This is a blog about life as an artist and the perspectives of many artists, as well as their art. I'm usually not looking for answers to life, but I like to explore opinions and listen to arguments. If you are also looking for art inspiration or just want to hear conversations on these issues, please check out my blog!Writing about graphic design often seems daunting. But it doesn't have to be difficult if you think visually rather than textually. Design is a visual medium, after all. And that's why designers are encouraged to sketch or draw before they begin to type. It's not that they can't think in words, but typing is an artificial form of communication after all–one that tends to squelch the spontaneity of the way we think. Writing becomes difficult too when you make it about design or art rather than making it about something else. The best writing about art avoids the specificities of the subject and uses them in a very general way so they can be applied to anything and everything in life in general and art in particular. It avoids the particulars of the medium and focuses on the universals of life and art, i.e., what is it that makes art or living worthwhile. The purpose of this writing is to examine the nature of graphic design and its relationship with design in general. After all, there are many different kinds of graphic design: web design, print design, packaging design, etc. So if we're going to talk about them in one place we need some sort of commonality they all share and perhaps a different way they can be distinguished from each other. If we look at them simply as skills we see at first glance how they overlap: web designers often do some print work; packaging designers often do some editorial work; etc.. But that's not to say they are indistinguishable or that there isn't enough difference between web designers and packaging designers, for example, to make them different design disciplines. However it can be difficult to draw a clear distinction in all cases (for example I've always felt the need to separate my work in graphic design from my work in type design).  It's possible because we're talking about two different types of practice: one based upon skills and the other based upon philosophy. I'll illustrate this with examples from my own experience (which may or may not be helpful depending on your context).  In the case of print design I studied at a university.  In that environment I was taught a lot about how to handle design problems, which methodologies to use, what the best way to do it this way or that way was, etc.  We were trained from the very beginning as designers from the bottom up.  In other words we started with a blank page and worked our way through a problem until we got a final result.  These skills formed the foundation for everything else we learned.  We learned to use software and other tools as designers because they were the tools of our trade–this was key in separating us from other artists such as painters and sculptors who didn't need such tools. 8eeb4e9f32 20
- coddnelrappgrowath