The Education of a Graphic Designer

The excerpt begins with two different views about the general education of a graphic designer. The first states academic classes will in the end distract designers and deprive them of what is actually important—studio time. The second view explains the exact opposite. It states that academic education is needed because one will learn to seek and recognize what is currently going on and design for the opposite. Next is the discussion about graphic design becoming a liberal art. History and theory of graphic design are both certainties, but what would also need to be focused on is the integration between design and other academics that deal with communication, expression, interaction, and cognition. My favorite line is "Design should be about meaning and how meaning can be created." When design has meaning, it is effective. This brings us to the last portion of the excerpt which describes rhetoric. It mainly describes the importance and use of persuasiveness. Effective design with meaning and persuasion can be achieved through the intellectual, logical, aesthetic, and emotional areas of rhetoric. Alongside that, other considered emotions can be explored through psychological, physiological, philosophical, and more.