Creative Theories

Design Theory:

Theoretical approach towards understanding design knowledge, design principles and design practice.

Generative Theory:

Describes ideas that are helpful in the making of graphic design. This reflects the concerns of the designer and the audience, as well as expectations and behaviours within the larger communication system and environments.

Critical Theory:

Evaluates design as a discipline and practice. This involves consideration of world views and frameworks, and application of these in the form of judgements. This can be applied across social, cultural, and historical contexts.

Both critical and generative theory each resolve around shared belief systems about what design is and how it works.

Models of Communication:

Models are mental or physical structures that represent our experiences with and knowledge about the world. They shape and organise our perceptions of new experiences, assisting better refinement of our thought processes.

Graphic Design Models:

These define the scope of the work, the type of knowledge and ability required for completion of the task, and our understanding of the consequences of our design decisions and actions.

Graphic Design and Animation

Visual communication design is a creative process that combines the visual arts and technology to communicate ideas across a platform. It begins with a message that is transformed into visual communication that transcends mere words and pictures.

Communication design is a vast discipline that encompasses many aspects like animation, graphic design, photography, illustration, user interface, user experience design, logo design, multimedia and print media design.

“There is no difference between theory and practice – they are one and the same, as actually, they have always been. You cannot be a good animator, designer, or indeed an artist of any sort, without embracing historical perspectives and critical insight, all of which are embedded in any forward thinking and original practice work.” Paul Wells

This lecture brought a realisation that good design is always a by-product of highly informed contextual research. Where an understanding of audience interpretation, audience expectation, and current industry stance informs the way designers make decisions, based upon an obtained knowledge of such aspects. It also provokes deeper thought into potential areas of investigation, reforming greater experimentation, and therefore bridging the gap between research and design. 

For this reason, design theories create the ideologies by which designers follow to create successful outcomes. It is important to obtain some understanding of the way in which these can be utilised, where expectations lie, as well as how the brain works at interpreting visual information, especially in the form of graphic-design.