How has the computer changed the appearance of graphic design over the last three decades?

Over the last three decades technology has evolved faster than society can keep track of. There seems to be a new must have gadget every other week nowadays whereas in the 1980s there was still no such things as a mobile phones or even bar codes. It is safe to say that technology has advanced at an alarming rate and it doesn't look like it’s going to slow down any time soon. This huge leap forward in available technologies has had a direct impact the world over not excluding the world of design.

                                                                 

   Recent technologies have allowed designers to leave the art room and turn away from the drawing board in favour of their new digital replacements which are far more efficient and mobile than their predecessors.  In 1984 innovator Steve Jobs introduced the Apple Macintosh computer, thereby changing graphic design and the world forever. This personal computer was the first of its kind, running MAC OS a user-friendly operating system that favoured the visual user and was very well received by everyday people.
    Since its inception the Apple Mac has inadvertently caused the digital revolution, redefining graphic design in the meantime and paving the way for the computer to become the major tool in the graphics industry.
 The Apple computer was the first computer built with creative people in mind, visual thinking was critical to its positive reception. It was created with the intention to reform the computer industry, to make computers not just usable by a technophile but rather to appeal to those artists and musicians and open up a world in which they could create digitally. The invention of the mac and creative friendly programs such as mac paint empowered the creative community. Essentially the mac took the computer world from the logical and gave it to the creative MITPsycho analyst Sherry Turkle has referred to this as the transition from a modernist culture of calculation to a postmodernist one of simulation.
   Since the opening of the computer world to the creative; technology has advanced as quickly as graphic design meaning demand for high quality graphics has never been higher. The last three decades have been ground breaking in the world of graphics in terms of what is available for the artist to use this means not only technology but also in terms of what the artist is actually capable of producing the last 30 years have brought advancements in what we see as possible not only in graphics but also in the world itself, we are doing things we never dreamed of and that is reflected in the design world. Programs like adobe Photoshop and in design have replaced the art table or the sketch pad and laid way for a new generation of graphic designers to fully explore these programs and create whatever they like, the possibilities are endless.
    The point I’m trying to construe is that the technological advancements since 1984 have made professional art and design equipment readily available to the everyman it has inspired a generation of forward thinkers to use the technology around them and create as they see fit. There are no back buttons in real life I think this is another reason why the graphics world has turned digital. The use of the programs allows for error and whilst still annoying it’s not quite the same as starting a whole project over after messing something up. The widespread use of technology has also added to the rise of digital graphics. 30 years ago computers were undesirable items that were prompted by code and didn’t even come with a monitor. The Apple computer changed that, made the computer a necessity over time and appealed to the masses it is with this that our ideas of what’s possible on a computer changed designers began to realize the potential of the software they were using and the things that they could achieve having learned the programs. Even on Mac paint a primitive version of Microsoft paint, which in itself is an antiquated version of photoshop artists were creating amazing images such as Mike Saenz who created some incredible comics.
 In short technological advancements brought on in the last 30 years have impacted more than just design they have affected the world over but, in relation to design, digital design and the way that artists work it has redefined what is possible when trying to fulfil a project brief or when designing anything the world of the creative has changed forever.











References and reading list :
http://www.reactivegraphics.co.uk/how-web-design-in-london-changed/
http://www.dmnews.com/how-technology-changed-creativity/article/90348/
http://blog.prezi.com/latest/2015/1/7/a-new-era-of-visual-communications
http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/publishing/articles/121403.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtvjbmoDx-I
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3025606/5-ways-the-macintosh-changed-creativity-forever



by mason smith