Employing the same
smugness and finality as our hypothetical
speaker above, I could wave off the term by simply stating
that graphic design is the use of
images and text to communicate
information.
Unfortunately, this definition makes
the graphic designer sound like
little more than a professional
collage artist. (Not that there’s
anything wrong with professional
collage artists.) It doesn’t get at the
enormous complexity of book layout
or the murky gray areas where
illustration and typography mingle.
It doesn’t say anything about the
importance of color theory or hint
at the countless layers of meaning
that any part-time semiotician can
derive from the seemingly simple
shapes of a logo or typeface.
Taking a cue from semiotics,
maybe graphic design could be
defined as the creation of signs,
in the semiotical sense of that
word. But then that’s too broad,
too encompassing. It waters down
the discipline, putting my Uncle
Herbert’s bungled PowerPoint presentations
on the same conceptual
footing as Paul Rand’s portfolio.
Perhaps that glaring inequality can
best be summed up in two words:
Comic Sans.