Importance of context in Graphic Design:

Context of Practise is:

- historical place of the design

- what the design is used for

- audience it’s meant for

- social, political and cultural situation that each target audience live in

The context briefing emphasised the importance of understanding that the purpose of Graphic Design is not only to make things appear aesthetically pleasing, but that it is also a means of involving yourself in communicating a message about important events, ideas or elements in life that you are intrigued or have something to say about. For example, Emmet Mcbain’s poster called ‘Black is Beautiful’ produced in 1968 was one of the first in advertising to stand and make the point that black people are a unique target audience in their own right and should not be ignored or grouped with white people. The poster has a strong voice because of its strong design with the reiterations and bold font, a large contrast to various pieces of work I viewed which were based on skeuomorphism, a new definition and outdated graphic design tool I learnt about today. This opposition towards skeuomorphism was also mentioned under Massimo Vignelli in that he believes type should not be expressive at all, while some people will “write ‘dog’ [and think] it should bark.” These two examples helped me understand that there are to an extent, wrong ways and right ways of working, in that some particular methods no longer pull in an audience or undermine the strength of communication as the social, cultural, political and technological contemporary situations change over time.