The significance of printing in design

The significance of printing in design

Printing is the most important craft technology for humans. People use various printing techniques to replicate a large number of designed graphics and text in packaging, posters, and newspapers, conveying various information and achieving the cultural and commercial goals of design.

Therefore, printing, as a major invention in human history, is not only seen as an important symbol of civilization progress, but also as a reflection of human design and cultural history

A developmental milestone.

The history of human design development and printing development are inseparable. The development of printing technology has a great promoting effect on design. Various printing fonts both domestically and internationally were invented and completed under the influence of printing technology. The woodblock printing that emerged in the Song Dynasty in China created the Song typeface with thin horizontal and thick vertical lines, and dot thick horizontal lines. The development and updating of color printing technology have fundamentally expanded the means of designers in designing works.

The most famous example in this regard is the French poster designer Sherry, who designed a large number of song and dance performance posters. He used the newly invented stone plate corrosion plate printing technology to directly draw on the stone plate with chemical agents, creating vivid and colorful images of dancers, becoming the earliest art master to use color printing technology. He was later revered as the father of French posters. Similarly, American font designer Lu Balin, due to his mastery of photographic typesetting technology, created the technique of letter overlay design and created famous symbols such as "marriage" and "family".

Printing and typesetting technology helped him break through tradition and innovate. Countless facts have proven that design and printing are inseparable. Understanding printing technology can greatly help improve the quality of design. The older generation of designers have a very deep understanding of printing technology. They are able to utilize existing and latest technologies and processing methods to enrich and enhance the visual effects of their designs.

In Shanghai in the last century, there were many old designers from printing factories who used various gold foil and multiple printing techniques to design many tobacco and alcohol packaging products. This brought about colorful, textured, and exquisite visual effects from the previously simple gold printing technology, achieving great success in design and market. In addition, understanding printing technology can also generate huge economic benefits. A successful designer must know how to utilize the relationship between various printing papers and print sizes in order to maximize paper savings and reduce costs. Conversely, without printing technology, our designs would become rootless. There are too many examples like this. Due to a lack of understanding of printing technology, although many students' designs look good on computer screens, problems such as color errors, line omissions, color block misspellings, etc. continue to arise when printed. Many imagined effects cannot be printed, and many excellent printing effects cannot be achieved.

So, it's hard to imagine that an excellent graphic designer wouldn't have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding and mastery of design printing. The various techniques of design and printing are like the brushstrokes and colors of a painter, through which designers can create and express themselves freely. At the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium in Europe, students studying oil painting are required to take a chemistry course with the aim of mastering the chemical and physical properties of various oil painting pigments. However, for students studying visual communication design, the significance and role of studying design and printing courses far exceed that of this chemistry course in oil painting majors. The reason for this is not only because the former involves much more content than the latter, but also from the perspective of design and creation, the former has much richer artistic expression in terms of media, various special effects, and craftsmanship

Today, digital technology has fundamentally transformed the process technology from design to printing. It should be said that digital technology has reduced the technical difficulty of learning design and printing to a certain extent, but this has not diminished the importance of learning and mastering knowledge and skills in this area. Design and printing courses are still an indispensable topic for students majoring in visual communication design.

The significance of printing in design