entire history typography had been a physical
activity, initially based on the arrangement o f metal
typefaces for letterpress printing, and after 1960,
on the preparation of camera-ready artwork for offset
lithographic printing. With computerization, the
design process was dematerialized into electronic
form and graphic design was radically altered.
Working with computers did away with many of the activities that were previously an essential part of the graphic designer's work, notably manual processes that employed the physical materials o f the craft. At the same time computers increased the scope of the work and the speed at which it could be produced. Desktop-publishing software brought the means of production into the studio, making it easier for designers to continue to work in small groups and to avoid the need for constant expansion. Traditional job definitions were called into question, and flexible multi-tasking became widespread as computers blurred the distinctions between studio and office and between office and home.
The Apple Macintosh computer, the most successful of the micro-computers, was introduced in 1984. Its system ran on the principle of windows, icon, mouse and pull-down menus (WIMP). From the start "Mac" software was oriented towards designers. However, while computer technology brought about a substantial shift, it would be misleading to suggest that computers alone determined the nature of design changes after about 1980. In fact many of the characteristic stylistic ideas had been developed before their extensive introduction in electronic form, making i t clear that broader ideas from culture, philosophy, fashion and "style" were just as important for graphic design.
"Design" became a key word in the late twentieth century, and "designer" was used as a prefix for a wide range of goods and cultural activities. Graphic design benefited from this increased exposure. A higher rate of design change was introduced into magazines, especially the style press, which depended on its readers' visual acuity to pick up references to previous design movements and to appreciate the nuanced graphic languages. As multinational companies developed a global identity, consumers were made aware of the power of branding as manifest in graphic form. Designers such as Tibor Kalman and Adbusters took up questions formulated by writers on cultural
I
studies, in order to expose corporate strategies of persuasion and media control. Many other designers expressed their reluctance to become the handmaiden of global corporations.macromedia
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Neville Brody, a leading graphic designer associated with the new typography of the and and himself a keen user of the latest computer technologies, was entrusted with the series design af web-based interactive software for Macromedia. The series design developed from the theme of the sunburst and hexagons, invoking computer science, the elements and space
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a fusion of nature and technology.Increasing ownership of computers spread an awareness graphic design among the wider public, bringing the possibility of selecting typefaces and arranging text and images to them in their homes. The boundaries between professional and amateur design became blurred. Many designers were initially dismissive of the opportunities computers gave to typography and graphic design. Early exceptions, however, were Zuzana Licko and Rudy
who formed the group Emigre in California in 1982. They chose not to imitate the quality of previous technologies. Calling themselves the New Primitives, they were attracted to the initial roughness of computer-derived type forms. Emigre's projects encapsulated the various possibilities of digitization. From the early 1980s the group published a magazine of international significance in the debate on graphic design in the digital age, ran a digital type foundry that made new typefaces available globally, and operated a recording studio.
Computers allowed the boundaries between print, film and television to be explored and further broken down. Additionally, the Internet encouraged on-line publication and graphic designers were as likely to be involved in web design as design for print media, as the examples of Why Not Associates, Jonathan Barnbrook, Neville Brody and David Carson indicate. The question they faced was whether the metaphor of the desktop was still appropriate or whether analogous forms of spatial organization, drawn from the fields of architecture or cartography, offered greater possibilities.
A growing interest in the relationship between technology and society not only challenged the idea that technology drives cultural change, but also modified an assumption that computer technology operates within an exclusively male context. The example of Muriel Cooper at the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts lnstitute of Technology and April Greiman at the California lnstitute of Arts did much to dispel this notion.
By the end of the twentieth century there were notably more women involved in the practice of graphic design. Moreover, archival research by feminist design historians uncovered women designers from the earlier years who were "hidden from history", and important publications and exhibitions followed. At the same time the work of April Greiman, Sheila de Bretteville, Eiko lshioka and Ellen Lupton indicated the many different ways in which women interpreted the activity of graphic designer and shaped its changing identity - through exhibitions and writing, site-specific design, art direction and multi-media applications. Such work contributed to a category redefinition in which graphic designers increasingly took responsibility for their professional activities. It helped to give graphic design renewed social significance while preparing it for the century to come.