Starting back in 1995, World Graphics Day began to bring designers and artists together to celebrate communicative and graphic design. The day was created by Icograda, the International Council of Graphic Design Associations. Founded in 1963, Icograda is a non-profit, non-partisan, member based network of individuals that actively promotes the significance and value of design practice, education, thinking and research world wide. Members strive to represent interdisciplinary collaboration and the collective voice of the design industry.
Icograda, coupled with this special celebration of art and design fostered an important discussion at Echo-Factory about the wonderful job our designers do, and the enormous influence of communicative design. For us, it’s a huge part of why we do what we do, and why we’re good at it. However, it’s a lot more than just that.
Through the years we’ve come to realize that graphic design and visual literacy has become one of the most influential professions. Every day we are fortunate to be part of a movement that becomes more and more significant to human interaction.
Just How Valuable Is Creativity?
After years of discrimination in the work place, the creative industry is finally a place of esteem and value. In a hotly contested New York Times article back in 2008, “Let the Computers Compute. It’s the Age of the Right Brain” Janet Rae-Dupree posits that the marginalization of alternate thinking in corporate America is not only a thing of the past, it’s now a celebrated and sought-out skill.
We are in a time in which computers can perform most of the sequential skills of the brain’s left hemisphere, but what makes humans different from these computers is the creative ability.
Our Take Away
Individuals across the world are often bound by emotional reactions to art; together artists and those that appreciate works of art can experience something that technology can offer in a limited sense. So, go out and appreciate graphic communication, a painting, a book of illustrations or photography. Thank an artist for giving you something priceless.
Happy World Graphics Day!
