Exhibition Statement

Graphic designers produce visual communication that conveys a specific message to a specific audience. We partner with many types of clients to create posters, brochures, advertising, logos, books, magazines, catalogs, packaging, web sites, fonts, even motion graphics for television and film. Our business cards carry titles like "designer," "illustrator," "animator," "art director," "production artist" or "media specialist."

We're passionate about our work, we love to take risks and to explore new ideas. Since creative endeavors have no predetermined outcome, there are infinite design solutions to every problem. Graphic Designers use a process of uncovering and discovering. This juried exhibition is, in our opinion, the best creative work produced by students in the Graphic Design and Web Design programs at Parkland College.

Because graphic design is often used for marketing communication, it must sell, inform, as well as entertain. The best graphic design work balances form with function, aesthetics with style, logic with intuition. In the jurying process, we look for examples that are imaginative, surprising, inspiring, distinctive, innovative, unusual, smart and memorable. Evidence of creative problem-solving and a high level of craftsmanship are often rewarded.

As a form of mass communication, graphic design has the power to change the way we see the world. Designers produce imagery that alters the landscape of what's acceptable, what's "hot" and what's not. The visual communication created by graphic designers is very often absorbed into mainstream culture and merged into our collective consciousness. The best examples of graphic design often become memorable cultural icons, representing the times and places of their origins. In more ways than one, we hope this exhibition captures the Zeitgeist of our community.

— Parkland Graphic Design Faculty