ALT-1 Graphic Design

From 3arf

Graphic design, also known as commercial art, is a vastly underrated discipline. It is the means of communicating, in a compelling visual context, the value, status, cost, reliability and appeal of an idea, product or service to a potential consumer. It is the art of contracting those vital messages into a specified space, page or screen with the most advanced tools available.

Graphic design is Art (with a capital A) in a league with the Masters. Above all, it is accomplished by those with 1) a superior artistic talent, and 2) the highly-trained technical skills to create specialized art forms that are practical and commercial.

I have yet to meet (or employ) and good graphic designer who isn't an artist. They are pragmatic, but above all, they are artists. Rather than cut off their ears or commit suicide before their creative works become worth millions, graphic designers employ their natural creativity to buy homes, feed their families and send their children to college.

In today's rushed marketplace, the art of graphic design is often viewed as some kind of computer-generated, PhotoShop-enhanced process that anyone with a Mac or CorelDraw can do. Non artists, often marketing directors and CEOs, consider computers more important than the artists who use them. The artists know that computers are nothing more than a "tool" in a defined medium. There are thousands of computer-savvy "designers" out there with not a whit of creative talent. Trust me, I've hired and fired a lot of them.

The debate, conducted by seriously constipated art critics, over whether graphic art should be raised to the level of "fine" art is ongoing. Many of these respected worthies refuse to consider Norman Rockwell as a fine artist and, instead, demote him to what they feel is the lesser status of "illustrator", a subset of commercial art and graphic design. These same critics laud Andy Warhol's commercial graphics as fine art without blinking an eye. The distinction seems to be that because Rockwell produced his immortal paintings as magazine covers, he is less worthy of the recognition Warhol has for generating graphic designs as art. If that confuses you, join the club.

An argument can be made that creating an image on canvas or in a computer that is free of commercial constraints is more important, somehow, than graphic art. That "real" art isn't influenced by anything but the imagination of the artist. This idea flies in the face of centuries of artists, including Michelangelo, Raphael, and Da Vinci, who painted or sculpted what their patrons wanted, a commercial constraint if there ever was one.

Suppression of the artistic "value" of graphic design and commercial art is useful to businesses that want to pay less for visual constructs to promote their wares. It's been so since the beginning of time. Artists have always been considered lazy, unproductive, wastrels who contribute little or nothing to the advance of business and the accumulation of wealth. Shakespeare would fall into this category. Those few artists, whether fine artists or graphic artists, who rise to fame often do so by social status and luck rather than talent and accomplished use of available tools.

As a vocation, graphic design is a tough job where the unique talent to balance text, art, color, size, interactiveness and message is often equated with the art-degreed graduate who uses pre-created computer templates. The fact that decades of marketing studies show that artistic talent improves the success of a graphic exercise by three to ten times, is often dismissed. Computer generated graphics are cheaper. In spite of the clear value of a designed image that effectively conveys a company's commercial status and value, graphic designers are generally viewed in the same vein as an auto mechanic; someone who presses buttons on a machine and uses wrenches to put parts together. It's understandable. The advent of computer graphics programs (created by accomplished graphic designers) that permit no-talent hacks to build stale McGraphics for general consumption is evident in the robotic advertising and websites of too many companies. There are very few corporate execs who have the subjective acumen (or patience) to distinguish good art from bad.

In the end one might ask, is it the quality of the basketball and the size of the net that makes points, or is the inherent talent of the individual who handles the ball?

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