This article by Phillip Meggs addresses the many different facets of graphic design, its underlying philosophy, and the numerous techniques that are available to the designer. One point Meggs mentions in the beginning is how graphic design gives communications “resonance, a richness of tone that heightens the expressive power of the page.” I think he worded this really effectively because it’s true that graphic design seeks to reach an audience in a visually calculated way by presenting something in a manner that encourages a specific reaction. He also discusses the different aspects of typography and how it can be seen as either language communication or visual form, although the casual viewer often disregards the latter.
Later when he talks about “the union of word and picture,” he presents the problem of how to integrate language signs and pictorial images into a cohesive whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. He quotes Roland Barthes who says that “Formerly, the image illustrated the text; today, the text loads the image, burdening it with a culture, a moral, an imagination.” I plan on doing this with my own final project by taking images that alone may mean something very specific but putting them into an entirely different context using carefully chosen text that gives meaning to the image. The separate aspects of my designs taken as a whole will hopefully construct a message that transcends their singular elements and affect the viewer in a meaningful way.
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