1/28/2004   slide 4
What is Graphic Design?
•“Of or pertaining to drawing or painting. graphic arts: the fine arts of drawing, painting, engraving, etching, etc.; also, the techniques of production and design involved in printing and publishing; graphic design: graphics (sense B. 2 below); so graphic designer.” OED
•I.e., historically, chiefly 2D visual work, often involving printing. Now includes photo, digital, etc.
•Taught chiefly in art schools or as vocational track in liberal arts schools, but boundaries shifting and blurring 
Venn Diagram
Graphic Design
Fine Arts
Illustration
Photography
These (and others) are departments at RISD—only one is taught at Brown…



 from the OED
A. adj.
     1. Drawn with a pencil or pen. Obs.
 
  a1637 B. JONSON Underwoods, Eupheme ix, [God] can Find..our closest creeks and corners, and can trace Each line, as it were graphick in the face.
    2. Of or pertaining to drawing or painting. graphic arts: the fine arts of drawing, painting, engraving, etching, etc.; also, the techniques of production and design involved in printing and publishing; graphic design: graphics (sense B. 2 below); so graphic designer.
 
  1756 Epitaph in H. Walpole's Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) V. 269 With..all the genius of the Graphic Art, His fame shall each succeeding artist own. 1811 LAMB Guy Faux Misc. Wks. (1871) 374, I only notice the print as being one of the earliest graphic representations which woke my childhood into wonder. 1872 RUSKIN Eagle's Nest §123 This faculty of sight..is the only proper faculty which the graphic artist is to use in his inquiries into nature. 1882 P. G. HAMERTON (title) The Graphic Arts: a Treatise on the Varieties of Drawing, Painting and Engraving. 1949 Sci. Amer. Nov. 29 The new Graphic Arts Research Foundation, whose work is supported by 139 newspapers, printing firms and other interested groups. 1956 H. WILLIAMSON Methods Bk. Design Pref., Principles of graphic design which apply to all kinds of book production. 1967 Graphic design [see sense B.3 below]. 1967 KARCH & BUBER Offset Processes ii. 9 Of the many methods and procedures used in the graphic arts, letterpress and offset-lithography account for 66·1% in monetary value. 1971 PERRY & ALDRIDGE Penguin Bk. Comics (ed. 2) Bastard title p., Alan Aldridge is one of the most original and creative graphic designers... His unique style of illustration has appeared in countless magazines, newspapers, record sleeves, posters.