What is Graphic Design?

Is Graphic Design "art"? Like true art, it is definitely misunderstood by the general public. A view of this (very entertaining) video gives one a glimpse of what the layman considers graphic design to be. What many don't realize is that Graphic Design is an integral part of thousands of activities they go through every day. Paul Rand is quoted here as saying, "Everything is design. Everything!" The food you buy, the television you watch, the magazines you read, the buses you ride... Graphic design influenced your decisions to partake in all of these.

You might be asking yourself, "Who in the world is Paul Rand?" I did. Go ahead and Google him. You will see that he has created logos that have been in use by nationally-recognized companies for as long as you've likely been alive. You've never thought about who created those logos, have you? That is Graphic Design. Joshua Porter of Bokardo explains it best. Good graphic design is design that you don't think about. It just appeals to your sensibilities, it compels you to partake in the gifts you are offered without thought.

A gentleman in the linked video stated that anyone with a computer can create design. But we all know that is not true. While laypeople believe that design is as simple as plugging a logo into a web page, we know the amount of thought that goes into each piece that we create. We must identify our target audience, we must create that logo that will please them. We must choose colors that will please them. We must please our clients and our superiors, and we must (hopefully) create a unique idea that nobody in the history of the world has thought of before us.

Whatever Graphic Design is... it is difficult to do it well!

Homage to David Carson

For this project, we were given a choice between creating an homage to David Carson or Stefan Sagmeister. I chose David Carson because I find his aesthetic to be intriguing. What I find most interesting about David Carson is his apparent disregard for the traditional "rules" of graphic design and typography. I have always had a problem with operating outside of a strict set of rules. He takes a lot of risks with type legibility and color.

I also like the way he integrates photographs into his designs, making them an integrated part of his layouts rather than completely separate entities. Since I am more of an illustrator I appreciate the ability to make a photograph more of a design element than just slapping it on the page. I want to play with coloring over and placing lineart on top of photographs.

Based on the two paragraphs above, I worked on formulating my poster design. I created three thumbnails, though I honestly loved the first from the beginning and I think everyone agreed that it was the best option.


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The other two explored illustrating his use of puns in his work and also the fact that he helped usher in the "grunge" era with his convention-defying, dirty aesthetic.


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I really like how this one came together. All of the techniques I used were observed in Carson's work (photograph integration, coloring/drawing over low quality photographs, making layout guides apparent), but I tried to put my own spin on it. I also used a couple of letters from that hand-drawn font I created :) Dave suggested I offset the lineart a bit from the photo when I was drawing over it, and make it more sketchy. I think both suggestions worked very well.