Graphic Design Theories Through The Years

Graphic design is a very interesting topic for me because of its impact in my personal and professional life. This is my practice and my main discipline in the creative industry and I am glad that there is a topic for it, and it helped me quite a lot because of the new learnings from the reading. I would like to start with the gist of the reading edited by Helen Armstrong entitled: Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field. In this book, Armstrong compiled and edited the most important documents in line with the theories and concepts encircling the field and discipline of graphic design in a scholarly and academic manner. The book discussed the timeline of the development of graphic design, cited key personalities that contributed to the development and movements of the field, and gave some examples of the important design era. It has been said in the book that during the early 1900s, the avant-garde in graphic design emerges. The designers of the old world turned their backs on the old ways of treating the impacts of graphic design based on the standards of authorship to its impact on a global scale. It was like a rebellion for me; the activism of the creatives during those times who have their idealistic approach in making the field of graphic design relevant to the world - on a global scale. These avant-garde artists saw design authorship as elitist and ego-driven and they also believed that it is connected to the bourgeoise mentality that corrupts society. I can say that these artists are the radical movers of the idea of abolishing the authorship dut\ring their time, we can assume that the rampant avant-garde ideology movement in the western hemisphere greatly influenced their propositions. They want to move the personal to the universal and their propositions geared towards the social detachment to social engagement of graphic design. As graphic design became a profession, the ideal of objectivity replaced that of subjectivity, in other words, graphic design must be objective in such a way that it communicates its message clearly and must not feed the ego of the author. Graphic designers of the 21st century geared towards the role of social responsibility in design - even in the academe, they are encouraging the students to look beyond the formal concerns to the global impact of their work. László Moholy-Nagy, a Hungarian academic, painter, and photographer discussed typophoto, it talks about the combination of typography and photography to produce an exact rendering of communication and visual presentation. Nagy believes that the integration of typography with photography can become an impactful mode of communication because of its capability to create a representation visually in such a way that types can become the image. He also proposes the use of the available technology during those times - and that is the emergence of film and electronics. As a photographer, Nagy also argues that “Photography is highly effective when used as typographical material. It may appear as an illustration beside the words, or in the form of “phototext” in place of words, as a precise form of representation so objective as to permit of no individual interpretation.” (László Moholy-Nagy, 1925). Wolfgang Weingart argues on his contradicting proposition on the rational swiss typography regarding the limitations of the typography at that time. He discussed the possibility of breaking the rational methodologies of his elders thus giving birth to the New Wave. Weingart and his students during his years of teaching reevaluates the typographical potentials and question the established standards. He wrote his vision in a document entitles “My Way to Typography” wherein he discussed the propositions and I quote: “The only way to break typographic rules was to know them. I acquired this advantage during my apprenticeship as I became expert in letterpress printing. I assigned my students exercises that not only addressed basic design relationships with type placement, size, and weight, but also encouraged them to critically analyze letterspacing to experiment with the limits of readability.” (Weignart, 2000). Here in this passage, Weigngart clearly challenged the norms during the 60s by acquiring the basic knowledge first - his apprenticeship for this instance - and he applied his ideologies to his students, gradually introducing his arguments to them, he’s a strategist I must say. In conclusion, he pointed out the importance of the variations that produce contrast in the visuals and tones. Kenya Hara, a Japanese designer, who is heavily influenced by his belief in the principles of Shintoism, created a movement or style that deals with potentiality and emptiness, two principles that is highly regarded in his religion. His traditions helped him to come up with a design that shifted the technology-driven to sensory-driven. Hara proposes an alternative approach to the western craving for newness, he encourages the creatives to refrain from keeping up with the technology and experience once more the world we live in. For me, he is more of a poet, and his approach is philosophical in a way because it focuses on the beliefs of his religion and human happiness, deep concentration of these topics gave me that impression. In his essay taken from ‘Designing Design, 2007’, Hara stated: “Apparently, people think they shouldn’t criticize technological progress. It may be that deeply seated in the consciousness of our contemporaries is an obsession of a sort, to the effect that those who contradicted the Industrial Revolution or the machine civilization were thought of as lacking in foresight and were looked down upon. That’s why people have such a hard time speaking out against flaws that are likely felt by everyone. This is probably because they’re afraid that anyone who grumbles about technology will be thought an anachronism. Society has no mercy for those who can’t keep up with the times.” (Hara, 2007) in this statement, we can clearly say that Hara is not fond of the people’s obsession with technology, to the point that their being human is already compromised, very philosophical indeed and very interesting view from a designer in the orient. He criticizes the norm nowadays especially with regards to the technological burdens that e are experiencing. Hara thinks that we are always in a hurry to develop technology more than we should, Hara believed that it is best to let the technology mature in its own pacing through trial and error - and by being always catching up with time, technology brings us more stress as the days go by. Design as of today, according to Hara is too strained, and because of that, it might not bring us the satisfaction we are expecting. Technology and design are related in so many ways, especially in the current time. We, designers, are artists are using technology to be able to come up with our works. Computer software is essential to create graphics, but reading this essay passage from Hara, I’ve realized that it is really human wellness that should matter most. Through the years, the evolution of graphic design from the early 1900s up to this day is continuously developing and I believe that this cycle of evolution will continue for eternity as long as there are people who wanted to challenge the current systems. Graphic designers should also be aware of the changes in design over the years - the role of typography, in fact, is of big importance when you are talking about graphic design along with photography. And lastly, we must also consider the propositions and arguments of Hara regarding the impact of technology in our design and in our daily lives and ultimately - on our human experience.