To support my practise have realised there is a need to understand the history of design, and the history of communication.
Like myself majority of web designers have come from a graphic design background, after all the world wide web really isn’t that old.
On my research in this particular area I was presented with a wealth of books looking at the history of Graphic Design. I really did underestimate its history and it made for a fascinating find.
Ayiter (n.d) stated in his blog about The History of Visual Communication, like myself “…come from a graphic artist background in print, where the artist has the absolute control over the size and dimensions of all aspects of design.” He continues to compare this to the creation of the web and being restricted to the size of the browser window and making the components work within that restricted space. This in my opinion is the overarching change within design and surely this then means the treatment has to be different?
Throughout my research in every book I look at that covers the history of graphic design and development of the internet, that the sole purpose of the Internet was not for the visual but was only to share information, communication, like an electronic library. It in fact started out as a Sturken and Cartwright (2001) “…military defense system… So that alone shows that communication has changed.
Graphic design and the form it use to take…
Graphic design has gone from being something produced using specialists who focused on page layout, typesetters and production artists who placed the pieces together in the areas. Now its all done by one person on one single computer. Type and image processing had remained seperated and never working the two together…one just simply lay over the top of the other, one after the other! Now you can work with images and type together, mixing and matching and integrating where you wish. This has given the designer much more scope in what they can do but has it caused limitation on the other hand? Drucker and Mcvarish observed, “Many designers who created fabulous imagery on screen were disappointed to find that the electronic aesthetics was not always matched in print.” But now you are able to cut, copy, paste, merge, flatten, inverted, reversed, brightened, darkened, distort, at a moments click of buttons…editing became so easy! Editing the colours, textures can be changed frequently til the desired effect has been reached.
Its purpose…
The purpose and aim of design has changed hugely. Digital design in its infancy meant manipulating images, and with typefaces on the canvas of the that computer. The dot-com boom in the late 1990s really brought the World Wide Web to the surface and the internet truly became visual and audiable. Its now very much moved over to focus on the user and how they interact with the web and learning this can optimise how the web is created to optimise the experience the person gets. Ayiter (n.d), “Unlike traditional design where the goal is to make the object or application physically attractive, the goal of user interface design is to make the user interaction experience as simple and intuitive as possible.”
Drucker and McVarish (2009) explains how digital technology brought more than a change in design styles, “Graphic design now involves structuring environments for use rather than simply creating effective displays. Responsibility for shaping information has profound implications for the role of design…” We therefore need to think more of graphics and now beyond communication as it now moves in to also looking at the structuring of information. So despite the internets main sole purpose continuously changing and developing from its birth it still remains that in the terms of the world wide web design isn’t just the visual its about the delivering of information and that will always be what it does, whether that’s sharing information about products a web site sells, or on sharing photographs its all sharing and using information. However we mustn’t lose sight of graphic design has always been advertising but the canvas has changed considerably.
How the Internet is changing…
As when graphic design first came about on computers there was limitations on default fonts and colour palettes. Truw to the process of development the Internet is faced initially with the same constraints…limited web fonts, limited file sizes. This brought about some concern, Meggs (1998) “Early in the Internet Revolution, many feared a collapse of design standards due to the limitations.” But as shown earlier this hasn’t been the case its become more information design and how to communicate the information in an accessible way.
The role of the sciences…
To support my studies Drucker and McVarish (2009) explain further in their book, “the once innovative concept of a ‘language of form’ is now being reconfigured through cognitive studies and advance systems theory, aided by new strains of psychology, cultural theory, and social analysis.” The elements being designed for the web are now having to be understood behaviourally and then applied in to graphics and typefaces.
How the internet is viewed by others…
With the development of digital design being so ‘quick’ the development has become a mystery. It has made it seem that the work of the digital or information designer is easy and that the computer does it. It has really opened itself to many critics. This new form of communication has given everyone so many opportunities be it companies or individuals the possibilities are ever growing, they’re endless. However this source of communication has its down fulls, it is produced so fast and so widely its controls are left scrutinised opening itself to global markets whether that’s good communication or bad. Sturken and Cartwright (2001) state that “lines of communication are multidirectional…and globally.” And there is is the Information Superhighway!
Questions, the pitfulls, only the user can decide…
As Meggs (1998) points out that with this advancement of technology elements have been lost, “The photograph lost its status on an undisputed documentation of visual reality because imaging software allows seamless and undetectable image manipulation.”
To conclude…
Meggs sums it up nicely, “a process of redefining the nature of communication, work, authorship and graphic design is underway. Graphic design is expanding and changing. Professional designers are now joined by laypeople whose design activities are extensions of their vocational or avocational activities, while graphic designers are extending their medium into self-initiated and fine arts-related experimentation.” And that is exactly what I am aiming to do. Investigating the areas of ‘fuzziness’ being overlooked in a fast-paced ever evolving world. He continues to state that the tools of graphic design are continuously changing but the role of graphic design remains the same and that is to communicate information in some form or another, internet or no internet!
As part of my MA I am here to, “adapt new technology…by inventing new forms and new ways of expressing ideas.” And with this I want to investigate user interaction and experience to understand this area better to developer as a designer and design with the key areas, and new findings in mind.
List of References:
Bradley, S. (2010). The Framing Effect: Influence Your Audience By Setting The Context. Retrieved from http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/framing-expectation-exposure-effect/
Davis, C. (2005). Finding and Knowing. Psychology, Information and Computers. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Drucker, J. (1994, 2004). The Book as Sequence: Narrative and Non-Narrative. The Century of Artists’ Books. New York, NY: Granary Books.
Drucker, J., & McVarnish, E. (2009). Digital design after the 1970s. Graphic Design History. A Critical Guide (pp. 323-339). United States of America: Pearson Education.
Gleitman, H., Rozin, P., & Sabini, J. (1997). Solomon E. Asch (1907–1996): Obituary, 52(9), pp. 984-985.
Gordan, I. E. (1989). Theories of Visual Perception. United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Hall, S. (1997). Chapter 1. Representation, meaning and language. Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices (pp.15-29). London, United Kingdom: SAGE/Open University.
Hollis, R. (2001). Graphic Design. A Concise History. (pp.186-223). London, UK: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
Meggs, P. (1998). The Digital Revolution. A History of Graphic Design (pp. 455-475). United States of America: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Mirzoeff, N. (1999). Introduction. What is visual culture? An Introduction to Visual Culture. United Kingdom: Routledge.
Mirzoeff, N. (2002). The Visual Culture Reader. (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: Routledge.
Mirzoeff, N. (2009). An Introduction to Visual Culture. (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: Routledge.
Oxford Dictionaries. What’s new? (February 2013). Retrieved from http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/what-s-new
Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2001) The Internet: global village or multinational corporate marketplace? Practices of Looking. An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press Ltd.
Weinschenk, S. M. (2009). Neuro Web Design. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
Weinschenk, S. M. (2011). 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
Bibliography:
Bradley, S. (2010). The Framing Effect: Influence Your Audience By Setting The Context. Retrieved from http://www.vanseodesign.com/web- design/framing-expectation-exposure-effect/
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Davis, C. (2005). Finding and Knowing. Psychology, Information and Computers. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Drucker, J. (1994, 2004). The Book as Sequence: Narrative and Non-Narrative. The Century of Artists’ Books. New York, NY: Granary Books.
Drucker, J., & McVarnish, E. (2009). Digital design after the 1970s. Graphic Design History. A Critical Guide (pp. 323-339). United States of America: Pearson Education.
Gleitman, H., Rozin, P., & Sabini, J. (1997). Solomon E. Asch (1907–1996): Obituary, 52(9), pp. 984-985.
Gordan, I. E. (1989). Theories of Visual Perception. United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Hall, S. (1997). Chapter 1. Representation, meaning and language. Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices (pp.15-29). London, United Kingdom: SAGE/Open University.
Hollis, R. (2001). Graphic Design. A Concise History. (pp.186-223). London, UK: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
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Meggs, P. (1998). The Digital Revolution. A History of Graphic Design (pp. 455-475). United States of America: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Mirzoeff, N. (1999). Introduction. What is visual culture? An Introduction to Visual Culture. United Kingdom: Routledge.
Mirzoeff, N. (2002). The Visual Culture Reader. (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: Routledge.
Mirzoeff, N. (2009). An Introduction to Visual Culture. (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: Routledge.
Moggridge, B. (2007). Designing Interactions. United States of America: MIT Press.
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Rock, I. (1990). The Legacy of Solomon Asch: Essays in Cognition and Social Psychology. Hillsdale NJ: Psychology Press.
Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2001) The Internet: global village or multinational corporate marketplace? Practices of Looking. An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press Ltd.
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Weinschenk, S. M. (2009). Neuro Web Design. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
Weinschenk, S. M. (2011). 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.
