No Comments Written by Robert on May 26, 2008 – 1:49 am

In the broadest sense, graphic design describes the conscious organization of text and/or images to communicate a specific message. The term refers to both the process (a verb: to design) by which the communication is generated, as well as the product of this process (a noun: a design).

It is used to inform, advertise, or decorate, and typically embodies a combination of these functions. The more aesthetic and sensory latitude involved or allowed, the closer graphic design veers toward art (poetics); the less, the closer toward science (functionality).

Today the term encompasses a notoriously wide range of activities, from the design of traditional print media (books and posters) to location specific media (signs and signage systems), and electronic media (CD/DVD-ROMs and web sites).

Graphic design emerged as an autonomous discipline in the first half of the twentieth century, encompassing both long-standing and emerging activities such as typography, book design, and advertising. After a few decades marked by avant-garde experimentation in the first half of the twentieth century, the discipline acquired a degree of professional acumen during the decades immediately before and after the Second World War.

Toward the end of the millennium this status was destabilized through the so-called democratization of publishing (“desktop publishing”). During the shift from the mechanical to digital, the tools of graphic design production page makeup and imaging software, typefaces, and so on became freely available and relatively cheap. This demystified the notion of graphic design and, by extension, questioned both the professional standing and relevance of the graphic designer. Like many media roles, graphic design is now characterized by this uncertain identity.

Rather than the way things work, graphic design is still largely (popularly) perceived as referring to the way things look: surface, style, and increasingly, spin. It is written about and documented largely in terms of its representation of the zeitgeist. In recent decades, graphic design has become associated foremost with commerce, becoming virtually synonymous with corporate identity and advertising (Advertisement), while its role in more intellectual pursuits is increasingly marginalized.

Furthermore, through a complex of factors characteristic of late capitalism, many of the more strategic aspects of graphic design are undertaken by those working in “middle-management” positions, typically within public relations or marketing departments.

Under these conditions, those working under the title graphic designer fulfill only the production (typesetting, page makeup, programming) at the tail-end of this system. On the other hand, in line with the ubiquitous fragmentation of postindustrial society into ever smaller coteries, there exists an international scene of graphic designers who typically make work independent of the traditional external commission, in self-directed or collaborative projects with colleagues in neighboring disciplines. Such work is typically marked by its experimental and personal nature, generally well-documented, and circulated in a wide range of media.

As these two aspects of graphic designthe overtly commercial and the overtly marginal grow increasingly distinct, this schizophrenia renders the term increasingly vague and useless. At best, this implies that the term ought always to be distinctly qualified by the context of its use.