A Designer's Art by Paul Rand
An interesting look at the root meaning of the word “art” and its relationship to design:
We know that where we perceive no patters of relationship, no design, we discover no meaning … The reason apparently unrelated things become interesting when we start fitting them together … is that the mind’s characteristic employment is the discovery of meaning, the discovery of design … The search for design, indeed, underlies all arts and all sciences … the root meaning of the word art is, significantly enough, ‘to join, to fit together’ — John Kouwenhoven, as quoted in “A Designer’s Art” by Paul Rand (xiii)
The essence of graphic design:
Graphic design is essentially about visual relationships–providing meaning to a mass of unrelated needs, ideas, words, and pictures. It is the designer’s job to select and fit this material together–and make it interesting.
On the process graphic design, and why respect for the individual and his/her process is absolutely necessary (LOVE THIS!!):
The separation of form and function, of concept and execution, is not likely to produce objects of aesthetic value … any system that sees aesthetics as irrelevant, that separates the artist from his product, that fragments the work of the individual, or creates by committee, or makes mincemeat of the creative process will in the long run diminish not only the product but the maker as well.
A statement on the process of design, the first part always being that the designer must break down before he can build up:
Design starts with three classes of material:
- The given - product, copy, slogan, logotype, format, media production process.
- The formal - space, contrast, proportion, harmony, rhythm, repetition, line, mass, shape, color, weight, volume, value, texture.
- The psychological - visual perception, optical illusion problems, the spectator's instincts, intuitions, and emotions (as well as the designer's own needs).
As the material furnished him is often inadequate, vague, uninteresting or otherwise unsuitable for visual interpretation, the designer's task is to restate the problem. This may involve discarding or revising much of the given material. By analysis (breaking down of the complex material into its simplest components - the how, why, when and where) the designer is able to begin to state the problem
Lastly, the job of artist (and by extension a good graphic designer) is to call attention to the ordinary, to make people stop and reconsider what they believe they already understand:
[designers should practice] the fine art of exhibiting the obvious in [the] unexpected...The problem of the artist is to defamiliarize the ordinary.