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

• The art s ty les and movements that have influenced graphic design

• How and why graphic des ign is used

• The core pr inc ip les of graphic des ign

• Composit 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, Graffiti 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 first Macintosh was introduced (1984), the Cold war ends and the Internet was invented.

Popular Graphic design artists included: Banksy (graffiti 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 flowers), theatr ical contrasts. Influences: Cubism- experimenting with space, angels and geometry, art nouveau- deco copied nature motifs but

discarded it ’s long flowing shapes and replaced them with bolder materials. Popular people from the movement : Ei leen Gray, Raymond Templier, Clar ice Cl iff and Rene Lal ique. Reference: N/A . (2012) . Pe r iod S ty le . Ava i l ab le : h t tp : / /ww w.bbc . co .uk /h om es /des ign /pe r iod_ index .sh tm l . Las t accessed 7 th F eb 2014 .

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

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

influences: Rococo style and Botanical research. Popular people from the movement: Charles Rennie Macintosh, Alphonse Mucha, Victor Horta and Emile Galle. Reference: N/A . (2012) . Pe r iod S ty l e . Ava i l ab le : h t tp : / /w ww.bbc .co .u k /homes /des ign /pe r iod_ index . sh tm l . L as t accessed 7 th F eb 2014 .

Graffiti and street art : Style: Tradit ional- Painting on the surfaces of publ ic or pr ivate 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 ional ly to promote pol it ical agenda. Wood blocking- Artwork painted on small port ions of plywood and attached to street signs 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 ree t A r t ? Vanda l i sm , g raffit i o r pub l i c a r t - Pa r t I . Ava i l ab le : h t tp : / / a r t rada r journa l .com/2010/01 /21 /w hat - i s - s t ree t -a r t - vanda l i sm-graffi t i - o r-pu b l i c - a r t -pa r t - i / . Las t accessed 7 th F eb 2014 .

Influences : Graffiti is recognised to be closely related to the hip-hop culture. [1] “As long as there has been written communicat ion there has been a form of Graffiti. In fact Graffiti can be traced back to the very earl iest forms of written and drawn communicat ion such as cave paint ings and carvings. ” [1 ] V ic Rups in . (2012) . THE POSITIVE EFFECTS OF GRAFFITI AND STREET ART. Ava i l ab le : ht tp : / / rups in . tumbl r.com/peog. Las t 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 Des ign?: The process and art o f 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 five elements of graphic design are lines, shapes, mass, texture and colour. And these

are the ‘building blocks’ for desktop designers.

Lines: Used to div ide or uni te e lements on the page, can be used to show direct ion or movement to an image or text, provide an anchor to ho ld e lements on a page.

Shapes: The 3 bas ic shapes used in graphic design are the Tr iangle, C i rc le and the Square wi th the most fami l iar in graphic design 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 i s a very important factor in graphic design. For example , Mass can be used to change the h ierarchy- the b igger the text the more important i t i s and therefore you would want i t to s tand out next to the rest of the design.

Texture: For the designer the texture is the fee l of the final outcome. For example , wi l l the poster have embossed text so you can fee l and v isual ly see the d ifference as apposed to a flat text or image? Also textures can be v isual , fami l iar textures used in design inc lude: Fabr ic , stone and wood.

Colour: Colour i s used to make the des ign aesthet ical ly p leasing whi ls t a lso adding emot ion to the design. For example- us ing b lues are more calming and connote a sadder fee l whereas, i f you used the colour red, i ts quite a hot colour and would connote a more angry, ser ious fee l to the design. Not only i s colour 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 sl 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 leaflet. A grid would be used to show where the different 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 partia l ly or entirely masking colors on a l ighter, usual ly white, background. The ink reduces the l ight that would otherwise be reflected. Such a model is cal led subtract ive 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 i ts 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 difficult 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 i s two modes can be found in the camera set t ings .

What i s co lour space: Co lour space i s the range of co lours that you see in one photo. For example a JPEG image can conta in up to 16.7 mi l l i on d ifferent 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 avai lab le . D ifferent co lour spaces are ava i lab le and th is a l lows you to use broader or narrower ranges of those 16 .7 mi l l ion co lours .

The d ifference: Look ing at the s tat is t ics i t s c lear that AdobeRGB is overa l l bet ter as i t represents a wider 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 fo r tak ing p ic tures . Due to SRGB be ing firs t , most th ings are bu i l t around the mode e .g . v ideo , internet and gaming. I t ’ s more than l i ke ly that these types o f p la t forms cannot d isp lay a l l the co lours that are avai lab le to AdobeRGB. Pic tures are often 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.