Up until the late 20th century, the graphic-design discipline had been based on handicraft processes: layouts being made by hand so as to bring into being an idea; type was specified and ordered from a typesetter; and type proofs and photostats of images were assembled in position on heavy paper or card for photographic reproduction and platemaking. Over the course of the 1980s and early ’90s, however, rapid changes in digital computer hardware and software radically altered graphic design.
Software for Apple’s 1984 Macintosh pc, such as the MacPaint program created by computer programmer Bill Atkinson and graphic designer Susan Kare, had a majorly revolutionary human interface. Tool icons controlled by a mouse or graphics tablet allowed designers and artists to use computer graphics in a new, intuitive way. The Postscript™ page-description language from Adobe Systems, Inc., enabled pages of type and images to be assembled onto graphic designs on-screen. By the mid-1990s, the development of design from a drafting-table action to an on-screen computer activity was basically complete.
Digital computers placed typesetting tools into the realm of designers, and thus a period of experimentation began in the creation of new and unusual type and page layouts. Type and images were layered, fragmented, and disfigured; type columns were overlapped and run at very long or short line lengths, and the sizes, weights, and fonts were changed within single headlines, columns, and words. Much of this type of research took place in design education at art schools and universities. American designer David Carson, art director of Beach Culture magazine in 1989-91, Surfer in 1991-92, and Ray Gun magazine in 1992-96, captured the imagination of a youthful audience by taking this kind of experimental approach into publication design.
Fast growth in onscreen software also enabled designers to make elements transparent; to stretch, scale, and bend them; to layer type and images in space; and to fuse imagery into complex montages. For example, in a United States postage stamp from 1998, designers Ethel Kessler and Greg Berger digitally montaged John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Frederick Law Olmsted with an image of New York’s Central Park, a site plan, and botanical art to commemorate the landscape architect. Together, these images create a rich expression of Olmsted’s life and work.
The electronic advancement in graphic design was shortly followed by general public access to the Internet. A completely new sphere of graphic-design activity blossomed in the mid-1990s when internet business became a growth sector of the global economy, causing organizations and businesses to quickly establish web-sites. Designing a website involves the layout of screens of information rather than of physical pages, but approaches to the use of type, images, and colour are similar to those used for print. Web design, however, requires a host of new considerations, including designing for navigation around the site and for using hypertext links to be taken to additional information. An example of strong Web design is the Herman Miller for the Home Web site, designed by BBK Studio in 1998. These designers developed a strong visual identity, effective navigation, and informational clarity. Attributes that contributed to the effectiveness of this web-site included a pleasing colour palette, an informative use of pictures of products, and a scrolling montage of products.
Because of the global appeal and reach of the Internet, the graphic-design trade is becoming increasingly global in scope. Moreover, the merging of motion graphics, animation, video feeds, and music into website design has caused the merging of traditional print and broadcast media. As kinetic media expand from motion pictures and basic television to scores of cable-television channels, video games, and animated Web sites, motion graphics are becoming an increasingly important area of graphic design.
In the 21st century, graphic design is universal; it is the main component of the complex print and electronic information systems. It permeates modern society, bringing information, product identification, entertainment, and persuasive messages. The inexorable advancing of technology has dramatically changed the way graphic designs are created and distributed to a mass audience. However, the essential role of the graphic designer, adding creative form and clarity of content to communicative messages, remains the same.
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