Art may be subjective, but it isn’t always noticeable.
Some art is. Put a big, watercolor landscape of a beach in your room, and it’ll be the first thing people compliment. Show a friend your sketch of a dog and they’ll praise your endless talent. Walk by the Wellness Center and you’ll end up smiling (or groaning) at the Mommy statue keeping watch over the grounds.
We are trained to notice and appreciate art pieces such as these. And that’s a good thing. We want to recognize beauty. But there is another branch of art that we have become so desensitized to that we often fail to even recognize it as art.
In this day and age, art is virtually always staring us directly in the face, and we don’t even see it—and, in this case, both meanings of virtually can apply.
I’m talking, of course, about graphic design.
Well, of course I notice graphic design, you may be thinking. That’s those digitally made pictures I see online or on the flyers around campus. And you’re not wrong. I thought the same thing, but it’s so much more than that. Graphic design is the Walmart logo, the lettering on a thrifted T-shirt, the Buff City Soap sticker you received with your purchase. It’s the latest IOS update that makes your home screen look the way it does. It’s all around us, and we don’t even realize it.
“If you think about a normal day, you see, like, 100 graphics,” sophomore Toby Forehand, a Digital Media Communications major and a graphic designer, said. “Someone made the graphics on your coffee cup. And someone designed your sweatshirt. There’s graphic art everywhere and digital art everywhere.”
And the creators of those designs get even less recognition. Whether they remain uncredited after making a piece or their design isn’t even acknowledged as art, these designers remain in the background in ways that other artists don’t. When I initially encountered the Mommy statue, the first words that managed to escape from my lips (once I could close my gaping mouth) were “Who made this?” But give me a mug of hot cocoa or a pair of fun socks and I will completely fail to recognize that there was a person behind the design. For some reason, if artwork is printed on something that is not made primarily to showcase that artwork (e.g. a mug or socks), I forget that there was a creator behind it. My guess is that many of you do that as well.
We view products in terms of their purpose and their usefulness. A mug’s purpose is to carry a hot drink. A mug that is useful carries a hot drink well, perhaps with little to no spillage and without burning the hand that holds it. We can introduce a third category –– appearance –– and evaluate based on that, too (is the mug pretty?), but the first two criteria keep us from appreciating the origin of the product’s appearance. Namely, the graphic designer.
Artwork like paintings and statues aren’t given the same standards as items we deem more practical. They exist solely so we can look at them, and so naturally we’ve come to think of them in terms of their beauty and the talent the artist must possess in order to make them. But we don’t see the same beauty in graphic designs, perhaps partially because they not only enhance practical things but also because they are used to advertise.
“Graphic design is not viewed as an art because generally it’s for a purpose and art is supposed to be for expression,” Forehand said. “And so since graphic design is to sell something or promote something, people don’t view it as art. I disagree with that.”
Creating products that are used to promote brands or ideas, graphic designers don’t have the freedom of expression that other artists do. Rather than crafting whatever they want, they must listen to customers’ feedback and create something that appeals to the consumer. A graphic designer is given parameters, boxes they must check off in order to please the client. Their art is meant for a specific audience, and they incorporate knowledge of their audience into their design.
But, despite their restrictions, there is still so much value and creativity to be found in graphic design. These artists embody the companies they are representing, entering the headspace of a brand and putting their heart and soul into crafting a design perfect for the company.
“You’re helping the company come up with a personality,” sophomore Graphic Design major Faith Orr said. “One that will set them apart from others.”
And that’s part of what makes graphic design so interesting. These artists engage with such a wide variety of demand; Orr herself has created both a Valentine’s Day dog for the Lambda Chi Alpha candy gram event and a new logo for a serious business just in the span of this semester. Constantly being challenged in new and different ways creatively, graphic designers must stay on their toes, never sure what to expect.
It takes a certain kind of person to be willing to take on such a job and to say, “Hey, I really like making this art, but I’m also okay with not being credited or with my work being overlooked.” To make one thing for a customer, be told it’s not quite what the brand is looking for, and scrap it in favor of a whole new design. You have to be patient, and dedicated, and willing to compromise –– comfortable with crafting designs that will often end up unnoticed.
Not all the time, though. We may not usually acknowledge the graphics we see, but after a while they begin to ingrain themselves in our minds.
Imagine a world with no logos or identifying graphics for companies –– just those boring, all-lowercase, same-font descriptors like Target puts on its kitchenware: “Flour.” “Salt.” “Spoon.” No swooping red C with a chicken’s face inside it, no golden arches, no five interlocked Olympic rings. I can barely navigate my phone apps with all the colorful app covers. If suddenly Instagram wasn’t pink and yellow and instead a dull gray, I would probably have an aneurysm. I certainly wouldn’t feel up to posting.
Our eyes are drawn to graphics, whether we realize it or not. We crave colorful things, fun things, beautiful things. And graphic designers provide creations that fulfill those desires. We may not notice those graphics immediately, but when we stop to really see, the sheer amount of creativity, personality and distinctness present in each fast food logo and Powerpoint slide design is overwhelming. And it’s everywhere.
Graphic design may be practical, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be appreciated.
