OUGD401
Reading and understanding text

For this task we had to pick an appropriate text from the module resources and pick key points the text makes then back it up with quotes,also we had to note the authors position on the subject matter. I chose to read Graphic Design theory by Meredith Davis. Before all else I think Meredith Davis put her points across in a formal and intellectual way, she doesn't have a biased opinion as she discusses the advantages and disadvantages that technology has had on Graphic design, this topic is the main focus of the book.

To start with the first point,the impact of technology has effected practitioners roles in the industry, it has taken away certain jobs and left designers reliant on technology. Also instead of passing work onto a specialist,people have begun to take up design work themselves instead using a 'tradesman' designer. I gained this point from this certain quotation in the text.

'The digital revolution of the late 1980s and 1990s distracted designers with more practical concerns about how they did their work. Computer technology collapsed the perviously separate activities of typesetting, design, photographic processing, retouching, and eventually, some printing under the responsibilities of the designer'. This point is getting across that technology took away certain specialists jobs within graphic design and could also interpret that it made designers lazy and reliant on technology.

Print has become a way of mass communication, crowding the market in print to communicate a product or service. 'To these ends advertisers use the media of mass communication: commercial television and radio, the national and local press and magazine Originally advertising was used by newspaper owners as necessary, and manageable support cost. Today it suffuses the whole system of mass communication and some economist'

This quote tells us that mainly newspaper owners used print to advertise their businesses. Then in the media market more people used this method for selling a product and to advertise their services, such as providing consumer information to the public.

The digital age has enabled anyone to publish work online, Davis says 'no longer are capital, approval, and production time necessary to distribute content. Everyone is, in some sense a writer, designer and publisher' Before the digital age designers had to distribute work using print which is much harder than using the web, plus there is a much larger audience online. Online marketing makes it much easier to target specific audiences, whereas it is more difficult to target using printed publications. In this point Davis could be getting at that anyone can be a designer, writer or publisher but to distinguish a professional is now hard in the digital age. 

Davis does voice her opinion on one matter saying 'it quickly became apparent that interactive media held the potential for bigger and better things' this point is about how print can used in numerous ways but the outcome is always the same unlike technology which is always evolving and offering new outcomes for designers across numerous disciplines. This is evident in certain publications which have decided to scrap magazines / journals etc to base a majority of the work online. Its easier for them to reach new audiences by sending stories through social media and apps.The internet is a place where billions of potential users can be reached in one place, simply and inexpensively.