Australian Travel

Up until the late 20th century, the graphic-design medium had been based on hand-craft processes: layouts being stylised by hand to bring into being an idea; type was specified and ordered from a typesetter; and type proofs and photostats of images were placed into position on heavy paper or board for photographic reproduction and platemaking. Over the course of the 1980s and early ’90s, however, rapid advances in digital pc hardware and software radically altered graphic design.

Software for Apple’s 1984 Macintosh computer, such as the MacPaint programme developed 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 enabled designers and artists to use computer graphics in a new, intuitive manner. The Postscriptâ„¢ page-description language from Adobe Systems, Inc., enabled pages of type and images to be placed 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 virtually complete.

Personal computers placed typesetting tools into the realm of individual designers, and thence a time of experimentation occurred in the design of new and unusual type-faces 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 typefaces were sometimes changed within single headlines, columns, and words. Much of this type of research happened 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, caught the imagination of a youthful audience by taking this kind of experimental approach into graphic design.

Rapid growth in onscreen software also allowed designers to make elements transparent; to stretch, scale, and bend elements; to layer type and graphics in mid-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 a photograph of New York’s Central Park, a site plan, and botanical art to commemorate the landscape architect. Placed together, these images create a rich expression of Olmsted’s life and work.

The digital change in graphic design was followed quickly by public access to the internet. A completely new operation of graphic design activity developed in the mid-1990s when internet commerce became a growth sector of the world-wide economy, causing organizations and businesses to quickly establish websites. Designing a website involves 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 number of new considerations, including designing for navigation around the website 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 added to the effectiveness of this website included a consistent colour palette, an informative use of pictures of products, and a scrolling imagery of products.

Because of the universal usefulness and reach of the internet, the graphic-design sector is becoming increasingly global in scope. In addition, 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 expands 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 ubiquitous; it is the main component of our complex print and electronic information systems. It permeates contemporary society, bringing information, product identification, entertainment, and persuasive messages. The unstoppable advance of technology has changed dramatically the way graphic designs are created and distributed to a mass market. However, the fundamental role of the graphic designer, adding expressive form and clarity of content to communicative messages, remains the same.

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