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Why Photographers Should Study Design.
November 26th, 2008I’ve been mulling this one over for a long, long time. Mostly it’s spurred by a curiosity to know why so many photographers are such lousy designers. I know they are because I see their websites and business cards and they make my head spin so hard I usually have to sit down and kern some fonts just to make it all stop. Occasionally even that is not enough and I am forced to put on a black turtleneck and chant the name of Charles Eames or Gustav Eiffel over and over again. But this is not about that.
You should study graphic design. We all should. Not so we become better designers, though that would be nice and would end the scourge of crappy websites that is a blight on the earth, but so we become stronger photographers with a more intentional sense of composition. Also, black turtlenecks are awesome.
Design is very like photography at it’s core. In fact, learning the fundamentals of design in general, and graphic design specifically, will help your photographic composition immensely. After all, both are largely concerned with arranging elements within a frame in a way that will guide the eye towards the desired focus, along a relatively predictable path. Both have as their goal the communication of some message, thought, or emotion, through a visual, two-dimensional, language. And whereas photographers seem much more haphazard about all this, designers have no such luxury – they are given elements and it is their task to combine the forms to fit the function.
Want to hone your composition skills? Get a primer on graphic design, become a student. Learn about alignments and lines and their relationships to the frame. Learn about balancing elements. Learn about the interplay of shapes. There’s alot to the craft of realizing your vision photographically, much of it you’ll only learn by shooting many, many frames. But this is one exercise that’ll pay off in spades, I promise.
I agree. Photographers being visual artists, should really enjoy learning about the elements of design. I suppose the camera is an artists tool like a brush. The artist may know how to use the brush to get varying thickness of lines and such. However, the lines themselves need to be arranged in a way that is pleasing to the eye. Knowing the elements of design will achieve better results. There is much more to know than the rule of thirds.
Now if I can STOP my photos from looking like and Escher drawing!
David,
Hear, hear! Funny thing is, for me I started studying graphic design first, then migrated into photography.
/mnb
An excellent idea. Any suggestions on where to start, with texts, web sites, schools, etc?
For me I started as a fine artist/illustrator, graphic artist and now photographer. It is just like technology we want things faster and faster. The grueling long blood letting process of fine art and illustration is a slow but fluid process. Graphic design is a mental drive on the autobahn and driving with your feet while putting together a puzzle of multiple creatives… the word, shape and form and it better make senses when you finish. It isn’t the fastest process but it can be the most mentally taxing and rewarding process. All of these have given me a strong platform to work from in photography which allowing me to see and recognize and compose the form and style I am looking for fast. As everyone knows photography is in the click of the shutter and you have what you hope is the composition you visioned. With post production you can fine tune your vision but you are limited to what was captured in the camera.
Sorry for rambling…
Sounds like the birth of a new workshop!
@ Mario Brathwaite,
Same for me. Since I was a small boy I wanted to become a graphic designer. But I quit in the study in my first year. It wasn’t what I expected.
Now I’m studying Journalism and I want to specialize in photojournalism.
I’m still very interested in graphic design though
I also agree about the horrible businesscards. Some people just don’t have any feeling for them. I’m certainly not a pro myself but I do have some feeling for it
Great post. A good book to start with is The Non-Designers Design Book, by Robin Williams (no, not the actor). I used this book back when I was going to school for desktop publishing, and it’s a terrific little book. Easy to read and grasp, and almost guaranteed to make you a better designer.
Great topic David. As a Creative DIrector, I most appreciate photographers that know how to compose an image for the “page.”
So, does this mean you want us to send in our business card designs a la “THE OFFICIAL CRAPPY DESIGN CONTEST” circa April 2008?
A very good, non-intimidating for the uninitiated publication is: Before After magazine. (http://www.bamagazine.com/)
A great place to get started with simple techniques anyone can do to improve design.