Graphics Research

Graphic Designers

In preparation for our graphics design project we were asked to research the works of several graphic artists. Here are a couple of my favourites:

Gerhard Richter:

As a German visual artist. Richter has simultaneously produced abstract and photorealistic painted works, as well as photographs and glass pieces. His art follows the examples of Picasso and Jean Arp in that it shows a lack of a single cohesive style. For Richter, reality is the combination of new attempts to understand and to represent the world surrounding us.


"One has to commit oneself inwardly, in order to do painting. Once obsessed, one ultimately carries it to the point of believing that one might change human beings through painting. But if one lacks this passionate commitment, there is nothing left to do. Then it is best to leave it alone. For basically painting is idiocy.”

I like Richter's work due to the dreamlike and illusionist quality to the pieces he creates. This enables the viewer to engage more completely with the art as it can evoke an imaginative state in which one can connect with the work on a more personal level. This is possible with Richter's work because with more typical work the viewer takes what they see at face value without being forced to look deeper.


Stefan Sagmeister:

Stefan Sagmeister is a New York-based graphic designer and typographer. He has his own design firm 'Sagmeister & Walsh Inc.' in New York City. His work is typically striking to the point of sensationalism and Sagmeister’s technique is often simple to the point of banality: slashing D-I-Y text into his own skin for the AIGA Detroit poster (pictured right). The strength of his work lies in his ability to conceptualise: to come up with potent, original, stunningly appropriate ideas.

"Design that needed guts from the creator and still carries the ghost of these guts in the final execution."

I like his work due to its utter originality and the simplicity of the ideas and concepts he uses. These at the same time can form complexities in the possible depths of their interpretations and meanings.

Typography:

Typography is the art of arranging type in order to make language visible. Type design is a closely related craft, which some consider distinct and others a part of typography; most typographers do not design typefaces, and some type designers do not consider themselves typographers. In modern times, typography has been put into motion—in film, television and online broadcasts—to add emotion to mass communication.

- Craig Ward

- Budiono Tri

Typography is performed by typesetters, compositors, typographers, graphic designers, art directors, comic book artists, graffiti artists, clerical workers, and anyone else who arranges type for a product. Until the Digital Age, typography was a specialized occupation. Digitization opened up typography to new generations of visual designers and lay users, and David Jury states that "typography is now something everybody does

- Dominic Le Hair