By the mid-1990s, the transition of graphic design from a drawing board activity to an on-screen computing activity was nearly complete. The 2000s began a completely new frontier for graphic designers. In addition to the tools becoming even more powerful, people were suddenly designing on portable devices, such as smartphones. On top of that, designers began to realize the importance of designing in a way that would look good on all types of devices.
With more and more companies recognizing the benefits of graphic design, it was only a matter of time before the first graphic design agency emerged. That honor belongs to the Austrian company Wiener Werkstätte, an organization that contributed both to design style and to business. The introduction of digital tools provided a new and revolutionary way to create graphic design. In 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh computer.
It used a simple, easy-to-use interface that said “Hello, inviting consumers to be creators themselves”. With one foot in modernism and the other in postmodernism, legendary designer Paul Rand helped bring graphic design to its current form. The designers developed a unified and cohesive modernist movement that became known as Swiss Design or International Typographic Style. On a 1998 American postage stamp, designers Ethel Kessler and Greg Berger digitally assembled the portrait of John Singer Sargent by Frederick Law Olmsted with a photograph of New York's Central Park, a site plan and botanical art to commemorate the landscape architect.
During the 1940s, graphic design appeared on the propaganda posters of the time, such as the “We Can Do It” poster with Rosie the Riveter. And as a group of professional artists working together, they had a great influence on setting design standards for the next generations of artists, in particular those following the First World War, when cultural attitudes were changing around the world. In this section, we'll analyze the events in early history that paved the way for graphic design centuries before the world was ready for it. Graphic designers were forced to assume the functions of typesetting and preprint production, which were not their responsibility before.
This research compares how graphic designers approached their work before the invention of the personal computer with the aftermath. Although these are specialized fields within the design community, they all come from graphic design. With a custom logo design, his company's brand became more than just a name, it became a striking and memorable work of art, in which color, shape and composition worked to impress consumers. So does the computer spell the end of fine design? Or is the computer forcing designers to reflect on what is good, useful and beautiful?.
