Designing Society - One Graphic at a Time: A study of the Graphics Design Market

Essay by AKAaronHigh School, 11th gradeA+, April 2004

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Click! The TV turns on and the viewer is bombarded with advertisements, selling anything and everything from cars to toothpaste. While many people find these commercials very annoying, there are some teams of artists that are dancing around, toasting each other for a job well done on a beautiful new accomplishment. These champagne-drinking, funky-monkey dancing artists are none other than graphic designers doing what they do best - graphic design. What is graphic design? "Graphic design is a complex combination of words and pictures, numbers and charts, photographs and illustrations that . . . all add up to something distinctive, or useful, or playful, or surprising, or subversive, or somehow memorable," states Jessica Helfand, a writer for the American Institute for Graphic Arts (Helfand 1). Graphic design is an integral part of today's society due to its already strong appearance in modern culture, the increasing demand for graphic designer's talent in the commercial industry, and the vast range of opportunities it poses for newcomers to the craft.

Graphic Design is an influential element in today's commercial industry due to its already strong appearance in modern culture. One reason for this strong appearance in modern culture is that graphic design has many different styles and mediums that can be used but are still considered graphic design. "Traditionally, a graphic designer was the person who designed the overall look and feel for your publications, stationary and advertising," said W.R. Miller of the traditional style of graphic design (Miller 21). But even today the "traditional" style is still used while incorporating newer technology. The Graphic Design Portal, an online graphic design magazine, commented on the classical style of graphic design by saying, "graphic art is a broad term that includes printing, papermaking, binding, and photography," (Graphic Design Portal 1). As time moves...