Design Elements: Understanding the Rules and Knowing When to Break Them
In this book, Samara(2014) expands on his earlier twenty rules of design. The book looks at all the fundamental components of design beginning from the manner in which a designer can work with grids, typography, imagery, application of colour and putting all these elements together in motion. Samara observes that a graphic designer communicates to the public by taking ideas and giving them a visual form to allow others to understand them better. As such, this paper summarises two pages from the book; pages 7 and 8 in which the author begins by posing the question: What is graphic design?
In page 7, Samara begins by stating that a designer uses particular tools to represent the idea that they intend to convey. The author identifies imagery, colour, type, symbols, and materials as the fundamental elements that a designer needs to accomplish his or her work. With these materials or tools available, they then organize them with a view to creating a unified experience and in turn evoking certain responses from the audience.
Secondly, Samara outlines the history and expansion of design right from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution. He observes that during this time, the act of design was confined to the creation of books and typefaces but then expanded during the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s and early 1800s. Design opened up during this period and was used in advertising, signage, posters, and ephemerain which it appeared in a new and consumer marketplace. The author also traces the origin of the term “graphic design” and posits that its appearance has been recent. He notes that the term is associated with W.A Wiggins, an American book designer, and illustrator who used it to describe his own design activities. Samara asserts that the formal study of design stated in the 1920s and the use of the term design gained wider acceptance after the Second World War.
On this page, the author also notes that the purpose of graphic design is usually defined by a client for the reason that it is a service and is paid for by a firm or an organization. As such, graphic design is different from other forms of visual arts disciplines whose purposes are determined and generated from within the designers. The author also states that while the artistic creation had been commissioned by patrons, it was only after the 1830s that a designer was able to express themselves in their artistic work. This happened after the emergence of the mystique of the bohemian painter that led to a clear distinction between fine and commercial art. The author observes that this distinction was encouraged for both different reasons and purposes. For instance, designers used the distinction for strategic and philosophical reasons, particularly after starting to recognize design in a professional perspective with the potential to add more value to their corporate endeavours.
Samara opines that for over fifty years or so, the graphic designer has been recognized in many realms because of his or her work. The graphic designer has been touted as a visual strategist and cultural arbiter among other realms. Further, from the 1970s the holder of this occupation has been considered as an author, possessing the capability to shape corporate profits. This act is carried out using clever visual manipulation for a public that is hungry for a brand. The designer has also been a fundamental part of creating a bigger visual language in the postmodern environment. The author notes that these functions are essential for graphic design but should not lead to one ignoring and forgetting a designer’s simplicity as their true nature.
The main duty of a graphic designer is defined by what they implement from their simple nature. Samara opines that a graphic designer’s main duty is to assimilate verbal ideas and give them a visual form. This entails giving and integrating huge amounts of knowledge and skills based on intuition while also applying them in different creative methods since the designer encounters the variables of every new project or work.
As such, a designer needs to recognize and use semiotics; which denotes to the processes and linkages inherent in their perception and interpretation of the meanings that they give through the verbal and visual material that they use. The author also notes that a designer needs to possess expertise relating to the manner in which information flows based on certain elements. These essentials include data, instructional approaches, usability, and cognitive ordering. Further, a designer needs to consider legibility and hierarchic challenges that extend into typography, the mechanic nature of alphabetic design, and requisite readings. Further, Samara asserts that a designer requires both technical and analytical master of image making based on shapes, colours, textures and the manner in which they depict ideas. They must also understand how these elements attain aesthetic cohesion and dynamism while having the capacity to evoke emotional responses from the audiences.
In the last part of the page, Samara outlines the need for a designer to possess more than a casual familiarity with psychological and historical aspects of their work. They must enjoy cultural respect through narratives and symbolism as well as ritualized experiences. The designer needs to respond to commercial and consumer-based reactions and impulses. The author observes that while the above is essential, a designer is also required to have a better knowledge base that features the use of specialized technologies that are required in design to execute designed solutions such as printing media techniques. The designer should also have knowledge of film and video, digital programming and architectural fabrications among other technical aspects of design.
Thoughts and Views
Samara’s book offers a comprehensive list of fundamental elements that constitute design and what a designer needs to do in order to attain their purpose and allow their work to remain relevant in this visual arts discipline. I believe that the author demonstrates the salient and inherent features of an effective way of carrying out design as a profession that requires specialized knowledge and training. Graphic design has evolved over time to be an essential way in which people can communicate, especially using designers who use visual means to convey their messages and feelings to society. The two pages that are essentially about what graphic design show that designers go beyond the conventional knowledge to use their expertise, experience, and knowledge to create visual works that evoke responses from their audiences and lead to the interpretation of a huge amount of information in one piece of work. Samara’s book illustrates that graphic designers accomplish essential components of communication using technologies and the inherent ideas associated with the discipline right from its inception. The two pages and the entire book implores on designers to understand their roles, societal expectations and how they can fulfill these expectations through their work.
Reference
Samara, T., 2014. Design Elements: Understanding the Rules and Knowing When to Break
Them, 2nd Edition. Gloucester: Rockport Publishers. Chapter one: What is Graphic Design, pp.7& 8.
Umang's blog 