by Jake Brodsky

While the first connotation with the word “art” is often a drawing or painting, the high school’s community of digital artists have expanded this definition.

According to sophomore Louis Mathieu, who takes Graphic Design I, the ability to continue revising pieces and the accessibility for artists of any background contribute to the greater creative freedom of graphic design.

“When you draw something on paper, you can’t redo it,” Mathieu said. “But when you do something on the computer, you can redo it 100 times if you want: try, delete, try, delete. I think graphic design is easier for someone who has no experience at all in art materials; you can just try and try until it works.”

His class recently finished creating pictograms and simple drawings with the program Adobe Illustrator. Mathieu said that while he is not very strong at drawing by hand, he can still excel in a form of art on the computer.

Mathieu said he finds that the chance to share content online is much easier when the work is already computerized.

Sophomore David Timmermann began his career in digital art two years ago while messing around with the program Photoshop. As a freshman, he became increasingly invested in graphic design by helping several friends design websites, he said. While not going far enough to call it a true “job,” he said that his work has earned him money on several occasions.

According to Timmermann, graphic design is a broad spectrum, with a lot of different styles that fall under its umbrella.

“There’s a bunch of different types of graphic design that somebody can do,” Timmermann said. “I do typography, which is putting a bunch of words or art into making a different piece of art. I also do branding, which is stuff like logos and websites.”

Timmermann said that his background in art led him to his interest in graphic design. After drawing and sketching at a young age, he found that logos and doodles would work well in a digital setting and were much easier to share in the medium.

“It’s easier to send a picture file of something I made and then saved on a computer to somebody, instead of having to bring a sketch pad to them. There’s so much more you can do on a computer than you can with a pencil,” Timmermann said.

Like Timmermann, sophomore Yaneev Hacohen also had an artistic background that began at a young age. He said he used to paint and doodle extensively and continues to make art now in 3-D models.

According to Hacohen, graphic design does not occur solely through digital means; often, physical works are scanned and implemented into a program on the computer. He said that working through Photoshop or another program eliminates time constraints, because simple aspects of a piece can be executed much faster.

“I like the way it can evolve,” Hacohen said. “In forms of digital art, you can take away parts and edit it, as opposed to something like a painting where the only thing you can do is paint over it. Also, I think I’m very much a perfectionist when it comes to this, so I like to have the lines exactly straight or curved at a certain angle. With painting, it’s a lot more difficult.”

Both Timmermann and Hacohen said they would be interested in a career in graphic design.  Mathieu said that he probably will not pursue it as a career.

“But if you want to use it every time you want to draw or design something, it’s good to have the skills when, in ten years, we’ll use computers for everything,” he said.

Jake Broadsky can be contacted at [email protected]