h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

[Note: I'm still kind of fumbling with the whole concept of this site, so I'm reposting a conversation I had apparently started with myself after I originally signed up as a journal entry]

Hi there everyone, and welcome to my first post. biggrin

Whilst writing my profile in My Space, it gave me the idea to post a bit about my line of work which is, as you may have guessed, a graphic designer.

The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada defines the industry as follows:

'graphic design is a creative process that uses art and technology to communicate'

I've been doing this for seven years, and no offence intended to my colleagues in the industry and others intrested in it, the idea that graphic design is art is, to me, utter rubbish.

The purpose of graphic design is to support, effectively, a sales effort. Any sort of advert that you see, any sort of packaging, any website you visit, a graphic designer had a hand in all of those. That postcard your mate from Bristol sent you with the naked Greek girl with the tan lines on it whilst on holiday in Crete? A graphic designer most certainly had a hand in that, especially in those tan lines (Hello, Photoshop!).

The point is, how can something whose sole raison d'être is to sell you something be considered art, especially when it's produced in such mass quantities? If it _must_ be considered an art form, then it can only be a low art. I don't think that a piece of commercial graphic design will have any sort of enduring value in terms of having some sort of historical significance.

But, naturally, this is just my opinion, and I'm certainly keen of reading more.

Cheers ! biggrin