What does a graphic designer do in 2021? Simply put, the job of a graphic designer revolves around visual storytelling. Graphic designers combine aspects of art, marketing, and technology to create visuals that entice or inform consumers.
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A graphic designer should never be anything to do with art. Itâs nothing to do with self-expression.
I think art plays a large part in graphic design, but perhaps it depends on how we define art.
Graphic design isnât art for artâs sake, but it does require artistic skills. Most graphic design combines artistic abilities with the more practical aspects of the job to produce something in which the aesthetic and emotional appeal of the design contributes to its functionality.
You are right, of course; it depends how we define art. For me, there is a vast chasm between artistic and art. Art is about expression of the human condition. Design is not about such expression. It is communication necessitating an understanding of the human psyche. Both require a level of artistic sensibility, but their relative motivations are diametrically opposed.
That is not to say a graphic designer cannot produce personally-motivated, expressive pieces of work, but, Iâd always argue that this is fundamentally different to design as problem-solving, per se.
As you say, is this a hard difference or simply a matter of semantics?
Art communicates a different message to everyone.
Design communicates the same message to everyone.
You might picture a person on a boat on a lake on a summers day. Some would see that as a nice day out fishing, relaxing - others would see it as being lonely, isolated, bored.
If you that picture on a Mental Health Magazine, the message communicates just fine. If you put that picture on a magazine for cars, it doesnât make sense. If you put that picture on a fishing magazine, it makes sense. But it communicates a different message than the Mental Health.
Iâve always thought of Art as being a way to communicate to different people. Itâs viewed in isolation, away from connection to a feeling. Art communicates as an isolated piece. It can convey emotion and feeling in different ways to different people.
Design combines this with and attaches emotion and feeling, and the same emotion and feeling to everyone.
Even when you consider something like Mondriaan, âcomposition of blue and yellow, ; ~1930â - in isolation you can ask 10 different people and they will have 10 different opinions. Put that same painting in a design piece, with a message that makes sense and you have the same opinion from 10 different people.
Design is communicating the same message.
I get the point of what youâre trying to say, but donât totally agree.
In my mind the artistic field can be broken down into two major categories: fine art where the objective is to please oneself (with exceptions) and applied art where the objective is to please someone else (with exceptions). Graphic design would fall under applied arts.
That said, the lines can certainly be blurred between the two and, as I mentioned above, there are exceptions in both cases. Can graphic design be self expressive? Sure it can. David Carson and Art Chantry are two examples of designers that have a strong sense of self expression.
Since Iâve haunted these halls for so many moons âŠ
I remember hot debates getting started over the whole Art vs GD trope. It got as bad at the PC vs Mac battles.
Itâs all semantics, and as with all matters concerning language, ours is not universal. We all infer our own context in everything we say. What I mean when I say âartâ is not the same as the intended meaning when, say, a pawn shop owner uses the word.
Furthermore, the term is more often used less conceptually. None of us would say tradespeople produce art, but we might agree to say that handcrafting fine woodwork is an art.
As others have said, graphic design definitely has an element of art and artistic expression to it. Good design is purposeful, and if fine art techniques further that purpose then itâs all good. For instance, one of my recent projects had a bit of hidden symbolism behind it. Yes, that symbolism was used to tell the story and communicate the message and purpose of the project, but it was partly subjective. It wasnât my personal expression, but it was an artistic expression of the companyâs values. The project sort of bridged the gap between art and design.
The job of a designer is my eyes is constantly evolving and people are expecting designers to do more than just design (smaller businesses anyways). Some people dabble in web, print, digital, social media. The lines start to become blurry but that the end of the day a graphic designer is a communicator.
its like asking what is a Job of a Filmmaker!
is he freelancer thus in same time director editor scenarist writer director of photography stylist etc.
or he is part of a team where the job of storytelling fells in hands of concept designers and storyboard pitchers, where as CGI artist in the end he is just craftsman âŠ
Also some sort of empathy and a bit of psychology.
If you consider that fine art can be, and often is, produced with the primary aim of making money and having little if anything to do with self-expression, you should be able to see how wrong this is.
Art is nothing more than an invitation to view something aesthetically. This is why art doesnât necessarily require skillful execution or an explicit purpose or explanation.
A graphic designer should be offering an aesthetic and in that sense theyâre being an artist, though itâs usually categorized as commercial art.
Fine art IS self-expression. Just like anyone else trying to make a living there are varying levels of commercial Interest incorporated into the artist intent. Itâs not like theyâre all subsidized the way they were in the quattrocento. The thing is - all of that is self-directed. Itâs not dictated to you and it serves your needs, not someone elseâs business. Commission artwork is dictated, at that point it resembles commercial art and design but, even then, it isnât serving another business.
The intent and interests the work serves matters. Commercial art is about serving some elseâs. Any self-expression and ego takes a backseat to that. I think youâre âr/confidentlyincorrectâ.
I can start a business selling paper clips and it could be entirely self-directed, and any graphic design used to brand and market this business would also be self-directed and wouldnât be serving another business.
Yeah, fair point. Serving another business isnât it as clear a difference as I thought it would be.
I think weâre missing another point as well. There is a distinction here that matters and I think itâs an important one to suss out. Donât get me wrong, Iâm enjoying this.
The dialogue artists have with history also matters. They play with that and blur the lines intentional - see DuChamp.
Also I think the original comment was intended to dissuade young designers from pursuing a career based on the idea that they would be able to express themselves. I donât think we should lose that idea either.
Iâll think about it some more but good point thanks for the discussion.
People have a tendency to categorize and lock adjacent concepts into fixed boundaries when in reality those fixed boundaries are more like blurry grey zones.
Thereâs certainly a difference between the self-expression of fine art and the commercial, purpose-driven intent of graphic design, but thereâs also the space in between that incorporates progressively larger bits of both along the continuum.
âFine artistsâ trying to eke out a living from their work, will certainly be aware of what their buyers seem to like, and theyâll likely push their art in that direction. Graphic designers (including me) will always use a bit of themselves and their personal preferences in the work they create to help accomplish the goals of others.
Many beginning design students fail to appreciate the client-centric nature of graphic design. Sometimes they need to be dragged kicking and screaming into that important realization. Too often, though, the differences are portrayed or perceived as absolute when in reality those differences are more subtle matters of degree.
For me, this breaks the definition of Art. Good art is purely an expression of the artist, with no commercial consideration. How many great artists died in poverty - Van Gough is maybe the best example - because they refused to make pictures that other people wanted and kept on making the only art they could, which only later became appreciated.
The moment you start producing something for other people, thatâs work, commercialism, entertainment.
I tend to agree.
A friend of mine is the great nephew of Theodore Major (a contemporary of Lowry). He told me when he was a kid and used to go visit him, his mum, always said, âNever ask him what itâs meant to beâ. Apparently he would always respond in an irritated, broad Lancastrian accent, âDonât ask me, itâs in the paintinâ â.
He would never sell anything unless he was absolutely strapped for cash. He had two Wigan terraced houses (I think his and one I can only assume he inherited from his parents). He lived in one and the other was rammed with paintings. At one point the BBC came to do a documentary and the director expressed how much he loved his work. When they had finished filming, Major gave this director one of the paintings he had been admiring. As he gleefully trotted off down the garden path, the director turned to wish a cheery goodbye and said. âThank you. One day this will be worth a lot of moneyâ. To which the painter apparently ran down the path after him, grabbed the painting back angrily and said, âMy paintings are not about moneyâ, went back in and slammed the door shut!
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