CalArts: Funds. of Graphic Design-W1: Introduction to Imagemaking

To begin this course, we’re going to look at imagemaking techniques.

Many graphic design practices involve imagemaking, and these images often work as literal depictions.

Denotative images.

The image represents the thing itself. And we call these kind of images denotative images.

For instance, let’s say I make an image of an apple. It sounds simple, but how that apple is represented can say a lot to the viewer.

The technique used to make the image of the apple, the aesthetics of the image, well that can say a lot about the apple itself. 
You can make the apple look healthy and delicious or rotten and disgusting.

So how the image is made becomes very important. The designed image says something about the actual object, about what kind of apple it is.

The designer is adding extra information and communicating that information to the viewer. And this can have a big effect. 
In this case, it might make the difference between whether you want to eat the apple or not.

Connotative images.

It gets more complicated as you begin to change that denotative or archetypal image and pair that image with other elements. And when designers do this, the apple is no longer just an apple, it can represent or suggest a different idea. We call these kind of images connotative images.

For instance if we put a mortar board on the apple or a test grade by the side of it then that apple becomes about knowledge.

If we put a few lines indicating the apple is falling you could read that as being about gravity.

One half red. One half green. That could be about good and evil.

Or a snake wrapped around the apple. Well you might read that image as being about sin or temptation.

In this course, we are going to make images that are both literal โดยหมายความตามนั้น and metaphorical โดยอุปมา. 
Images that are denotative and connotative.

We are going to look at some of the formal strategies and techniques used in imagemaking. 
And we are going to do this with a spirit of experimentation and embracing ideas of process.

And what this means is, we aren’t necessarily looking to see who can draw the most perfect apple. 
Graphic design isn’t always about perfection. 
Quite often it’s more about making the unexpected or the original. 
And we’re interested in everyone being able to investigate a broad range of making techniques to generate their own images and to really enjoy the process of imagemaking.

So I want you to give yourself permission to make in this loose and generative way, to really enjoy the process of making. I think you’ll make some images that’ll be beautiful, successful, and surprising.