Computer graphic artist

163 Pages·2007·1.623 MB·English

by  Edward Rodriguez

First Edition, 2007

ISBN 978 81 89940 42 3

© All rights reserved.

Published by:

Global Media
1819, Bhagirath Palace,
Chandni Chowk, Delhi-110 006
Email: [email protected]
Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Graphics
3. Typography
4. Digital Images and Editing
5. Computer Graphics
6. Rendering
7. 3D Computer Graphics
8. Computer-Generated Imagery
9. Special Effect
10. Motion Capture
11. Rotoscope
12. Computer Representation of Surfaces
13. 2D Computer Graphics
14. Shading
15. Rasterisation
16. Raster Graphics and Vector Graphics
17. Adobe Photoshop
18. Macromedia Dreamweaver, Fireworks and QuarkXPress
19. Adobe Flash
Graphic design

Saul Bass's poster for the film, The Man with the Golden Arm - a highly regarded work
of graphic design. The film was also notable for its groundbreaking title sequence, also
by Bass.
Graphic design is a form of communication using text and/or images to present
information. The art of graphic design embraces a range of mental skills and crafts
including typography, image development and page layout. Graphic design is applied in
communication design and fine art. Like many forms of communication, graphic design
often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created, and
the products (designs) such as creative solutions, imagery and multimedia compositions.
The designs are applied to static media as well as electronic media, not always in the
completed form. In commercial art, client edits, technical preparation and mass
production are usually required, but usually not considered to be within the scope of
graphic design.
Although the term 'graphic designer' was first coined in the 20th century, the story of
graphic design spans the history of marks of humankind from the magic of the caves of
Lascaux to the dazzling neons of Ginza. In both this lengthy history and in the relatively
recent explosion of imaging in the 20th and 21st centuries, there is sometimes a blurring
distinction and over-lapping of advertising art, graphic design and fine art. After all, they
share the same elements, theories, principles, practices and languages, and sometimes the
same benefactor or client. In advertising art the ultimate objective is the sale of goods and
services. In graphic design, "the essence is to give order to information, form to ideas,
expression and feeling to artifacts that document human experience." "Fine art refers to
arts that are 'concerned with beauty'..."
Principles and elements of design
Design elements are the basic tools in every design discipline. The elements (including
shape, form, texture, line, value, and color) compose the basic vocabulary of visual
design. Design principles, such as balance, rhythm, emphasis, and unity, constitute the
broader structural aspects of the composition.
Graphic design theory
According to the classic theory of design, or graphic design, visual design, art, the visual
excitement of a work of design is a result of how the composition of the design elements
create mood, style, message, and a look.
There is research and planning that is needed for most design work:
• the design process, which encompasses the step-by-step and often complex path
that a designer takes toward a design solution through research, exploration, re-
evaluation, and revision of a design problem. This process starts with the client
and ends with the finished design product.
• use of a grid to help improve or speed up the layout of images and text. Like the
steel internal frame of building, the grid helps the 2D designer place information
on paper or screen in a way that improves the design visually and its usability.
• impact and use of technology for design solutions. Graphic designers are usually
first to adopt and incorporate new technology in solutions or concepts when
possible. This experimentation is not always to the benefit of the design or the
user.
The classic theory of design continues to be the first one introduced to starting students
and amateurs, with details such as the number of principles varying from book to book
and instructor to instructor. However, the classic theory of design is limited in scope as it
only considers the decorative aspects of design. More comprehensive theories and
treatments include or emphasize aspects of visual communication and usability,
sometimes referring to sociology and linguistics.
Graphic design history
The paintings in the caves of Lascaux around 14,000 BC and the birth of written
language in the third or fourth millennium BC are both significant milestones in the
history of graphic design and other fields which hold roots to graphic design.
The Book of Kells is a very beautiful and very early example of graphic design. The
Book is a lavishly decorated hand-written copy of the Gospels of the Christian Bible
created by Celtic monks around 800AD.
Johann Gutenberg's introduction of movable type in Europe made books widely
available. The earliest books produced by Gutenberg's press and others of the era are
known as( Incunabula). The Venetian printer and publisher Aldus Manutius developed a
design style and structure for the book that remains largely intact to the present day.
Graphic design of this era is sometimes called either Old Style (after the Gothic and
handwriting-based typefaces which the earliest typographers used), or Humanist, after the
new typefaces imitating the lettering in Roman carved inscriptions. These were
introduced as part of the revival of classical learning, and still form the basis of the most
commonly used Western typefaces.
Graphic design after Gutenberg saw a gradual evolution rather than any significant
change. In the late 19th century, especially in the United Kingdom, an effort was made to
create a firm division between the fine arts and the applied arts.
From 1891 to 1896 William Morris' Kelmscott Press published books that are some of
the most significant of the graphic design products of the Arts and Crafts movement, and
made a very lucrative business of creating books of great stylistic refinement and selling
them to the wealthy for a premium. Morris proved that a market existed for works of
graphic design and helped pioneer the separation of design from production and from fine
art. The work of the Kelmscott Press is characterized by its obsession with historical
styles. This historicism was, however, important as it amounted to the first significant
reaction to the stale state of nineteenth-century graphic design. Morris' work, along with
the rest of the Private Press movement, directly influenced Art Nouveau and is indirectly
responsible for developments in early twentieth century graphic design in general.
Piet Mondrian, born in 1872, was a painter whose work was influential in modern graphic
design. Although he was not a graphic designer his use of grids inspired the basic
structure of the modern advertising layout known also as the grid system, used commonly
today by graphic designers.
20th century

Famous SS Normandie poster by Adolphe Muron Cassandre

I Love New York campaign by Milton Glaser
Modern design of the early 20th century, much like the fine art of the same period, was a
reaction against the decadence of typography and design of the late 19th century. The
hallmark of early modern typography is the sans-serif typeface. Early Modern, not to be
confused with the modern era of the 18th and 19th centuries, typographers such as
Edward Johnston and Eric Gill after him were inspired by vernacular and industrial
typography of the latter nineteenth century. The signage in the London Underground is a
classic of this era and used a font designed by Edward Johnston in 1916.
In the 1920s, Soviet Constructivism (art) applied 'intellectual production' in different
spheres of production. The movement saw individualistic art as useless in revolutionary
Russia and thus moved towards creating objects for utilitary purposes. They designed
buildings, theater sets, posters, fabrics, clothing, furniture, logos, menus etc.
Jan Tschichold codified the principles of modern typography in his 1928 book, New
Typography. He later repudiated the philosophy he espoused in this book as being
fascistic, but it remained very influential. Tschichold, Bauhaus typographers such as
Herbert Bayer and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and El Lissitzky are the fathers of graphic
design as we know it today. They pioneered production techniques and stylistic devices
used throughout the twentieth century. Although the computer has altered production
forever, the experimental approach to design they pioneered has become more relevant
than ever.
The following years saw graphic design in the modern style gain widespread acceptance
and application. A booming post-World War II American economy established a greater
need for graphic design, mainly advertising and packaging. The emigration of the
German Bauhaus school of design to Chicago in 1937 brought a "mass-produced"
minimalism to America; sparking a wild fire of "modern" architecture and design.
Notable names in mid-century modern design include Adrian Frutiger, designer of the
typefaces Univers and Frutiger; Paul Rand, who, from the late 1930's until his death in
1996, took the principles of the Bauhaus and applied them to popular advertising and
logo design, helping to create a uniquely American approach to European minimalism
while becoming one of the principal pioneers of the subset of graphic design known as
corporate identity; and Josef Müller-Brockmann, who designed posters in a severe yet
accessible manner typical of the 1950s and 1960s.
The reaction to the increasing severity of graphic design was slow but inexorable. The
origins of postmodern typography can be traced back as far as the humanist movement of
the 1950s. Notable among this group is Hermann Zapf who designed two typefaces that
remain ubiquitous — Palatino (1948) and Optima (1952). By blurring the line between
serif and sans-serif typefaces and re-introducing organic lines into typography these
designs did more to ratify modernism than they did to rebel.
An important point was reached in graphic design with the publishing of the First things
first 1964 Manifesto which was a call to a more radical form of graphic design and
criticized the ideas of value-free design. This was massively influential on a generation of
new graphic designers and contributed to the founding of publications such as Emigre
magazine.
Saul Bass designed many motion picture title sequences which feature new and
innovative methods of production and startling graphic design to attempt to tell some of
the story in the first few minutes. He may be best known for his work for Otto
Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm (1955).
Milton Glaser designed the unmistakable I Love NY ad campaign (1973) and a famous
Bob Dylan poster (1968). Glaser took stylistic hints from popular culture from the 1960s
and 1970s.
David Carson has gone against the restrictiveness of modern designs. Some of his designs
for Raygun magazine are intentionally illegible, featuring typography designed to be
visual rather than literary experiences.
Use of computers

An example of Adobe Photoshop, a tool used by most professional Graphic Designers.
In the mid 1980s, the arrival of desktop publishing and the introduction of software
applications such as Adobe Illustrator and Aldus Pagemaker introduced a generation of
designers to computer image manipulation and 3D image creation that had previously
been unachievable. Computer graphic design enabled designers to instantly see the
effects of layout or typography changes without using any ink in the process.
Early on April Greiman recognized the vast potential of this new medium and quickly
established herself as a pioneer of digital design. She was first known for her 1986 layout
in the magazine Design Quarterly.
Common graphic design software applications include Adobe InDesign, Adobe
Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, QuarkXPress, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Macromedia
Fireworks and Macromedia Flash. For more details on software used by graphic
designers, see art software.
Computers are now considered to be an indispensable tool used in the graphic design
industry. Computers and software applications are generally seen, by creative
professionals, as more effective production tools than the traditional methods. However, a
few designers continue to use manual and traditional tools for production, such as Milton
Glaser.
Computers may or may not enhance the creative process of graphic design, depending on
which process best stimulates the creativity of the designer. Rapid production from the
computer allows many designers to explore multiple ideas quickly with more detail than
what could be achieved by traditional hand-rendering or paste-up on paper, moving the
designer through the creative process more quickly. New ideas may come in the form of
exploring software features that would not have been considered without the software.
However, some professional designers may explore ideas on paper to avoid creating
within the limits of the computer configuration, enabling them to think outside the box;
the box being the computer. Some creative graphic design ideas are innitiated and
developed to near completion in the mind, before either traditional methods or the
computer is used.
A graphic designer may also use sketches to explore multiple or complex ideas quickly
without the potential distractions of technical difficulties from software malfunctions or
software learning. Hand rendered comps may be used to get approval of a graphic design
idea before investing what would be too much time to produce on a computer if rejected.