Graphic Design 101 : What is Graphic Design?

When I asked this question to my students, I was staring at totally blank faces. Wonderful! I would have a blank slate to work with! What about you? What do you think Graphic Design is? Is it merely designing something on a computer? Is it as easy as creating something in Photoshop? I hope if you answered yes, that I can convince you otherwise.
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Graphic Design is using the combination of text and/or images to communicate something. Graphic Design is a functional art, which means that both the form (its appearance and aesthetics) and the function (how it does what it is supposed to) are very important. I found this great video on YouTube, that I showed the kids to get them thinking about design in the world around them. 

Then we made it personal. I showed the class these two drink packets and took a vote to see which one they would buy. Everyone  picked the sample on the left. So we discussed how and why the graphic design on the packages was impacting their choice.

I showed them many more samples of graphic design that I brought from home, and gave them an assignment to bring in samples to the next class. Now hopefully they understand that Graphic Design is a very practical part of their daily life. But Graphic Design isn’t just about marketing, and it certainly didn’t originate with the advertisement industry. In the next post, I’ll explore the beginnings of Graphic Design and how it has become such a dominating aspect of life as we know it today. ​

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