The Idea of Graphic Design - Where Did It Come From - Term Paper Example

The Idea of Graphic Design: Where did it come from? Introduction For graphic design, the progress of cultural ideals and standards is as essential to appreciate as movements in visual design. Indeed, they are strongly interconnected. Design is inspired by domains as diverse as ideas in psychology, science, fine arts, and the growth of new technologies. The study of the history of graphic design can give inspiration. This essay demonstrates how graphic design developed or where the idea of ‘graphic design’ came from. Graphic design has functioned under numerous identities since its creation. Graphic design, visual design, and visual communication are all accurate identities in the contemporary period. Various antiquated names exist, such as graphics design, layout, and commercial art. History and Family of Graphic Design Not like architecture—a widely recognised relative of graphic design—graphic design is quite a new design movement, a trend of the last century. Graphic design, which was a natural reaction to the communication demands of the industrial revolution, was created to persuade consumers in North American and Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries to buy the products of mass production (Eskilson 10). Fast growing reproduction technologies paved the way for the involvement of graphic design in the major social, technological, political, and economic changes of that period. The origins of graphic design may be traced back to book-printing and type-cutting in Europe. This predecessor of graphic design was introduced to early America. For hundreds of years, from the creation of moveable type during the Renaissance period to the 20th century, type design, typesetting, and bookmaking were a consolidated industry concentrated on publishing agencies (Heller & Pettit 28). Typography was not interested in the message and did not try to be interpretive or explanatory. Craft was greatly appreciated and books displayed growing sophistication and stylishness as the years passed by. Interpretive images was handed over to ‘high art’, or painting. Over the years, painters have used entire languages of visual nonverbal representations to communicate messages to their audiences, who were capable of interpreting messages through common cultural experience and learned associations (Stubbe 16). However, it was not until the 20th century that meanings were inserted into visual typographic style. The early avant-garde movements of De Stijl, Constructivism, Dada, and Futurism focused their interest on visual and written communications, including the more established domains of fine art, disproving the usual divisions between crafts, applied arts, and fine arts. Particularly, the Russian Constructivists preserved their identities as artists although they assumed the task of public broadcasters during the Russian Revolution; the Bauhaus consolidated design, craft, and art in a strong sense of identity and ideology (Drucker & McVarish 42). A number of early proponents of modernism tried to perform the first ‘specialised’ graphic design, using their initial trials for the practical communications demands of manufacturing customers. Book designers adopted the European traditional non-interpretive practices with highly exact arrangements of both texts and images. However, with a public that was becoming more and more educated, the tasks of the printer expanded to comprise early expressions of the mass media: business-related flyers and political leaflets in the 18th century, and posters, popular magazines, and newspaper ads, in the 19th century (Heller & Ballance 26). By the Victorian period, a vast diversity of decorative faces had been created and wood type was formed as a cheap and handy method of beautification for mass communications. However, this broader range of typography did not have visual coding. Posters, magazines, and advertising in the latter part of the 19th century inspired a novel and emerging process of illustration (Heller & Petit 32). The illustrators made very artistic accurate drawings of stories, landscapes, and objects with increasing ability and fast changing reproduction tools. However, they used very few symbolisms. Graphic design at last emerged from two major developments. As the 20th century began, a sudden increase in new reproduction technologies and processes encouraged specialisation, detaching idea from the mechanical production of printing and typesetting (Sparke 51). At the same time America welcomed its first modernist emigrants from Europe. These emigrants viewed design as an objective practice requiring the highly capable forms of reading and seeing, and understood the likelihood of theory and practice as orienting the creative practice (Ashwin 72). These designers, like Matter, Burtin, and Bayer, introduced the twofold component of modernism—objectivity and ambiguity. They were all interested in the unconscious and ambiguity presented by psychology, literature, and fine art. Asymmetrical designs and interpretive typography appeared more suitable in a modern period where traditional practices were quickly vanishing (Heller & Chwast 44). Surrealism introduced symbolic types of abstract communication that surpassed the virtue of the word. In contrast, the European designers thought that objectivity and rationalism were suitable for a modern period dominated by commercial and industrial activities. They carried on with the lively designs and abstractions of early modernism. They convinced their customers to make concise important statements instead of text-filled depictions practiced in early advertising (Heller & Chwast 32). The designer was viewed as an exceptionally talented message interpreter. Interpretation was fundamental to the concept of communication. Methodical rationalism used science, whilst symbolic interpretation and creative designs drew on art, consolidating business, craft, science, and art. These European emigrants had an enormous influence on several young graphic designers, like Bradbury Thompson and Paul Rand (Meggs & Purvis 68). In the 1950s, these individuals created new methods of text/image associations, photography, and composition. Numerous of their creations built the foundation of the ‘big idea’ approach to the conceptualisation of design solutions which gave importance to the designer’s ingenuity and insight. The insightful theoretical ‘big idea’ approach became a distinctively visual communication medium, and was directly related to the 1950’s and 1960’s New York school of advertising (Heller & Ballance 5-6). Epitomised by the model Volkswagen Beetle series of Doyle Dane Bernbach, this ad formed witty and intellectual interaction between visual and verbal ideas (Heller & Ballance 6). Surprising mixtures of perspectives and/or images stimulated amazement and ambiguity. The concept this “picture is worth a thousand words” took full advantage of the reading process (Heller & Ballance 6). Both image and text were to be interpreted by the audience, depending on linguistic meanings. Sadly, numerous graphic designers nowadays relate this great method to the commercialised nature of advertising and were not able to maximise the capability of the abstract text/image approach. As this very powerful method of advertising began to govern visual communications, the earliest current of Swiss design forms and ideas surfaced (Jobling & Crowley 84). First introduced in the 1960s via design manuals and magazines, several young designers started to adopt these concepts. One of the most prominent American designers, Rudy DeHarak, executed the Swiss approach after witnessing such powerful models in the design media. Later on, a number of specialised design agencies started to adopt these concepts to meet the demands of major corporate customers in the United States, Canada, England, and Holland (Jobling & Crowley 84-86). Several organisations and firms, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Herman Miller, and Container Corporation, used this visual and approach. Sooner or later, corporate culture espoused Swiss graphic design as the best corporate approach (Heller & Ballance 6-7). Basically distinct from the ‘big idea’ style, the Swiss graphic design approach is rooted in a principle of ‘modernist rational method’, a systematised technique not highly reliant on the personal skill and motivation of the graphic designer (Heller & Ballance 7). This had a deeply professionalising impact on graphic design, strongly supplanting the servant figure of the commercial artist with an image of an educated, skilled professional. As this approach dominated the arena, graphic design started to separate from advertising design, a key distinction that is still existent today. This traditional ‘Swiss’ approach laid down a structured procedure rather than the ingenuity of inspiration, and guaranteed much more reliable, although expected, outcomes (Conway 121). It took on a rational systems practice derived from problem solving and pseudo-scientific study. The principle was the impartial delivery of information, rather than the personal articulation of a wit, humour, sentiment, or outlook. ‘Swiss’ was discovered to be more appropriate for the company’s need for accurate presentation, whereas the ‘big idea’ was more appropriate for the persuasive objectives of advertising (Conway 121-123). ‘Swiss’ had a tendency to depend on minimalist typography and figurative photography, whereas the ‘big idea’ was much more image-based, using figurative photography and images. ‘Swiss’ graphic medium emphasised graphic design’s linguistic grammar with typographic associations and ordered grids (Margolin 104). This type of modernism abandoned several of the innovations of early modernism with surrealistic descriptions and visually communicative typography. Mostly, traditional ‘Swiss’ lettering was intended to be read, and its illustrations to be seen, just in the traditional forms. Semiotics, the art of symbols in visual communication, was a model examined in Europe in the latter part of the 1960s. This scientific model of the study of meaning in language was quite consistent with the rationality of the ‘Swiss’ approach (Margolin 104-105). Semiotic model, guaranteeing an alternative to insightful or instinctive design, started to influence a number of ‘Swiss’ enthusiasts. Even though this complicated model was not sufficiently understood, the ‘scientific’ essence reinforced ‘Swiss’ design’s objective quality, and strengthened the belief that graphic design was different from an individual art design. Semiotics became graphic design’s first systematic model (Heller & Pettit 62). The first wave of ‘Swiss’ was directly related to Zurich’s swiss designers, namely, Gertsner and Muller-Brockmann, employing the early modernist principles of Bauhaus. Their rigid minimalist systematic articulation of practical messages may be depicted as Classic Modernism (Heller & Ballance 8). A second, more elaborate and artificial type of ‘Swiss’, emerged that may be referred to as Late Modernism. Creations from Basel were much more complicated and new, inserting numerous ‘ornamental’ designs. A large number of rules were disregarded and the time was spent to expand the sensibility to a sophisticated aesthetic intricacy and elegance (Jobling & Crowley 84). The impertinent Wolfgang Weingart contradicted the Minimalism of his forerunner, Emil Ruder, and began a set of work with his pupils that shoved constructivist efforts of early modernism to their rational limits. Expanding the ‘Swiss’ components of composition and structure, he examined to a greater extent complicated typography and grids in exploratory works that became somewhat painterly (Eskilson 352). This very formal and rigid style was not highly abstract and has been denounced as simply ornamental. This movement may be classified under Mannerist, Baroque, or degenerate Modernism (Heller & Ballance 8-9). As the field of traditional ‘Swiss’ was receiving more and more attention and prior to the spread of Basel’s influence, Robert Venturi astonished the cultural setting with his controversial work publicised in 1965, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (McDermott 175). Even though majority of graphic designers were still uninformed of his arguments for several years, and some may remain ignorant of his sweeping influence, his defiance of modernist principles surprised the design and architecture field, prompting a new movement that became known as ‘post-Modern.’ His premises supporting coarsely dynamic commercial language and pre-Modern architectural styles in time spurred a new stage of graphic design (McDermott 175-177). The development of the history of graphic design in the 1970s coincided with Venturi’s restoration of pre-Modern forms. It was a certain indication of progress when graphic design found out that it had a history of its own. Up till then, graphic designers thought they were still in the process of conceiving the field. Graphic design looked absolutely new, without a history (Doordan 116). The first volumes and seminar on design history offered a plethora of historical approaches for graphic designers. In the mid-1970s, the mannerist Modernism of the Basel school, history, and popular-culture expressions teamed up to form a novel, formal medium most commonly referred to as ‘New Wave’ or ‘post Modernism’ graphic design (Meggs & Purvis 138). Fed up with the minimalism and inflexibility of corporate ‘Swiss’, graphic designers, especially instructors affiliated with a number of more prominent institutions of graphic design, started to experiment. They started to explore, develop, or abandon the grid and to try out new spatial styles, bringing in pattern and intricacy, and openly decorative design components. This stage may simply be called a decadent Modernism or baroque than postmodernism (Arntson 89). The medium was deeply associated with the interest of modernism in structural and syntactic expressionism, even though at present it had become subjective self-gratifying formal works instead of objective articulations of practical information. The style adopted the visual intricacy of Basel and was largely communicative of itself with modest semantically embedded representational message (Meggs & Purvis 138-139). The form of graphic postmodernism of the ‘New Wave’ movement is basically formalist with a somewhat little association with content. Definitely, the ‘big idea’ approach of the earlier period was much more committed to the presentation of content. In the field of fine arts, a deeper part of postmodernism has surfaced as a set of modest language and critical theory (Conway 106). Indeed, in a great deal of music, photography, and postmodern art the core language is an analysis of a body of symbols and culture. Even though semiotics did not become a functional design approach, it and post-Structuralism, have currently offered an actual language and technique in graphic design (Heller & Chwast 125). Visual works are examined as expression embedded for meaning. Meanings are deciphered, revealing power dynamics and management of meaning. Contemporary fine art and post-Structuralism have inspired a new path that is more genuinely postmodern. Graphic design is seen in linguistic terms as a visual expression. The viewer is treated as ‘viewers’ and ‘readers’. In this new approach, content is once more the main emphasis. Images are to be decoded, read, and viewed (Jobling & Crowley 92). This approach has an intellectual firmness, challenging the viewers more, but also gratifying the viewers with greater independence and content. The concentration is on the viewer to make personal readings in graphic design that deconstruct the meaning. Components are an encouragement to take into consideration an array of interpretations, rooted in the argument of deconstruction that meaning is naturally unsound and that neutrality is not possible, a falsehood asserted to manipulate the viewer (Margolin 115). Graphic designers have become discontented with passive presentation of the customer’s message. Inspired by contemporary fine art, a large number of graphic designers today are assuming the function of an interpreter, a great leap surpassing the problem-solving habit by creating further content and a modest analysis of the meaning, restoring roles related to both literature and art (Stubbe 128). The servant role of the commercial designer and the visible objectivity of the Swiss designer eventually disappeared. Irony and humour are resurfacing in impertinent and at times self-condemning forms that usually communicate directly to the viewer, usually with diverse voices. This new direction is intellectual, motivating its viewer to move gradually and read thoroughly in a period of fast-paced changes. The focus is on viewer interpretation and the creation of meaning, from crude information to the presentation and interpretation of meaning (Eskilson 97). To differentiate specialised graphic design from the massive production of Web design and desktop publishing, an emerging need for unique, interpretive, and individualistic designs is emerging (Drucker & McVarish 74). With this growing emphasis on subjective content, graphic design might again fall back on fine arts, but will be based on years of development in formal techniques, theory, and practice. Fine Art and Graphic Design Although modernist graphic designers faced numerous challenges after the First World War to revolutionise society with their idealistic principles of form and function, Modernistic design, was rapidly dominating consumer societies all over the world. These generally playful and surprising expressions were built into a universal form known as fine arts. Under various names in different societies, fine arts generally influenced graphic design, fashion, and architecture between the world wars (Sparke 109). Geometric and rectilinear, fine arts was influenced by Aztec Indian and North American art, Art Nouveau, and even by specific features of the Bauhaus. And, with the unearthing of the resting place of Tutankhamen in 1922, fine arts became an exceptional convergence of lightning bolts, sunbursts, and Egyptian ziggurats (Heller & Chwast 127-128). Fine arts marked the end of conventional design, but not like traditional Modernism, it was rooted in an obsession for the innovative. Graphic design was performed with the same passion as fine arts. The progressive but simple themes of fine arts offered not just a legitimate image for the achievement of industrialisation but also a valuable image for consumerism. Advertising style worked as the main media of the fine art graphic design. The formal print on almost all buildings and signs at the trade fair of 1925 became one of the stylistic motifs of the period (Heller & Chwast 128). Furthermore, the sophisticated example pages of Moderne exhibit prints created by type shops functioned as expressions of the design. The talented French poster designers, such as Leonetto Cappiello, Jean Carlu, and A.M. Cassandre, expertly introduced the fine art medium to the people (Doordan 138). Surrealism, Dadaism, Constructivism, De Stijl, Futurism, and Cubism significantly influenced advertising and graphic design. The work of Picasso remained a powerful influence on visual communications (Heller & Ballance 145). Art Deco, the widely accepted geometric technique of the 1920s, was heavily expressed in the field of visual arts. A large number of graphic designers adopted these artistic techniques, forming a well-liked visual design. For instance, a well-known posterist, A.M Cassandre, formed a visual expression largely inspired by Cubism and introduced it to the people through poster art. His achievements in both poster art and typographic design made him a propagator of style (Heller & Ballance 78). Also powerfully inspired by the Art Deco, Futurism, and Cubism movements, E. McKnight Kauffer, an American graphic designer, produced a set of work, as well as posters of large companies like the London Underground, that would introduce fine art to general audiences (Doordan 140). In 1929, A. Tollmer, the designer from Paris, publicised his work Mise en Page, which established the fine art model of design. Eventually written in English, it became widely popular among advertising printers and graphic designers (Heller & Chwast 127). Even though the images in the book are festive-like, revolutionary, and chaotic, the principles of Tollmer were actually based on the same stylistic innovations of modernists. He wrote (Heller & Chwast 127): “Henceforth the art of layout is free of its bonds... It must carry conviction of its own accord. The public must receive from it what in amorous terminology one might call ‘the fatal dart.’ In order... to obtain a freer variety of possible combinations, it became necessary to abandon the horizontal and vertical scheme... to develop an alternative... of obliques and curves. At this point we come to the modern technique, and more particularly to the technique of modern advertising.” As an absolute technique without principles, fine art may be used in any issue or idea. Its unique graphic appearances were specific irrespective of national history. It was also neutral: the German and Italian fascists used it in their propagandistic movement, as did the British socialists, Spanish extremists, and French communists. Its gallant and avant-garde visual expression was similarly suitable for dictatorial governments (Sparke 122). International design publications filled the global market with fine arts—in advertising, magazine and book design, and packaging. American graphic designers criticised at the outset fine art’s modernist features but later on reacted to its mixture of a technical or profound aesthetic character with a modern rhythm (Drucker & McVarish 39). As stated by historian Roland Marchand, “Modern art forms were the predominant trend... The public seemed to want atmosphere, particularly in fantastic and eccentric forms” (Heller & Chwast 127). Nevertheless, not every American graphic design was derived from such visions. The 1930s was regarded the period of the industrial designer, who based new modernist styles on the discipline of aerodynamics. Contemporary fine art’s motion lines and raybands were not sheer decorations but representations of Streamline process (Heller & Chwast 127-128). The Streamline period was launched, practiced, and culminated at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. The global popularity of fine arts eventually dwindled. The 1960s, another era of heightened consumerism, was to bear witness to a restoration of the fine art graphic design (Heller & Chwast 128). Culture and Graphic Design The relationship between culture and graphic design has evolved over the years, as design is both a reflection of, and a catalyst of change in, 20th-century culture. Hence developments in graphic design both mirror and confirm changes in culture. All levels and forms of cultural norms influence the designed objects one way or another and those objects, or heritage, express those norms in visual and concrete forms. Several graphic designers, from Adolf Loos to Robert Venturi, have understood the importance of the connection of design with culture and have attempted to express that understanding in their creations (Stubbe 17). Nevertheless, majority of graphic designers viewed their job less grandly and, by merely conforming to the set of instructions given to them, have followed the more submissive direction of preserving, instead of defying, the cultural situation. Graphic design unavoidably strengthens the principles of the system it services. That system has been embodied in industrial civilisation almost entirely by the capitalist principle of consumerism and mass production. Certainly, graphic design fulfilled its purpose and has, consequently, come to embody in a successful manner. This is less an outcome of the innate attributes of design than of its indispensable relationship with the cultural order that maintains it (Sparke 152). In its crude form, design is merely the creative process which establishes the social use, look, and nature of valuable artefacts. Per se, similar to music, dance, poetry, sculpture, and painting, graphic design has the capability to enhance the quality of life by making the physical world well-organised and more pleasing to the eye. Yet, where design separates from those aspects of the cultural process which are associated strongly with life enhancement and self-expression is the point at which it penetrates the domains of consumerism and mass production (Sparke 152-154). From then on it becomes more difficult for self-expression to manifest itself in the economic purpose of the paradigm which characterises their activities. Popular cultural ideals, expressed in mass preference and represented by mass-produced objects, are reinforced by the mass producer and taken up completely by the mass consumer (Stubbe 20-23). For such reasons, design is a major communication channel which communicates the norms of the system within which it operates. The major limiting factor on graphic design in the last two hundred years has, nevertheless, been its strengthening bond with consumerism and mass production. This development has established the particular features people identify with its function in modern culture (Sparke xxi). Recently, the manufacturing industry has separated design from its original, modest and primarily unknown status as a component in the process of production and promoted it as an essential feature of the appeal and saleability of consumer goods. Laurent Wolf, the French Marxist scholar, argues that design has become simply “a new way of elaborating products linked to the ‘profound mutation’ of the production process” (Sparke xxi). In the traditional manner, design has not vanished though. It is still integral to the production process but has a tendency, at least as regards its cultural representation, to be surpassed by the more profit-focused image. The uncertainty raised by the concurrence of this dual expression of design has been the biggest obstacle to a reasonable study of it (Ashwin 96). It is a complexity which is aggravated by the uncertainty and ideological premises which have been developed by a large number of 20th-century historians and scholars of design. It was such critics, like Sigfried Giedion, Herbert Read, and Nikolaus Pevsner, all of whom backed up modernists’ functionalist principles in the interwar period, who contributed to the reinforcement of the falsehood that ‘good design’ is tantamount to the machine visual art, who disregarded the aspects that society associate with a specific design movement, and who thus transformed graphic design into a grand rather than a commonplace idea (Sparke xxii). The critical perspective introduced by these critics has been quite difficult to replace and it is just in recent times, as an outcome of the increasing discontentment with Modernism, that their assumptions have been challenged. It has become a lot trickier to remove the graphic design’s propaganda from its actual expressions and to detach profit-based agenda from truth. One way of overcoming this deadlock is to surpass the critics of Modernism and to analyse graphic design within the perspective of social life (Heller & Pettit 62). From this point of view, design basically becomes one of the media of mass communication in contemporary culture insofar as it serves an essential function, both psychological and practical, within everyday existence. In appreciating the numerous variations in the definition of modern graphic design it is essential to understand the changes that have been initiated by evolving social practices to which the graphic designer can simply react to. For instance, the changing status of women in the 20th century has influenced the presentation and form of home equipment required to reduce the difficulty of household chores. On the other hand, design ideas can alter social behaviour, just like in the case, for instance, of Sony Walkman which has promoted a new outlook towards lone activities like travelling alone and working out (Sparke xxii). Although the correlation between design change and cultural evolution remains evident, it is still hard to determine whether social demands, existing technology, public preference, or economic need emerged first as motivations for design change (Sparke xxii). For instance, the development of new production technologies in the 20th century has largely influenced the design of most consumer goods but, at the same time, those products would under no circumstances have penetrated the mass setting if they did not satisfy an earlier purpose, whether psychological, social, political, or economic. In numerous instances the stories of unsuccessful designs divulge more about the essence of graphic design in modern culture than those successful ones as it is easy to identify a particular factor as a reason for failure whilst ‘success’ rests in a complex mixture of factors. The psychological and social need for design is simply rationalised by the fact that people only have to purchase, for instance, one dining set. That people keep on buying dispensable goods made of substandard materials, and frequently, in fact, to pay for reproduced models which merely differ stylistically, due to the push of custom or social status stresses the essential symbolic function that design fulfils in consumption (Eskilson 108). The socio-cultural premise is strengthened by the industrial capitalism’s economic needs which rely on the continuous consumption of products. They place graphic design at the centre as it is design that creates the differences that are very important to modern culture (Heller & Ballance 144). Design preferences continuously exist far and wide, whether by consumers or graphic designers. They all place emphasis on the product’s appearance whether, in the part of the designer, identified as an artistic image of the combined needs of social symbolism, purpose, price, and technology or, in the part of the consumer, as the realisation of the necessities of preference, practicality, economic and social demands. Hence, graphic design is, traditionally, expressed in visible and concrete form and artefacts are, thus, a fundamental arena of involvement for the design historian or scholar (Heller & Ballance 144-147). Nevertheless, they are not the ultimate word at all times because design is a cultural fact whose influences are as intangible as they are tangible. Artefacts are a major component in graphic design for it sums up the key features of modern culture and design. As argued by numerous contemporary design scholars, it is the character of design in the modern period to be global as it relies more and more on the structure of the global market for its survival. The English term ‘design’ is presently used extensively in nations like the United States, France, Italy, and Japan, a fact which demonstrates that its essence in contemporary culture has completely deviated from its meaning in earlier periods (Meggs & Purvis 135). The fact that some societies have replaced their native terminology with ‘design’ indicates that more than simple change in definition has occurred and that what has took place is, actually, the development of a completely new idea (Sparke 106). It is the character of this idea and the manner in which it has progressed over time that has been examined in this research paper. From the Victorian period to the contemporary period, graphic design has had to work for different cultural and economic clients, and hence there have been several ways in which graphic design have progressed. Particular techniques were created for artistic purposes, like Art Nouveau, whereas others were politically driven, like Dada. Some designs are rooted in the demand of corporate identity, like the ‘Swiss’ model, in profit-related demands, like postmodernism, and in philosophical and moral bases, like the Bauhaus (Doordan 14-19). Others were inspired by the fine arts, others by commerce. Several national methods became global movements, like Futurism. Some movements persisted for long periods of time, like Surrealism, Expressionism, and Constructivism, though many were somewhat fleeting (Heller & Pettit 33).And a large number of historical or traditional styles have been restored, reconstructed, and exploited by later generations. Graphic designers nowadays can simply access a plethora of historical designs, and search for those that are suitable to their objectives. At times, as they recover a classical graphic design, it will be a suitable and refined use—the image of the product is improved by being associated with another time and place (McDermott 5). More frequently, according to Conway (1987) graphic designers with no unique or personal visual components try to espouse a previously workable design regardless of the forces that encouraged its creation in the first place. Conclusions Although this research paper focuses on graphic design as it has come to be characterised and appreciated since the beginning of mechanisation, and highlights those aspects or developments which have made it a component of contemporary history, it is also essential to bear in mind that graphic design has a much distant past which is mainly the explanation for the manner people understand it today. Graphic design has continuously been a particular component of a bigger system—whether in mechanisation or craft, of production, or, from the perspective of the consumer, of taking part in economic or social activity—and its meaning has, from the time the concept penetrated the English language, been in a position of continuous change because, mainly, of the changes in the socioeconomic context which has maintained it. Works Cited Arntson, Amy. Graphic Design Basics. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print. Ashwin, Clive. History of graphic design and communication: a source book. Michigan: Pembridge Press, 1983. Print. Conway, Hazel. Design History: Student’s Handbook. London: Routledge, 1987. Print. Doordan, Dennis. Design History: An Anthology. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1995. Print. Drucker, Johanna & Emily McVarish. Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide. New York: Pearson, 2012. Print. Eskilson, Stephen. Graphic design: a new history. California: Laurence King, 2007. Print. 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