The Evolution of Digital Art

Until the late 20th century, the graphic-design area was based on hand-craft processes: layouts that were stylised by hand to create an idea; type was specified and ordered from a typesetter; and type proofs and photostats of images were assembled in position on heavy paper or board for photographic reproduction and platemaking. Over the course of the 1980s and early ’90s, however, rapid changes in digital computer hardware and software completely altered graphic design.

Software for Apple’s 1984 Macintosh pc, such as the MacPaint program created by computer programmer Bill Atkinson and graphic designer Susan Kare, had a revolutionary human interface. Tool icons controlled by a mouse or graphics tablet enabled designers and artists to use computer graphics in a new, intuitive manner. The Postscript page-description language from Adobe Systems, Inc., enabled pages of type and graphics to be placed onto graphic designs on screen. By the mid-1990s, the development of design from drafting-table activity to an on-screen computer activity was virtually complete.

Personal computers placed typesetting tools into the homes of designers, and thence a period of experimentation occurred in the design of new and unusual typefaces and page layouts. Type and graphics were layered, fragmented, and disfigured; type columns were overlapped and run at very long or short line lengths, and the sizes, weights, and typefaces were changed within single headlines, columns, and words. Much of this type of research occurred in design training at art schools and universities. American designer David Carson, art director of Beach Culture magazine in 1989-91, Surfer in 1991-92, and Ray Gun magazine in 1992-96, caught the imagination of a youthful audience by taking this kind of experimental approach into publication design.

Rapid advances in onscreen software also allowed designers to make elements transparent; to stretch, scale, and bend elements; to layer type and images in space; and to fuse imagery into complex montages. For example, in a United States postage stamp from 1998, designers Ethel Kessler and Greg Berger digitally montaged John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Frederick Law Olmsted with a photo of New York’s Central Park, a site plan, and botanical art to commemorate the landscape architect. Placed together, these images create a rich expression of Olmsted’s life and work.

The electronic transition in graphic design was shortly followed by general public access to the internet. A completely new area of graphic design activity developed in the mid-1990s when internet business became a fast growing sector of the world-wide economy, causing organisations and businesses to scramble to establish Web sites. Designing a website involves the layout of screens of information rather than of physical pages, but approaches to the use of type, images, and colour are similar to those used for print. Web design, however, requires a host of new things to consider, including designing for navigation around the site and for using hypertext links to be taken to additional information. An example of strong Web design is the Herman Miller for the Home Web site, designed by BBK Studio in 1998. These designers created a strong visual identity, effective navigation, and informational clarity. Attributes that contributed to the effectiveness of this web-site included a pleasing colour palette, an informative use of pictures of products, and a scrolling montage of products.

Because of the global attraction and reach of the internet, the graphic-design trade is becoming increasingly global in scope. Additionally, the merging of motion graphics, animation, video feeds, and music into Web-site design has caused the merging of traditional print and broadcast media. As kinetic media expand from motion pictures and basic television to scores of cable-television channels, video games, and animated Web sites, motion graphics are becoming an increasingly important area of graphic design.

In the 21st century, graphic design is widespread; it is the main component of our complex print and electronic information systems. It permeates modern society, bringing information, product identification, entertainment, and persuasive messages. The unstoppable advancing of technology has dramatically changed the way graphic designs are created and distributed to a mass audience. However, the basic role of the graphic designer, providing creative form and clarity of content to communicative messages, remains the same.