a kidd’s guide to graphic design
[image from deirdre spencer dot com]
Chip Kidd’s introduction to graphic design is a wonderful resource--even though this isn’t a graphic design course per se. There is much to take away that helps us to think about information/document design and writing-designing as interwoven.
What follows are sort of like lecture notes that work to point out concepts that we will carry forward with us in our work, in our analysis, and in our discussions.
Kidd’s framing of graphic design is directly applicable to us--he frames it as problem solving. Further, he explains that “the thing to learn about graphic design problem solving is that the best solution can usually be found in the best definition of the problem itself” (2). For us, this relates to our consideration of rhetorical analysis that seeks to understand audience, context, and purpose (broadly--each one is more complex).
He reminds that everything--everything--needs to be designed. And needs to be designed for a variety of purposes/functions/uses.
How does graphic design work?
Graphic design works “Through visual and typographic components that, when put in the right combinations, can literally get you to start or stop doing something.” (5)
It affects us (works on us/against us/with us) all of the time. We understand our worlds through the objects/texts/processes that serve as our interfaces to them.
Do add the form vocabulary to your word bank; not only will these concepts help us to see and discuss, they can also be sued at dinner parties to impress your friends.
Kidd’s description of re-learning to see like a baby (22)--taking in visuals without automatically ascribing meaning--is of interest to us in terms of wonder. This class, these collection & curation blog posts ask you to wander/wonder and then make meaning of what you see. In this section too to note is cultural ways of seeing/reading that become invisible processes to us. Try looking at a text in another language, something non-Western, something pre-Roman or not Eurocentric. Try just seeing.
And with just seeing--not making the move to ascribe meaning with language/words--Kidd gets into color theory by opening with the emotional power colors have that can’t quite be put into words (61). Think about if you have ever felt an emotionally response to something you see but can’t quite describe why. Think about how you’re seeing.
Speaking of color theory, check out this color scheme picker
Color communicates, and so too does typography--not the words the type spells out, but the shape, size, thickness, boldness, and spacing of and between letters themselves.
Look back/again more closely at the type faces that Kidd highlights (80-81)--look at the connection between the type and its name, and between the type and who/what created it. Type is impacted/influenced by the time, location, culture, technology, etc. it is situated within. “Typography itself is its own language about language.” (87)
At this time, I’d like to make a public service announcement that if you have never downloaded and installed a font on your computer that doesn’t come as standard--you are typing in black and white TV when you could be typing in technicolor.
Kidd moves from principles of graphic design to the fundamental question of design--what are you trying to communicate? What is it trying to do? What is it’s purpose? Quoting architect Louis Sullivan, Kidd states “form follows function”; purpose = function.
Kidd then gives us an equation for graphic design: content + form + type = graphic design. But, he brings to our attention that we’ve forgotten concept--our idea of what to do (104). Concept, he Kidd describes, is the bridge between form and content.
content -- concept -- form
How do we find concept? Kidd raises the question, “Where do ideas come from? How can you create them?…The easy answer is that you let the problem itself give you ideas. The harder answer is that ideas come from around the world all around you, and you have fro try and recognize them.” (104)
And thus my idea for the collection, curation & creation blog comes back into focus--we get concepts from observing concepts. Kidd gives us conceptual terms of imagery [literal and suggestive], illusion, metaphor, visual flavor, sincerity and irony to notice how we interpret and can design interpretation.
The takeaway? You are a designer--you already were. But now you have some schema/tools/vocabulary.
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