tensaigrfx goes wordpress. with pleasure we publish findings from the web, references of works in progress and the like. specialized in print design tensaigrfx came a long way from the first logo designs to corporate publications and the beginnings of web-design in the early 2000’s.
Nowadays there is a great debate what advertising separates from graphic design and what makes design work so special and distinct from art. Not only the flat screen in front of you merges your personal life with professional life but the very apparatus you carry around all day – your caressophone – known as smartphone. Who wants to think about distinctions when apps are carefully designed to meet many of your desires and wishes?
Still the graphic language has changed over the years. While the 90’s of our last century were signified by pixel graphics, the early stages of 3D computer visuals on the screen, fully animated movie pictures were created in the virtual world. The web was a mere desert and the bandwidths available would not let us dream of an age where literally everything could be found online – not only fancy 3D images and videos.
This is what we look at when we speak about art producing, our clients – also called users – are educated in terms of visual concepts and describe in a more elaborated way what their wishes are. What a interface has to offer, and what a good navigation looks like is in everyone’s vocabulary and even content differs in marginal quotes whereas the task to deliver good design seems the least problem out there.
Many trends were to be found in print and online, the escapades of 3D and imitations of such are over. We arrived at the era of “flat”. Everything designed seems to have only a width and a height, one color, one type – nothing more. Gradients used to simulate dimension are no more, corners with a radius are only used on buttons and such. Visual design has arrived where it began several decades ago and to say the least – in its adulthood.
Nonetheless several dimensions are added in terms of involvement. It no longer suffices to have an email address or a website, the so called social media gives us the immediate feedback to wether our photographs published online or messages of how we feel. The question is how we express feelings in the world of visual communication? Little images – smileys – are not to be mistaken as a substitute. We cannot feel smile whereas it is already an expression of …. Right.
To apply good design does not only afford a founded knowledge of the history and the trends of the graphically designed world but also the knowledge how those were created. A common view is that everything perceivable is a matter of taste and any manmade development is a random occurrence. The elaborate version of this perspective also adds, that everything designed has its origin in nature and even the proportions we use are proven to be found in the oldest artifacts available to mankind.
The problem of getting a working concept of what visual design really is, is far from being solved. Regarding our initial question another question evolves: How can we distinct art from nature? Of course the short cut is to say that anything made by man is art and else is not. We are in the middle of the debate mentioned earlier. Our contribution must not be a possible answer to any of those questions but to offer additional perspectives and less simplistic views compared to the above. We also want to encourage anyone to send suggestions, so feel free to add your “angle”.
tensaigrfx 