The History of Graphic Design

Surprisingly enough, Graphic Design started out in the neolithic era. The peoples of that time sought to do the same thing designers do today: fulfill a need and express a message. From that point forward, mankind continued to innovate in terms of visual expression. Civilization as we know it first used visual art to keep track of business and ownership. By Roman times, the arts and typography were used for a wider range of purposes, though they were still at the disposal of only privileged classes. And so they would remain until the invention of movable type made book ownership more accessible to the general public. Eventually artistic expression progressed along with political upheaval, and styles changed and evolved as often as popular thought did.

Personally, I've always had an interest in Illuminated Manuscripts. I'm a big geek for history in any form, and the first time I laid eyes on the elaborately vibrant illustrations in some of these books, I fell in love. The most impressive aspect of these, to me, is the dedication that went into creating each one. Men expended their entire lives doing nothing but copying each page, lovingly, by hand. These days, if someone were to do such a thing, they would be viewed as crazy... But this was a specialized craft that only monks were seemingly qualified to undertake.

The detailing in these pieces is just brilliant. They had such limited resources with which to create those books!

Goals for this Class

Here goes my first post! I have never used Blogger before, though I always wanted to start up an account. Hopefully I'll learn my way around this thing soon enough.

My goals for this course and for my degree in general are to LEARN as much as I can. "Graphic Design" has always been sort of an abstract concept to me, considering I always wanted to draw comics. I understand creating a product to fulfill a need, but I never researched the means of doing so. Firstly, I want to learn my way around computers much more. I have always been more fond of real media, and so I have tended to do as little in Photoshop and the like as possible. Last year was the first time I had even touched Illustrator!

Secondly, I want to learn more about the business in general. I don't know much at all about how things work and how I would go about getting a bonafide graphic design job! I also need to work on having more confidence in myself. Things like job interviews and critiques have always scared the tar out of me.

A last thing I would really like to improve upon is my illustrative style. My stuff has always been really cutesy, bright and cartoony. I would like to move away from that. I also have a pretty strong "anime" look to my work that turns a lot of people off. Despite these things, I do feel I have a unique style that defines my work and I don't want to move TOO far away from that.