a JPEG image can conta in up to 16.7 mi l l ion d iff erent co lours but th is doesn’ t mean that the co lour space actua l ly uses up a l l 16.7 mi l l ion co lours ava i lab le . D iff erent co lour spaces are ava i lab le and th is a l lows you to use broader or narrower ranges o f those 16.7 mi l l ion co lours .

The d iff erence: Look ing at the stat i s t ics i t s c lear that AdobeRGB is overa l l bet ter as i t represents a w ider range o f co lour- 35% more co lour ranges than SRGB. However , th is doesn ’ t necessar i ly mean i t ’ s bet ter for tak ing p ic tures . Due to SRGB be ing fi rst , most th ings are bu i l t a round the mode e .g . v ideo, in ternet and gaming. I t ’ s more than l ike ly that these types o f p lat forms cannot d isp lay a l l the co lours that are ava i lab le to AdobeRGB. Pic tures are o ften converted f rom AdobeRBG to SRGB for th is reason.

Conc lus ion : i t a l l comes down to preference, SRBG is more w ide ly used however i f you’ re us ing your photos for pr int i t s worth us ing AdobeRGB as i t w i l l ach ieve a bet ter outcome due to the more co lour ranges ava i lab le

Reference: Zach Sutton. (2013). AdobeRBG vs. sRGB. Available: http://fstoppers.com/adobergb-vs-srgb. Last accessed 27th Feb 2014.