Jordan's unique geographical position results in its experts choosing self development, which includes graphic design. Experts may also be involved with developments occurring in neighbouring countries and the internet was extremely useful in putting interested parties in both of these fields touching each other and sharing possible development tools. The development of Graphic Design is also assisted by annual exhibitions and specialised conferences held both in Jordan and outside the Arab world.
The academic and professional specialists for the foundation in developing graphical design through the forming of local learning institutions. In these institutions academics, programmers and graphic design teachers can meet with professional designers and discuss the way business is continue and requirements of the labour market.
Practical training is definitely the foundation of GRAPHICAL DESIGN, upon which the academic skill of the student and his creativity are built. Working in a design office is known as to be the most important and effective tool in measuring the level of academic learning. It also gives a sign of the potency of teachers in creating a generation of students capable of coping with the academic ethos and engaging with the requirements of the profession. This training provides the students with opportunities to polish and develop their skills by working along with established practitioners. Today's graphical design tools rely on it for producing visualisations of scientific developments. This visualisation requires an understanding of the scientific theory and the visualisation tools available, which depends on the expertise of graphic artists.
In this paper I will concentrate on the profession of graphic design and its own development by discussing its early development. I will review the positive and negative aspects of that development and how they linked to changes in the market and how big is the marketplace and labour force. I'll also discuss the academic concepts, and the necessity for graduate graphic artists.
In this paper I draw from my connection with employed in Jordan since 1987 at the MIDAS Establishment and my roles in student training at Yarmouk University and the SYSTEMS University, which I had been attached to since 1999. This paper addresses many questions and aims to explore the mechanics of enhancing graphical design in the academic and professional sectors.
The historic and technical initial stages of graphical design in Jordan
Graphic design developed alongside the printing and it industries. Printing was taken to Jordan in the 1940s by individuals who had learnt the trade in other countries. Jordan's printing evolution was similar to that of other countries. Printing started using wooden moulds, then zinc clich�s and letterpress, as well as other printing tools, symbols and shapes. It was the printing technology that restricted the scope for producing new designs. The number of items printed was limited by newspapers, cards and stationary. Printing started mainly in black and white, and was then developed to create photo made clich�s by which the printers were able to print completely colour. Typolography, or raised printing was the primary method and continues to be used today. Offset printing enhanced the quality of production, providing improvements in colour and picture reproduction. Around the same time the role of the graphic designer was developed, involving the preparation of makettes and then film montage and plates to be ready for printing (prepress); this relied on the professionalism of the film montage technician for the preparation of backgrounds for the pictures and words. Prepress was considered the main process in the production of the ultimate printed article. This technique was completed at the prepress service centre that was limited to an individual institution until 1987. This centre had the capability and technology to perform a range of techniques where an artistic touch was required.
In the late sixties, design pioneers were not graphic designers, but had learnt the technologies of collage and calligraphy. They were able to imitate designs from abroad and in some instances reproduced them. Their work initially ranged from greetings cards, business cards, social stationary, letterheads and envelopes, then progressed to brochures and folders. The task was mainly limited to newspaper advertising which relied predominantly on the offset printing method. We shouldn't forget the air brush technology that provided designers by using graded colours, achieving three dimensional effects for some designs, although the number of people by using this was limited.
From 1980-87 design was performed by specialists in Plastic Arts and Architecture, along with the first graduates of the college of arts at Yarmuok University and similar institutions. By the end of the eighties, the computer Linotype was used as a publishing tool by newspapers to prepare text for layout and paste it on the required pages next to advertising. Some publishing houses have graphic design offices which also acquired these systems to ensure the production of books and magazines to a similar quality. Linotype was also used to prepare the look of brochures and advertising materials that cannot be hand drawn. As time passes Linotype was also useful for the preparation of other material by this method, including greeting cards, posters and advertisements.
The look and printing sectors found the computer to be an effective way of improving productivity. In 1988 with the arrival of the initial design computer by Apple Macintosh, the numbers of workers in the field increased and performance progressed in the pre-printing stages such as for example film making and separation. However, the trouble of computers meant that there use was still limited. The production of computers by competitors of Apple Macintosh and also the ease with which film could be processed through its programs, created a huge increase in the amount of professionals interested in graphic design. This became evident by the growth in the amount of agencies, design offices, publishing houses and service centres.
Computers affected the technical and artistic aspects of production. Some production centres could actually develop their skill base and by recruiting experienced designers and developing them by organising training courses. These experienced individuals achieved high standards of work within and outside Jordan and could actually contend with others in the Arab regions and captured a share of the markets, producing many publications. Jordanian specialists became serious competitors against other Arab countries which had previously monopolised the fields of design and printing. Jordan is rolling out so that it can meet up with the demand for design and printing within the country. Jordan has turned into a magnet for most publishing houses in the Arab region. Many production and publishing organisations were able to catch around the levels of the latest technology. There is plenty of evidence to claim that they'll develop further, using modern production tools, which will ensure there are enough local specialists who can continue to produce work of the best quality.
The pace of technological development managed to get essential for the academic institutions to supply the Jordanian market with the skilled workers who is able to work to the high standards required. These institutions need to continually adapt to the advancing technology and also support the academics within their quest to improve the artistic, scientific and technological aspects of production and publishing. Relationships must also be strengthened by co-operation between business leaders and academic institutions to be able to provide the mutual good thing about improve standards, with the ultimate aim of maintaining both local and international developments.
The easiest way to guage the typical of design and printing in a country is through the newspapers, magazines and books published. Television also offers a showcase for visual communication through locally produced advertisements. The speed of printing development has made impositions on graphic design and the designers themselves. Designers have to continuously update their training to keep abreast of new technology. This enables them to be at the forefront of improving quality and creativity in all aspects of production.
Advantages and disadvantages of sectors allied with graphical design
When discussing the organisations involved in design and production in Jordan it is easy to become overwhelmed by the variety and abundance of these. These organisations saturate the market. One of the reasons for the amount of organisations is the selection of production formats, each of which has its own structure. Computerisation has result in many operators being made unemployed.
Production sources can be divided into;
- Design
- Commercial printing
- Publishing houses
- Pre-press services centres
- Computer software training centres
They are the organisations where people often look for graphic designers, although most of them do not have academically trained staff who specialise in graphical design. Many of the people who own these organisations have chosen to specialise. Many of them specialised as the profession does not require a large capital outlay, others specialised since they had an understanding of the tools used. Most appear to have specialised because this provides them with status in their community.
Although there are many organisations working in graphical design, the workers and owners in these establishments often lack awareness of the professional graphic design concepts as they have not studied the subject comprehensive. Occupations for graduates only begun to develop after 2000 when some organisations recognised the necessity for such skilled workers and academic institutions could actually produce professionals of this standard. The impression of graphic design graduates has changed so companies are no longer choosing graduates who studied abroad. Design establishments have noticed the high quality of products which trained graduates can produce making use of their competence and skills, and their ability to use the full range of design and printing equipment. Without this properly structured training curriculum, experience had been gained through hap-hazard face to face training.
One of the weaknesses of these producing the designs is they are not always confident about how exactly to use the latest techniques. They often ask advice and prefer to work of their comfort zones, failing to produce designs that could demand significant amounts of time, effort or care. Graduates are convenient with change and ready to develop new skills. There are a few professionals, however, who have been invaluable in the development of graphical design by training others and developing their own technical and professional skills. These folks also have monitored the pace of development in the fields of printing and graphic design.
Many of the professionals established themselves thorough the top quality of the work they produce. This is not possible without a capable, aware and educated body of co-workers, who have scientific knowledge and so are creative rather than imitating the task of others.
The increasing gap between academic designers and employers, or art directors and creative managers is often because of misunderstanding the role of graphic artists. In industry, the priority of some designers or agency owners is profitability whatever the quality of the results.
The first problem is that a few of the art directors or creative managers have no idea of the importance of these position, and frequently the employer is equally ignorant of this. more info tend to be arbitrary so artistic or creative managers frequently lack experience and expertise.
There is an absence of a common language between academic designers and managers or employers. This often frustrates designers, creating insecurity and hindering creativity. Such an environment can be an try to reduce a designers` status and restricts him from participating in the creative thinking he'd have been taught and university.
Adequacy of the professional reality
Graphic designers are distinguished from other fields by being probably the most creative professions; they use information technology and visual communication. In addition, it involves dealing with the business enterprise world, in which credibility and ability are necessary to achieve the creative work. Qualifications and talent are essential for this.
A graphic designer isn't only an artist but additionally a technician who is in a position to use software and techniques to tackle the project at hand. His approach should go beyond communication with the audience, to effective promotion and display. His aim is to produce clarity and he should be able to do this from the info using the techniques available to him. The goal is to connect the info and to carry out this must understand the development and design of the software that could be used. He has to understand all the innovations and methods of designing texts.
The look sector requires professionals to really have the experience to select and classify information, and to create links between related elements. However, this will not be enough if they can not interpret this and change it into definite forms. Additionally it is vital that you understand the vocabularies of with language, sound and music as they are the most important tools of communication. Put into this, the designer must understand how to utilize the specialised design software to create texts, prepare drawings, animated cartoons and websites. The designer should know about design, timing, transformation, rhythm and visual presentation.
The potential of the design sector ought to be realised by knowledge of the required theories and techniques to improve communication with the audience, enrich the design proposals and understand the reflective facet of the design process, studies and research.
There's much variation in the qualifications of staff within the look sector. It is very important differentiate between the craftsman and the academic designer. The graphic designer is really a complete cultural and intellectual entity that's noted in the sensational theory, linguistic theory, visual eloquence and the cultural history of art, literature, science, technology, industry and humanity. They can not isolate themselves from developments in theories of communication, information development, and from management and criticism. Moreover to improve the added value of the final product, all methods and tools used in production and publication ought to be understood. They need to understand the stages prior to the design, and they must understand the printing process and its implications on the design.
The marketplace is crowded with many people working in graphic design. As a result of wide use of graphic design in many fields of work, the widespread use of computers and option of basic software packages there is a role for people using graphic design without any prior knowledge. The expression of graphic design continues to be not adequately understood by some employers in industrial and commercial firms and organisations that need graphic design services.
I really do not doubt the potential of the vocational sector but this is the reality of graphical design. It must be remembered that well qualified people now occupy high status positions in the Jordanian market, showing its expertise and its ability to demonstrate the best levels of graphic design.
The size of the market and people employed in graphic design
There are now more than five hundred establishments employed in graphic design. There are many who not classify themselves being an agency, centre or office, as they have found their very own market niche. Therefore these classifications can't be meaningfully applied in Jordan.
The sector is large compared to the market. The establishment of new graphic design organisations peaked in 1999. Since then, some have declined while some have expanded. Some have stagnated or changed management, while others have merged.
A quick consider the design sector will show that 85% of these employed in the field could be classified as;
- Computer science graduates
- Architecture graduates
- Interior design graduates
- Graduates in 'Computers and the Fine Arts' from community colleges
- Fine arts graduates (both graphical design specialists and non-specialists)
- Graduates of design courses run by computer centres
- Unemployed individuals who are interested in computers
University educated graphic design graduates fulfil a significant role because;
- Universities produce GRAPHIC ARTISTS with a different outlook to those mentioned previously.
- Organisations run by individuals who understand graphic design will be better able to develop designers skills and adjust to the future
I'm concerned for students who study graphic design at university but usually do not make an effort to improve his rate of innovation and creativity so as to improve. This will affect whether he could be employable.
Academically and scientifically talented students could have few problems because good employers need students who are able to form ideas quickly, use appropriate design programs for his ideas and able to produce those. Other organisations aren't ideal for the academic designer. They are the push-pull degree of the graphical design sector which reflects the levels of awareness of the concepts and functions of graphical design.
The market is capable of absorbing all graduates. That is dependent on the development of visual communication methods through graphical design. Such development requires the presence of skilled workers capable of meeting the requirements of the market. This places incentives for educational organisations that deal with design to plan to suit the graphic design market.
The academic reality of graphic design
The emergence of academic institutions that specialised in the arts started at the Yarmouk University where in fact the first arts and music department was established in 1980. This became a faculty in 2001, teaching drama, design (industrial, interior and graphic), plastic arts and music. The university awards bachelor degrees. It started in 2001 at the height of the computer revolution within the design sector in Jordan. In1991 teaching graphic design started as an independent specialisation within the Arts Department at the SYSTEMS University. This was followed by the Ahiya Amman University, the Petra University, Philadelphia University, AlZaytouneh University, the University of Jordan, and later the Israh University.
Apart from universities, during the time when graphic design became popular and a profitable profession, community colleges started teaching graphical design. These included the Al-Quds College, Granada College, Middle University College and Princess Alya College.
The task of the universities that award bachelor degrees is similar to colleges that grant two year diplomas, because both produce students with a certificate in graphical design. But in reality where creativity and technical skills are worried we find differences. The differences are in the course curricula, you need to include understanding the production process, product identity, knowledge of software and design innovation.
There's confusion between graphical design and graphic art. These differences affect the student, particularly when he enters employment. He could be judged by both his creativity and innovation in producing new ideas and his ability to use technology which now involves the computer, the primary graphic design tool.
The reason for these differences becomes clear whenever we look at the number of workers in the market and where they graduated from. During the time that the largest number of graduates were being produced, the highest quality graduates were produced by well-known institutions and these were recruited by the most successful companies.
A distinction is rolling out between technicians and designers. For the reason that some academic institutions focus on technology and the practical areas of design software, whilst others developing the opportunity to use knowledge and know how to connect suggestions to the psychological and social context and include qualitative studies of theories and design curricula.
The reasons for this are;
- The lack of specialised academic experts in graphical design and the poor quality of a number of the teachers.
- The lack of appropriate study plans for creating graphic artists
- The absence of a system defining the role of universities and colleges in teaching graphical design
- The lack of entry examinations to graphic design courses, unlike courses in the art specialisations
- The absence links to the outside world, apart from through books.
- Some universities and colleges don't realize the concept of graphical design in an industrial context.
- The absence of official government support for finding a method to set up a core curriculum for university courses.
I've taught in the art departments of several universities and have assessed many graduation projects. These gave me the chance to find out about graphical design teaching, the standards of students, and showed the necessity for appropriate study plans. There exists a lack of competitiveness which would improve educational standards and there is an arbitrary usage of teaching methods. Objectives could be clear, but often mistake in not utilizing the appropriate teaching methodology results in them not being achieved.
In order to develop and improve, the graphical design sector needs skilled and competent workers. The workers will not be able to react to the changes in technology unless they have a formal academic training. To experience this advancement it is important that graduate students are used as graphic design specialists.
Conclusion
There exists a requirement in the Jordanian arena for the academic and professional sectors to review their experiences and identify their strengths and weaknesses. That is used by them to create a strategy capable of giving graphic design the respected position it deserves.
There is a requirement of government intervention to supply arena where specialists in graphic design may discuss a lot of the concepts that help them make company owners and managers aware of how to make the very best use of graphic artists.
In addition to teaching graphical design, universities and community colleges must support the markets needs for designers and artisans within the new specialisations which must be introduced as a way to reduce unemployment.There is a need for a specialist body in graphic design to give support to designers, co-ordinate educational and technical preparation and to make contacts with the exterior world. It is very important hold workshops and symposiums that improve the competence of teaching staff, designers and students; these ought to be held with the help of international institutions which are respected in this field.
It is also important to hold national and international competitions to encourage creativity and innovation. This can create a competitive atmosphere in which graphical design can flourish.
Finally, it is very important create a national identity in graphic design, that may cement its position in the international arena.
The State Of GRAPHICAL DESIGN In Jordan
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