Rationale
Graphic design has always served as a means of presenting, questioning, and understanding our world and is rooted in early human mark making. Such graphic marks acted as symbols to signify any and all aspects of life, and death. As marks evolved color was added to further express hopes and desires; symbols changed to scenes that could document an event, or foretell the future. The visual image is, and always has been a potent communicator.
While the purpose behind graphic imagery has remained relatively stable throughout the centuries, the processes used in its creation have been constantly evolving. This evolution has been fueled by artists who are willing to act as interpreters and perform as a technicians. Graphic Design history is rich with a range of aesthetic approaches, but its “coming of age” is linked to reproduction technology and its sense of purpose in the need for mass communication.
Graphic design is a discipline with a vibrant and unique history. Its historical importance can be seen in contemporary movements of thought throughout the twentieth century in the works of such graphic designers as Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Paul Rand, Herb Lublin, Max Bill, Erik Nitsche, Terry Jones, the Grapus Group, Seymour Chwast, Rudy VanderLans, Zuzana Licko, Muriel Cooper, Massimo Vignelli, April Greiman, or Gert Dumbar. All were as influenced by social concerns, advancements in science, and evolutions in technology as they were the “high” arts.
Throughout the past two centuries, as science and technology have marched towards the digital age, artist and graphic designers have been at the forefront, forging creative partnerships that have informed the evolution of the tools themselves. Since the Fluxus movement of the early 1960s, artists have been free to insist that art could be a fluid concept, instead of a salable commodity. Artist such as Nam June Paik produced work that echoed the world’s interest in processes that use commercial, non-traditional art materials in order to offer unique conceptualizations that combine technology with personal expression.
The growth of the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has been driven by the advancements in computer technology and the information that has been made available through that technology. From an initial concern with a command line dialog for process control, we have progressed to graphical interfaces that allow the manipulation of complex information. Taking advantage of our preference and ability to process visual information, the design of these current user interfaces as well as the presentation of information has become visually sophisticated. We now have interactive visual representations of complex and frequently abstract information. These interactive visual representations serve as scaffolding for the user's cognitive systems that now allow the user to exceed the limitations of their internal representations. Providing effective visual displays with intuitive manipulations allows users to see relationships, solve problems, and make appropriate decisions based on information that, previously, had been beyond their ability to process.
Just as the development of HCI grew from the integration of cognitive psychology and computer science, the field of information visualization requires an integration of HCI and graphic design. That integration of disciplines provides the HCI practitioner with an understanding of the principles of design that are the key to effective designs. Graphic designers gain insight into the ways in which their visual designs can be interactively manipulated and the limitations of human abilities that guide those manipulations.