In today’s society, graphic designers carry out a myriad of artistic and professional services, which center on visual communication and presentation. Graphic designers normally employ different techniques to develop symbols, images, and/or words that create a visual representation of ideas and messages in areas such as market research, corporate identity/branding, poster design, advertisements, book layouts, motion video graphics, clothing/fabric design, product design, and many other areas.
In solving visual communication problems, they often make use of topography, visual arts, and page layouts procedures to generate products that transcend frontiers and cultural divides. Among all the arts around us, graphic design is the most universal, powerful, and influential (Newark, 6). Since we engage with it in the streets, in almost everything, and even on our bodies, it is not just a modern or a capitalistic phenomenon. This paper examines its role in today’s society.
Graphic design is a very new design expression technique, which was a spontaneous response to the vast communication requirements of the industrial revolution. As a product of the last hundred years, graphic design was developed in order to market the fruits of mass production to the increasing numbers of consumers.
In the late nineteenth century, the growing reproduction technologies in Europe and North America presented the graphic designers with the opportunity of taking part in the transformation process. From then, having been revolutionized by the advent of computers, the field has been instrumental in serving various purposes to the society.
To begin with, graphic designers have a role to brand the world. Since in most parts of the world branding has replaced corporate identity, many organizations have been compelled to place a higher value on a well-designed, well-managed graphic identity (Holland, 1). Therefore, designers play a requisite role in the different marketplaces of the world.
Branding is a very essential element for any business since it focuses on meeting the needs and the desires of the consumers. The point of view of the consumers dictates the language, the voice, and eventually the design of the product. Therefore, in order to meet the ever-changing shift in consumer tastes and requirements, graphic designers endeavor to develop brands that are unique from others, current with the times, and are consistent in delivery.
The greatest thing about graphic design is that it is far-reaching. That is why most companies are using it to build a strong identity in order to stay competitive in the market. Companies usually use graphic design to boost awareness of their company and to push their products to their fullest potential in reaching the customers.
The companies that have succeeded have done so because they have used quality graphic design as one of their supporting themes. On the other hand, companies that have not taken an advantage of this have never succeeded in creating an additional traffic. A graphical logo is able to influence a consumer to either purchase or not purchase a product. Therefore, most organizations usually employ the services of a graphic designer to develop simple yet catchy graphical images with the aim of attracting any prospective consumers.
The influence of graphic design is evident in the area of commercial advertising. It is employed extensively in conveying the ideas and purposes of the products as well as giving a sense of interest and wonder.
As the designers communicate meaning by means of visual language, appealing products are generated to reach the target audience. This is not possible to be achieved in real life. For example, if someone is shooting a film and he intends to make something fly, he will use graphic design to achieve this purpose. He will computerize the image and graphically generate the image of an object flying.
Graphic design makes them to look realistic. If it were not present, most things would be tasteless and uninteresting. From the very clothes we wear, to the technique of manufacturing various things, graphic design acts on our emotions and assists in shaping our feelings concerning the world around us.
In this modern and fast world, an anti-reading trend is present that is difficult to control. Therefore, graphic designers promote literacy by means of their designs, which manipulate the elements and principals of various subjects to convey an idea in its visual form.
Messages are usually being carried either through text or image and are received either through seeing or reading. The process of seeing is discerning, moving and sometimes realized against the will of a person. On the other hand, the process of reading is a bit more complicated.
This is because the text’s written language signs must be decoded by knowing the proper sequence of the various sings. Without proper analysis of the language of the message, a person cannot successfully decode the information. This difference between reading and seeing has made graphic design to be an important field in our everyday’s life. Graphic images generate a coherent and interesting piece of work, which surpasses language barriers.
Graphic designers also have a social role in today’s society. This unique responsibility is derived from their anticipation to take part in the creation of a new world since inequality and various evils are on the increase. It is possible for art to form a component of every life on the planet. From the time of its creation, graphic design is continuously structuring itself in a self-directed and diversified way. This has been taking place in direct relation with the specific social fabrics of various societies in the globe.
Therefore, it is important to note that this diversity is what will lead to the likelihood of the growth of graphic communication across the globe in the coming years. In a graphic communication process, there is a link between two propositions: the transmitting subjects and the recipients. They both have their various needs and expectations. These give the social dimension of graphic design in today’s society.
Graphic design employs words and images for communicating by means of visual language. If it were not present in our world currently, so many things would be in a mess. Its absence would make things like newspapers, internet, and literature items, to disappear from the face of the planet since all things would have to be painstakingly written by hand.
In the absence of graphic design, we would be forced to receive every information through the spoken word and this would make us to enter another period of Dark Ages. In such an instance, ignorance, prejudice, and superstition would be widespread. However, as long as graphic design is here to stay, its benefits will continue to be felt in today’s society.
Works Cited
Holland, Deborah K. Design issues: how graphic design informs society. New York: Allworth Press, 2001. Print.
Newark, Quentin. What is graphic design? Hove, England: RotoVision, 2002. Print.