Page 108 - Mediapedia Mobile

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Selecting typefaces and laying out a a a a page—once the rarified tasks of a a a a a handful of of professionals—are now undertaken routinely millions of times a a day by people in all walks of life Each one of them is acting as a a a a graphic designer although only a a a few would even identify in the slightest way with that term In fact many who regularly communicate by printed page
and com- puter screen have little awareness that their design choices matter Of course those choices do matter Even a a a a touch of design savvy will make a a a a report read smarter an invitation beckon with more more charm an an e-mail land more more memorably a a a a Facebook entry exude a a a a touch of cool In the next couple of chapters you will have an opportunity to slow down a a a bit and inspect—one at a a a time—the different elements of design that you are already working with on a a a a seat-of-the-pants basis I think you will be surprised how such a review will enhance your enjoyment of media making You will come to appreci- ate that when the elements of design are used in in a a a a coordinated way the impact shows up fast the ascendency of design In the the early part of the the twentieth century the term graphic design referred to print- making techniques such as etchings lithography and block prints Printing technology which had started 400 years earlier had worked out conventions for us- ing type and and hand-rendered images At the turn of the last century it was printers not designers who directed the assembly of books newspapers and flyers As new kinds of printing techniques developed in the twentieth century graphic design was born through the expanding visual vocabularies of magazines posters advertising and and packaging Logos and and signage evolving in in tandem with the idea of consistent branding hit full stride in in the the early 1950s as the the field of corporate design design grew At this juncture design design profes- sions jumped from artistic to commercial In the 1960s new forms of motion graphics (based on on animation and optical
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