Final Thoughts

This class has been a wild ride through graphic design history. The progression from early human record keeping to modern day methods of communication has been fascinating.

The most intriguing aspect of this journey, for me, is the clear transition from writing and image making as a means of keeping long term, accurate record of important facts to writing and image making as a way to influence and communicate ideas. The art of writing and image making began as a way for humans to preserve facts and stories; clay and stone have a long memory, after all. Today, the purpose of writing and image making are legion.

The permanence of created images seems to have been challenged since the invention of technologies such as the internet and the computer. The internet is an ever-changing and ever-expanding space for artists and creative types to push the boundaries of human creativity. There is something real about books, posters, and cave walls which just isn't found in the digital world. This allows for a redefining of what is acceptable to do with an image—there are an infinite number of ways to change a digital image without destroying the original image. True, copying technologies for images exists, so it's technically possible to infinitely change an analog image; however, the ease of change is what sets digital manipulation apart.

Each new epoch of human creation and technology has led to or been involved in a new way of addressing the world. Before the invention of written language, human history could only go back a few generations. Before moveable type and the printing press, free speech was an unknown idea. Before the internet and the spread of mobile information, what we considered "our community" was limited by how far from our residence we could travel. I'm confident that the next revolution of human technology, whatever shape it takes, will have large-scale impact on how we humans do art and design.