Graphic design practice embraces a range of cognitive skills, aesthetics and crafts, including typography, visual arts and page layout. Like other forms of design, graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created and the products (designs) which are generated. It is usually viewed as a superset of technical illustration.
#24101
Can an identity exude moral or ethical attitudes? In the past, product and business identities that functioned well were bound to a person or family that over long periods delivered quality and dependable goods or services. However, in these times of runaway and rollover mergers, restructuring, and reengineering, there is no time for anyone to assess the real characteristics that make up these newly emerging companies and conglomerates. What are they? Who is behind them? Corporate wolves or sheep in Gucci clothing?
Winkler, Dietmar. University of Alberta (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric
#30099
If I Told You You Had a Beautiful Figure...
Lay out images consistently across your site using a liitle clever JavaScript.
Gustafson, Aaron. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>JavaScript
#10241
Illegal colors are those colors which you can pick on your computer that will not reproduce using traditional CMYK offset printing. For example, open the Apple color wheel. Set the brightness as high as it can be and click on the aqua color at nine o'clock on the wheel. You see that bright, glowy, neon-like color? Isn't it beautiful? Too bad, it's illegal. There is no way that ordinary CMYK inks can reproduce that color. Most people get into illegal color trouble when they pick a color that looks great on the screen, and then have the job printed using process colors. They then complain to the print shop that the job looks dull, that all the brightness is gone. That's the fault of picking illegal colors. You won't get arrested but you will be disappointed in the output. The following is a list of some of the popular desktop publishing program and how they handle illegal colors.
Cohen, Sandee. Design, Typography and Graphics. Design>Graphic Design>Document Design>Color
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Too often, illustrations just sit there, taking up space on the page. Here's how to make them work.
Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1996). Design>Document Design>Graphic Design
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An under-the-hood look at Illustrator's versatile unite filter.
Zeitman, Randy. Adobe Magazine (1995). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Adobe Illustrator
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Image File Formats for Print and Web 
Images such as illustrations, photos and charts are an integral part of most technical papers. For the person compiling the document for print or online venues, images present unique problems. Unlike text documents, which are readily transferable between applications and platforms, images need special attention. In order to create images which are an appropriate quality for distribution, the author must always be mindful of the format of the final output. The final format will affect how the images are created, scanned and submitted.
Birchman, Judith A. and Susan G. Miller. STC Proceedings (2001). Design>Graphic Design>Web Design
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But what's the difference between GIF, JPEG and BMP? What does it mean if a GIF is interlaced or non-interlaced? Is a JPEG progressive because it enjoys art deco? Does a Bitmap actually offer directions somewhere? And the most often asked question: When do I use a specific image format?
Burns, Joe. HTML Goodies (1998). Design>Graphic Design>Image Editing
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Image Tricks That Make You Look Good
Web graphics are more than just window-dressing. They function as navigational elements and provide informational design. Oh, and they need to look good, too. Learn how to add graphic zip to your Web pages by using these Dreamweaver techniques.
Berkowitz, Ivonne, Yanier Gonzalez and Janine Warner. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>Dreamweaver
#28396
Don't reinvent the wheel for functional imagery. Concentrate creative effort on imagery that adds value in branding or message (content).
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design
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Photoshop gets involved with rhinos, criminals, ancient math, and the microscope.
Shuster, Robert. Adobe Magazine (1999). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Adobe Photoshop
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InDesign Tools Palette, Part 1
This is the first of several tutorials covering InDesign CS' tool palette. It covers the Selection tools, the Pen tool and the Type tool. It also gives tips and trick on how to make selections in InDesign.
Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Design>Software>Graphic Design>Adobe InDesign
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Infographics: Being and Doing (Part II)
Organizing the available information and coming up with a plan for presenting it is the first and probably the most difficult stage in designing any infographic.
Rajamanickam, Venkatesh. uiGarden (2007). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration
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This site is designed to give you an impression of the contents and dynamics of IDJ by providing abstracts, a selection of illustrations, and occasional additional sound and video clips. The site is updated with every issue (three times per year). Information Design Journal is an international refereed journal which provides a forum for theoretical and practice-oriented discussions concerning the effective, efficient and attractive presentation of information. Topics include the design of infographics, public information signs, forms, product labeling, typography, instructions for use, user interfaces, websites, and instructional textbooks. The editors invite contributions. Please consult the Guidelines for Contributors.
Information Design Journal. Journals>Information Design>Graphic Design>Typography
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A blog of information about information graphics.
XPLANE. Resources>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Blogs
#10359
Information Graphics at the Boston Globe: From Concept to Execution 
Over the past decade, information graphics have become an increasingly important part of newspaper coverage. While graphics have traditionally played a supporting role to content determined by reporters and editors, some newspapers take a more aggressive approach in reporting and creating information graphics. At the Boston Globe, a conscious effort has been made to encourage artists to report the material for their graphics, and to seek greater collaboration with reporters, editors, and photographers. In our best efforts, this allows us to discuss how to bring words, diagrams, illustrations, and photographs together in evocative information packages. The Globe's specialized beats include four reporters who work on health-related issues full time. Because our eight-person graphics department is responsible for nearly all diagrams, charts, and graphics in the newspaper, it is difficult for us to match a reporter's expertise in any one area.
McNaughton, Sean. Technical Communication Online (1998). Design>Graphic Design>Information Design>Technical Illustration
#23355
Information Visualization: Failed Experiment or Future Revolution?
Information visualization (infoviz, for short) has been dismissed by many information architects as a good idea that hasn't panned out—a failed experiment. Now failure is a strong word that closes a lot of doors, and information architects like to keep their options open, so the preferred phrasing is 'I'm skeptical about information visualization's value proposition' or 'I'll believe it when I see it' or something like that.
Fast, Karl. IAsummit (2004). Design>Information Design>Graphic Design
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Inside Technical Illustration: The Information Portal for Technical Illustration
The Information Portal for Technical Illustration provides free information on graphics formats, illustration tips and tricks, and a gallery, in 5 languages.
ITEDO Software (2001). Resources>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration
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The basic elements that come together to make up interesting visual design can be found echoing throughout everything around us. Those basic elements are the key to finding inspiration in the world around us.
Dickson, Gary. Design, Typography and Graphics (2005). Design>Graphic Design
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“Branding” is one of those issues we picture the marketing VPs of Intel or Kraft Foods worrying about--hardly something for us to concern ourselves with. It’s easy, after all, to appreciate the value of a brand like Coca-Cola, but near impossible to see how the same principles apply to an organization with an advertising budget something less than 30 million dollars. Or is it? Like it or not, your organization and the products or services it sells, have a brand. It is the sum of all the impressions your prospects and customers collect from the first time they hear your voice, see your brochure, or link to your Web site. And if you don’t take branding seriously, you’re leaving a critical piece of the marketing puzzle to little more than chance.
Chuck Green. Ideabook.com (2001). Design>Graphic Design>Branding
#14641
Integrating Graphics with Text
A teacher at the University of Memphis, Albers describes a two-tiered assignment he developed to help students address problems they encounter when trying to integrate text and graphics.
Albers, Michael J. Intercom (2000). Articles>Rhetoric>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric
#21498
Interactive Non-Photorealistic Technical Illustration
Current interactive modeling systems allow users to view models in wireframe or Phong-shaded images. However, the wireframe is based on the model's parameterization, and a model's features may get lost in a nest of lines. Alone, a fully rendered image may not provide enough useful information about the structure or model features. Human technical illustrators follow certain visual conventions that are unlike Phong-shaded or wireframe renderings, and the drawings they produce are subjectively superior to conventional computer renderings. This thesis explores lighting, shading, and line illustration conventions used by technical illustrators. These conventions are implemented in a modeling system to create a new method of displaying and viewing complex NURBS models. In particular, silhouettes and edge lines are drawn in a manner similar to pen-and-ink drawings, and a shading algorithm is used that is similar to ink-wash or air-brush renderings for areas inside the silhouettes. This shading has a low intensity variation so that the black silhouettes remain visually distinct, and it has a cool-to-warm hue transition to help accent surface orientation. Applying these illustration methods produces images that are closer to human-drawn illustrations than is provided by traditional computer graphics approaches.
Gooch, Amy. University of Utah (1998). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration
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Interactive Technical Illustration
A rendering is an abstraction that favors, preserves, or even emphasizes some qualities while sacrificing, suppressing, or omitting other characteristics that are not the focus of attention. Most computer graphics rendering activities have been concerned with photorealism, i.e., trying to emulate an image that looks like a high-quality photograph. This laudable goal is useful and appropriate in many applications, but not in technical illustration where elucidation of structure and technical information is the preeminent motivation. This calls for a different kind of abstraction in which technical communication is central, but art and appearance are still essential instruments toward this end. Work that has been done on computer generated technical illustrations has focused on static images, and has not included all of the techniques used to hand draw technical illustrations. A paradigm for the display of technical illustrations in a dynamic environment is presented. This display environment includes all of the benefits of computer generated technical illustrations, such as a clearer picture of shape, structure, and material composition than traditional computer graphics methods. It also includes the three-dimensional interactive strength of modern display systems. This is accomplished by using new algorithms for real time drawing of silhouette curves, algorithms which solve a number of the problems inherent in previous methods. We incorporate current non-photorealistic lighting methods, and augment them with new shadowing algorithms based on accepted techniques used by artists and studies carried out in human perception.
Gooch, Bruce, Peter-Pike J. Sloan, Amy Gooch, Peter Shirley and Richard Riesenfeld. University of Utah (1997). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration
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International Visual Literacy Association
IVLA is a not-for-profit association of educators, artists, and researchers dedicated to the principles of visual literacy. IVLA was formed for the purpose of providing education, instruction and training in modes of visual communication and the application through the concept of visual literacy to individuals, groups, organizations, and to the public in general. Our members represent a wide range of disciplines including the arts, sciences, education, communication, business, videography, photography, instructional technology, health, and computer applications. We hope you will feel free to join us in the lively debates of our field, and we look forward to forming lasting professional and personal friendships.
International Visual Literacy Association. Organizations>Graphic Design>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric
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Interview with a Graphic Designer: Web-Document Design
Our in-house graphic designer shares her Web-document design experience.
Goldberger, Dalya. Writer's Block (1997). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design
#21985
Introduction to Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is hands down, the most popular program for creating and modifying images for the Web. This is true not only because Photoshop is available on a wide array of platforms ranging from Mac to Windows to UNIX, but because after four generations of development, Adobe Photoshop has the most intuitive user interface, the most complete set of tools, and the largest number of reference books around.
