Week 1- Preface, Look at Every Picture in The Book

I am only at the beginning of this class, and already I realize how massively enormous the field of Graphic Design is.  In the preface of Meggs, they spend an entire page explaining how much Graphic Design work is out there, to the effect of not being able to cover everything in one book and apologizing for not having enough space for every design and designer who has contributed to the industry.  As a person who is very new to the industry, I am both inspired and overwhelmed by the amount of Graphic Design I see around me in my everyday life.   Literally everything we look at all day long is Graphic Design.  As I look around my room now, I find myself thinking about how these designs have come to be; my coffee cup, a book cover, a moving box, a bag from marshalls, etc.  The fact is, that each one of these things was designed by someone who put a lot of time and thought into something I see everyday and don’t think twice about. 

The first paragraph of the Preface to the First Edition is really powerful.  Zeitgeist “the spirit of the times” is one of the most interesting concepts I have ever thought about, especially when applied to Graphic Design.  The writer goes on to explain that you can look at a piece of art or design and know what time period it is from, where it is from and what was going on culturally at the time.  He says that Graphic Design is better able to “express the Zeitgeist of an epoch than many other forms of human expression.”  At only 4 pages in, I’m already creatively inspired. 

When I bought this book at the campus bookstore, I flipped through it and quickly realized that I wanted to own not rent this book.  The pictures in this book go in chronological order and really do tell a story as you look through them all.  This book is a must have for anyone who has interest in Graphic Design.  It takes you through the history of Graphic Design, from cave drawings to Art Nouveau to iPhone applications, making you think about one significant time period after another.  I am excited learn, and take in as much information as possible in this class and from this beautifully laid out book.

Sources:

Meggs' History of Graphic Design