The Language of Graphic Design Revised and Updated

An illustrated handbook for understanding fundamental design principles

Richard Poulin

• Publisher: Rockport Publishers
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781631596179
• eBook ISBN: 9781631596186
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Graphic Design

The Language of Graphic Design provides design students and practitioners with an in-depth understanding of the fundamental elements and principles of their language, graphic design: what they are, why they are important, and how to use them effectively.

To communicate in a new language, you first have to gain a complete understanding of its fundamentals; the ABC’s of that language—definitions, functions, and usage. This book provides provides just these fundamentals for the language of  graphic design, including chapters on symmetry, asymmetry, tone, contrast, proportion, and typography.

Organized by the building blocks of the graphic design language, this reference includes work by some of the most successful and renowned practitioners from around the world and explains how they have applied these fundamental principles to their work.

By examining both student and professional work, this comprehensive handbook is a more meaningful, memorable, and inspiring reference tool for novice design students, as well as young designers starting their careers.

1 point

“An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought.”

PABLO PICASSO (SPANISH, 1881–1973) Painter, Sculptor

point \'p

int\ n

4 a: a geometric element that has zero dimensions and a location determinable by an ordered set of coordinates

A point is the fundamental building block of all visual communication design elements and principles. It is also the simplest and purest of all geometric elements in a graphic designer’s vocabulary and used as an essential element in geometry, physics, vector graphics, and other related fields.

Definitions

A point has many definitions. It is often considered within the framework of Euclidean geometry, where it is one of the fundamental objects. Euclid (Greek, c. 300 BCE), creator of modern geometry, originally defined the point vaguely, as “that which has no part.”

It is an abstract phenomenon indicating a precise location; however, it cannot be seen or felt. It is a location or place without area. In typography, a point is a period. It is a dot character such as a full stop, decimal point, or radix point. It is also the smallest unit of measurement, being a subdivision of the larger pica—one point is equal to 0.0148 inches, 1/72 of an inch, whereby twelve (12) points equals one pica. It also describes the weight or thickness of paper stock.

Paris Diderot Université’s logotype is literally based on an “X marks the spot” graphic representation or, in this case, the intersection of two visual elements or lines creating a singular point. Additionally, the dots of the lowercase i’s in the words Paris and Diderot are shared to create a visual focal point and integration between the two words, providing a much stronger and cohesive unity to the overall message.

CATHERINE ZASK

Paris, FR

The website for Olin, a landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm, relies solely upon varied size points, or dots, as the primary navigational tools for accessing specific information, such as profile, project types, and news on the firm. It also visually symbolizes the macrocosm and microcosm of the organization through the fluid, kinetic movements of the site’s interface, further conveying Olin as an organic, living entity.

PENTAGRAM

New York, NY, USA

1910

AEG Lamp Poster

PETER BEHRENS

Munich, DE

Peter Behrens and the AEG Brand

PETER BEHRENS (1868–1940) was a true visionary and the first Renaissance designer of the modern age, moving with ease from one discipline to another—painting, architecture, product design, furniture design, and graphic design. His creative interests were boundless. Behrens was the first to pursue a seamless integration of visual communications and architecture and was an inspiration to the founders of the modernist movement.

As a young man, he worked as a fine artist, illustrator, and bookbinder in his native Hamburg. In 1899, Behrens became the second member of the recently created Darmstadt Artists’ Colony, where he designed and built his own house as well as everything inside it—from furniture and textiles to paintings and pottery. While at Darmstadt, he realized that he was more interested in simplified geometric forms than the more organic and curvilinear forms of the current Jugendstil (New Art) or Art Nouveau. In the early 1900s, he became one of the leaders of architectural reform in Germany and one of the first architects of factories and office buildings utilizing a modernist materials palette of brick, steel, and glass.

As a teacher, his ideas and teachings on design for industry, as well as everyday objects and products, influenced a group of students that would ultimately alter the direction of twentieth-century architecture and design worldwide, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (German, 1886–1969), Le Corbusier (Swiss, 1887–1965), Adolf Meyer (German, 1843–1942), and Walter Gropius (German, 1883–1969), founder of the Bauhaus school in Dessau, Germany.

In 1907, Allegemein Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG), Germany’s largest electrical utility and industrial producer, hired Behrens as its new artistic consultant. It was at AEG that he created a unified brand for every aspect of the company’s visual environment—office buildings, factories, and visual communication materials.

A primary example of Behrens’s design philosophy at AEG was a promotional poster advertising AEG’S newest product in 1910—a technologically advanced lamp or lightbulb. The design of the poster is clearly based on fundamental modernist design elements and principles. Its ortho...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Point
• 2 Line
• 3 Shape
• 4 Form
• 5 Light
• 6 Color
• 7 Texture
• 8 Scale
• 9 Movement
• 10 Space
• 11 Balance
• 12 Symmetry
• 13 Asymmetry
• 14 Tension
• 15 Closure
• 16 Expression
• 17 Abstraction
• 18 Tones
• 19 Contrast
• 20 Figure-Ground
• 21 Frame
• 22 Proportion
• 23 Image
• 24 Pattern
• 25 Typography
• 26 Grid
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index
• Contributors
• About the Author
• Acknowledgments
• Image Resources
• Dedication
• Copyright