Graphic Design Practice Research Articles

Tools shape practice shapes tools...

This article narrates a partial history of two decades of doing graphic design with free, libre and open-source tools. We follow the development of tools and practices that allowed graphic design practice to shift, such as layouts being generated by scripts, books being rendered out of webpages and editorial workflows being transformed into collaborative environments. It threads through a body of shared knowledge and modes of designing with software, focusing on sites that are key in these design practices: layout tools, open fonts and publishing platforms. As practitioners and active participants, the authors provide reflections on the entangled positions of these tools and the possibilities for engagement that they offer. By following their uptake by groups and collectives in Europe through time, we end with an analysis of the way that changes in the wider free software community and digital practice affect these still ongoing initiatives.

Modern graphic design application innovation based on graphic abstract processing method

Abstract The art of abstraction reflects the rich imagination of human beings to a certain extent and is now widely used in movies, games, advertisements, and other modern design fields. In this paper, a new edge tangential flow algorithm applicable to image abstraction is proposed, which first estimates the gradient strength and gradient direction of each point in a given input image by using the Sobel operator and then establishes the edge graph of the input image by using the edge information transfer strategy. On this basis, the application and value of abstract art and this graphical abstract processing method in modern graphic design are discussed, and the essence of abstract form art is perfectly embodied so as to make the two perfectly integrated. The results show that in the application of graphic abstract processing in graphic design, the average value of user attraction, understanding, and memory dimension scores are 0.53, 0.675, and 0.683, respectively, which verifies the effectiveness of this graphic design practice through users.

Destroy All Humans: The Dematerialisation of the Designer in an Age of Automation and its Impact on Graphic Design—A Literature Review

AbstractDigital automation is on the rise in a diverse range of industries. The technologies employed here often make use of artificial intelligence (AI) and its common form, machine learning (ML) to augment or replace the work completed by human agents. The recent emergence of a variety of design automation platforms inspired the authors to undertake a review of the research literature on the impact of Automation, AI and ML on visual communication, and its subset practice of graphic design, with a view to understanding the implications for the education of practitioners entering that specific field. This review discovered that there was relatively little research published on the topic but what did exist noted that graphic design as we have known it has an uncertain future. Furthermore, the scant literature argued for a shift in educational and professional focus away from the aesthetic and technical skills required to design visual modes of communication and towards a deeper engagement with the softer, more human skills associated with negotiation, facilitation and judgement. The paucity of literature on this topic suggests to the authors that visual communication design education and the industry are poorly prepared for the impact of automation, AI and ML on them.

Curating as graphic design research

In 2019, I curated and designed Off the Grid, an exhibition on post-war Belgian graphic design at Design Museum Gent. The show included public events (Design Museum Gent, 2019–20) and led to a publication (De Bondt, 2022), all of which have been elements of my practice-based doctoral research at KASK School of Arts and Ghent University. Curating Off the Grid allowed me to define my own research area, namely the investigation of graphic design from a specific country and period. The process also raised broader questions around naming, authorship, and canon-formation, which in turn have enriched my practice as a designer and educator. The curatorial thus became a methodology that allowed me to bring the two sides — my historical research and my graphic design practice — together. In this article, I discuss my engagement with graphic design via the curatorial, and how the latter can be deployed for practice-based graphic design research in and beyond exhibition spaces.

Pendampingan Fotografi dan Desain Grafis di Sekolah Menengah Pertama Katolik (SMPK Kesuma) Mataram

Condition of the Catholic Junior High School (SMPK Kesuma) in the COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed the field trip activities programmed by the school every year. With the soaring Covid-19 cases in Mataram, the school replaced the field trip activities with photography and graphic design training. Photography and graphic design training aims to foster students' talents and interests in dealing with the development of science, technology and art in this current era. The method of implementing this training is by simulation and practice of photography and graphic design. Stages The activity begins with a classical presentation of the material, explaining photography techniques using simple tools such as smartphones. Furthermore, providing assistance in the practice of photography and graphic design. Graphic design assistance is carried out using a simple application available on a smartphone to produce Lombok food promotion posters. The photographic work produced becomes the task of cultural arts and the poster work made by students becomes the assessment of the tourism work program..

Discussion on the Ideological and Political Practice of Computer Graphic Design from the Visual Image Design of "Three Cows Spirit"

Discussion on the Ideological and Political Practice of Computer Graphic Design from the Visual Image Design of "Three Cows Spirit"

Development of Graphic Design Practice and Education in Ghana

In Ghana, Graphic Design is regarded as one of the contemporary arts that was introduced in the Gold Coast by the British (The colonial administration) and European merchants in the 17th Century. Since then, the art has gone through series of metamorphosis in various aspects till date. However, empirical evidence indicates that the developmental patterns of the art in Ghana has not been documented comprehensively. Using qualitative research approaches such as historical research method, interviews, document review, narrative and inductive analysis, this paper sought to conduct a comprehensive research into the local Graphic Design industry to gather pieces of fragmented documented and oral information from relevant stake holders who were purposively selected from different parts of Ghana based on their professional memory on industrial practice and Graphic Design education in Ghana, to reconstruct the history of the art for posterity. The study revealed that, commercial press printing and newspaper advertising were introduced in the Gold Coast first before outdoor advertising and desktop publishing. Also, colonisation, successive government policies, technological inventions in the western countries, and developments in computer technologies have contributed immensely to the development of Graphic Design practice and education in Ghana from the 17th Century to date.

Application of Mathematical Models in Graphic Design

The article shares the practical experience in creating graphic design in the implementation of projects in the field of applied information technology. The creation of digital art is largely based on mathematical models and concepts that give a good perception of graphics, and it is scientifically justified. The STEAM approach is considered with the idea of the transdisciplinary level of integration between mathematics, graphic design and production practice in student education. For the development of projects like logo design, magazine cover and others, we use software specialized in the field of graphic design and computer graphics. For the realization of the considered projects, among which there are also awarded ones, we use CorelDRAW, Adobe InDesign and Desmos.

El conocimiento de diseño en un proyeto de creación de la identidad visual de una marca: un estudio cualitativo sobre la practica legitimada del diseño gráfico

This article aims to contribute to the legitimation of design through a reflection on the nature of design knowledge, with a study about the academic practice of graphic design. Our theoretical framework is constituted by the vision for the design of international reference organizations, namely, on the designer´s role in complex problem-solving; and the study by Carvalho and Dong (2008) on what constitutes realization of legitimate knowledge in a set of design disciplines. With the objective of verifying the existence of internalized guiding principles in the design student’s practice, consistent with the conclusions of Carvalho and Dong, our study starts from the analysis of student’s final project reports on creating the visual identity of a brand. From the content analysis of the students’ reports, descriptions of their design practice, it is possible to verify the existence of legitimation codes consistent with a recognized, valued and legitimized practice. The conclusions allow us to recognize that there is a correlation between the view of graphic design practitioners, about their potential for complex communication problem-solving, and the cognitive nature of their practice due the design knowledge put into action in the design process.

“What's the Brief?”

“What's the Brief?”

THE INFLUENCE OF UKRAINIAN FILM POSTERS OF THE 1920s AND 1930s ON CONTEMPORARY GRAPHIC DESIGN

The purpose of the article is to analyse the influence of the system of compositional techniques and graphics of the All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration Film Poster School and Ukrainafilm on domestic graphic design. Research methodology. The author has applied historical, art history, and comparative analysis. Scientific novelty. Through the similarity matching in the world and Ukrainian design and the study of the use of design schemes, techniques and tools that are permanently used in graphic design, we reason the influence of the Ukrainian Poster School of the 1920s and 1930s on contemporary graphic design practice. Conclusions. Despite a long break for ideological grounds in the functioning and study of Ukrainian graphic design in the middle of the twentieth century, we record a noticeable influence of the means and techniques of Ukrainian poster art on modern trends. These are general compositional techniques: placing a formatted face or figure as a dominant on the entire plane of the image, designing a composition on the principle of a “playing card”, deliberately replacing grounds on the inverted perspective. There are local techniques: concentric circles as a compositional dominant, filling the main character’s glasses with visual elements or font content, and rhythmically repeating visual elements or font groups. The identified similarities can be valuable in the young designers training, taking into account the general development of Ukrainian graphics’ history and its single branch graphic design. It is also possible to use these schemes, techniques and tools in contemporary design education as a methodological basis for teaching poster design, designing, composition, layout and modelling.

Terminology and Design Capital: Examining the Pedagogic Status of Graphic Design through Its Practitioners’ Perceptions of Their Job Titles

AbstractGraphic design has long been hampered by its indeterminate educational disciplinary status, resulting in it being subsumed within wider visual arts studies. Arguing that this permeates into professional practice, this article explores the ambivalence of professional graphic designers towards the term ‘graphic design’ itself. Drawing on interviews with practitioners and discussions in online graphic design forums, the article argues this ambivalence derives from perceptions that the term reduces the design capital held by graphic designers. In turn, this negatively influences the graphic designers’ perceptions of professional relationships with creative stakeholders. Placing the study outcomes alongside existing academic literature, this article confirms anecdotal industry narratives about graphic designers’ perceptions of their capital. Moreover, it identifies a series of nuances to these narratives, challenging stereotypical educational and industry assumptions. In doing so, it argues that practitioner ambivalence towards the term ‘graphic design’ is symptomatic of an academic gap, resulting from inadequate pedagogic engagement with the specific discipline and practice of graphic design. This poses challenges for practitioners, as well as for the organisations they work within, at the same time presenting opportunities for researchers to make further headway into the specific discipline and methods of graphic design.

Centering the Periphery: Reassessing Swiss Graphic Design Through the Prism of Regional Characteristics

In the literature, the history of Swiss graphic design is regularly told as a linear development from illustrative tendencies to Modernist abstraction. Recent research has shown that these narratives were constructed and disseminated by a group of Modernist graphic designers through journals and their own publications. By the mid-1950s, the Modernists themselves began dividing designers of the time into two camps: the individual or illustrative versus the abstract or Modern. This dichotomy, which established itself quickly, continues to shape the narrative of Swiss graphic design to this day. However, this article argues that the reality of graphic design practice in Switzerland in the 1950s was more diverse than previously assumed. Outside an exclusive circle of practitioners, illustration and abstraction were understood more as design methods than as attitudes. Taking this as its starting point, this article looks beyond this dichotomy by drawing on unpublished sources of the time and, thereby, challenges the traditional understanding of Swiss graphic design.

Materials and tools as catalysts of invention in graphic design ideation

This article examines ‘material literacy’ in graphic design practice, defined as the idea that designers interpret meanings in material properties. Given existing definitions of ‘literacy’ and ‘visual literacy’, the concept supports the theory that because materials are as diverse in their capacity for expression as are words and images, materials facilitate a form of design language in themselves. Useful for consolidating contemporary literature's many recognitions of the significance of materials in post-digital designing, by focusing on the productivity of technologically fluent graphic design ideation, the article emphasises the importance of a practitioner's knowledge, choice, and discriminate implementation of tools.

Students' experiences of human-centred interventions in a design education setting

International and national developments in graphic design practice have incorporated unprecedented levels of engagement with end-user clients and audiences. However, instructional graphic design courses for undergraduates have not kept pace with this trend or with associated professional practice expectations. Traditionally, graphic design practice relies on the ‘expert’, autocratic knowledge of the designer regarding the expected outcomes of the design brief. The use of co-operative tools and techniques such as human-centred design (HCD) enables the process to become a more democratic co-creation experience, where the client participants actively contribute to the development of the final design product. To prepare students for the new relationship between designers and end-users, newly developed HCD project interventions were created as part of the Communication Design modules offered in the third year Graphic Design Diploma programme at a University of Technology in South Africa. This paper reports on two human-centred interventions in different settings and involving different types of stakeholders, with a view to analysing the experiences of students as they conducted the projects to assess the viability of the HCD projects towards establishing a proposed new curriculum that incorporates aspects of HCD as a fundamental approach to graphic design practice.

Some provisions of psychology on the adoption of platinum font compositions

The article describes key provisions of perception and recognition of type units, texts, typographic compositions in graphic design. These provisions have been formulated by taking into account the psychophysiological features of recognition and evaluation of visual images by a human. It is emphasized that the assimilation of information is directly related to the structure of the stages of perception, prior awareness of the content, and also it depends on the correlation of font characters and background space. This article reveals the principles, means, and techniques of artistic shaping describes the general patterns of the organization of signs into coherent groups within the artboard, that should provide the harmony of such components. According to perception features, single-sheet printed typographical editions can be roughly divided into two categories: those that are focusing attention, and those that act directly on the perception, regardless of personal desires and activate reserves of permanent attention. The authors believe that the true artistic value belongs to those shape-forming principles which allow by only means of type characters and their placement within the artboard to activate the viewer’s attention. Such activation is a pledge of interest, conscious analysis, decision making and more. The article summarizes and formulates the most important aspects of text information perception effectiveness, it is based on the analysis of various layout options of the artboard where a combination of typography characters forms words, lines and text blocks. The perspective of further research is to use the following basic provisions of the perception psychology of sign and symbolic typographical information in the practice of graphic design and in research work on technical aesthetics and art.

Compositional Principles of the Organization of the Sheet Plane

Considering the increasing role of science-based methodologies of graphic design practice in scientific research and development of educational guidebooks for future specialists, this article is focused on importance and consistency of correct usage of terminology of composition theory, namely categories, attributes, means. Recently, the need to provide an educational process with specialized educational literature arose because of the establishment of design programs in many academic institutions, in particular, graphic design departments. First of all, it concerns the theoretical bases of graphic design. As a result of aforementioned, we see the appearance of many editions on issues of the basics of composition and morphogenesis. However, the major part of them requires a serious revision of their target use in the educational process. it is a particular issue for interpretation of terms and concepts like “categories”, “patterns”, “attributes”, “means”, “approaches” which are extremely tangled and not systemized in accordance with the professional direction. This article makes a superficial analysis of sources on the basics of composition and morphogenesis, it establishes that the most problematic issue is that authors do not distinguish a planar composition as a separate type while considering characteristics of principles of morphogenesis. The article emphasizes that in the graphic design actions are held in a two-dimensional space, however, despite the lack of third dimension, all principles of morphogenesis take the place in the organization of planar composition. At the same time, it is emphasized that each task of graphic design has certain differences in the quantitative use of the patterns of composition. The article gives an example of the definition of priority principle of formation of integral groups within the plane, as well as one of the possible algorithms for creating a figurative font composition.

Increasing Cultural Awareness for Effective Global Communication via Graphic Design Practice and Instruction

Increasing Cultural Awareness for Effective Global Communication via Graphic Design Practice and Instruction

СИМВОЛІКА ОРНАМЕНТУ НАРОДНОЇ ВИШИВКИ У ГРАФІЧНОМУ ДИЗАЙНІ

To analyze the role of the symbol-amulet as a means of designating the cultural value space and also to consider the specifics of ancient symbols-ornaments of Ukrainian folk embroidery in graphic design. A combination of complex and comparative methods that allow to identify the peculiarity of the problems of visual persuasive design in the modern society, as well as the principles of objectivity and impartiality of analysis, the principle of critical reflection of the investigated material. The symbolic design of the folk embroidery ornament is analyzed in the practice of graphic design, was carried out its characteristic features, such as expressiveness, persuasiveness, informative character, emotional influence on the person's subconscious reactions and, as a result, the possibility to transform the orientations of the target auditor through the sense of belonging to the common space of cultural values are established. The semantic resource of using national ornament in graphic design products was investigated. We found that it is a powerful factor in forming a sense of belonging to the value space of the native culture, which is important for the progressive development of Ukrainian society to use the national symbols as a factor for formation the positive and constructive intentions and behavioral reactions of its representatives. The obtained results of the research should help to better understand the specifics and role the application of etnosimvolika, ancient symbol-amulets in graphic design, its interconnectedness with various aspects of human beingness.

Ulysses and I: Joyce as a catalyst for graphic practice

Abstract This article will focus on elements of my graphic design practice that consider how text can inspire, be used with and act as imagery. I discuss my master’s project, an investigation into a reader’s response to text and a traditional graphic application of that research. This second project was made in collaboration with Joseph Haigh, a fellow student at Manchester Metropolitan University whose research is concerned with typographic landscapes. I consider how my haptic perception of the book has influenced this later work and how it continues to inspire my recent image-based responses.