Code <-> Graphic design: A ten-year relationship

The place occupied by programming in the field of graphic design today cannot be fully understood without understanding its connection to the culture of free software that originated in computing.

One of the most important aspects of free software culture is the possibility of having access to the code of the program or software one is using. This implies a simultaneous rejection of tools and software whose mechanics cannot be inspected for the purposes of understanding both their potential and their limitations. Thus graphic designers who work with programming often seek to use free and open source software, i.e., software whose license allows the inspection, modification, and duplication of the code.¹ This aspect, although fundamental, is not the only role played by open source culture, which has also impacted ways of working by encouraging collaboration. In a graphic design environment that is extremely connected to the notion of the author, open source culture has encouraged the development of collectives.

The use of programming facilitates both collaborative and simultaneous work, in particular through the use of Git version management software. In computer science, version-control software allows to store files and all of the modifications that have been made to them. These are very efficient tools for managing the collaborative writing of source code, which, although not really adapted to graphic work² greatly simplifies collaboration. This facilitation is all the more surprising as the classic Adobe suite still struggles to allow collaborative editing of documents. At the same time, the open sharing of source code for projects created by graphic designers on platforms such as GitLab, or GitHub, clearly shows a willingness to be adopted and modified by others.

Today, in the field of graphic design, the amount of resources available and shared under open source licenses on the Internet is considerable, ranging from pictograms to illustrations. However, it is more specifically the field of typography that has contributed primarily to the spread of free and open source culture among graphic designers, mainly in France and Belgium. Many typefaces are distributed under a free license, just like open source software, that allows them to be reused and modified.³
The adoption of royalty-free typefaces has thus strongly developed in schools and in professional practices, especially since 2010 and the foundation by Frank Adebiaye of the now-famous Velvetyne foundry. Nevertheless, it is regrettable that this enthusiastic use often occurs in the context of a consumer relationship, where fonts are chosen because they are freely available, without any real understanding of the issues at the heart of free and open source culture. This question is similar to the ones that are quite familiar, and widely discussed throughout the programming world, and that are unavoidable for graphic designers: though many consume open source software, the number who actively contribute to it is much smaller; what then of the spirit of community and autonomy of production advocated by free culture?

Over the last ten years, the increasing diversity of digital devices has led to the multiplication of both sizes and types of screens upon which web pages can be displayed (computers, tablets, smartphones, but also projectors, televisions, etc.). One of the main characteristics of the design of a website is to adapt the design to the different parameters or characteristics of the device on which the site will be displayed, as well as the environment in which it will be consulted. The most familiar principle is the need to adapt the graphic design to the size of the screen, but it is theoretically possible that readers themselves could define their own display styles, something that has been possible since the early days of CSS.

In order to respond to this multiplicity of displays, the Web is based on a principle of separation of content and form between HTML and CSS. Elements coded in HTML do not change, and it is in CSS that the way they are displayed according to the size of the screen is defined. The same information is consulted from one device to another, but its formal components are organized differently so as to make navigation ergonomic, and reading optimized, in all circumstances.
Design is now marked by a paradigm shift for graphic designers who must describe the possible behavior of elements using a range of principles proposed in web languages: templates, contextual style sheets, semantic structuring, the notion of flow, etc. However, the tools available today for designing visual prototypes for publication (Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD, Webflow) lack most of these principles because they are too closely modeled on DTP layout software dedicated to print and/or fixed media.

Current programming practices, particularly when it comes to web technologies, therefore invite us to write a new page in the history of graphic design, rooted in the long history of its technical evolution. Gitlab profile, directories of the source codes of the works, design: Bonjour Monde. Whereas ten years ago, code practices were relatively rare in the landscape of graphic design in France, they are much more present today, focusing on specific registers. Some of the projects cited in this text have now formed a school of thought, and the practices of OSP, LUST, and G.U.I. are widely cited by art school students as references. Thus, in recent years, a community and a culture of graphic design who use programming has formed, one that is relatively specific to Western Europe, with a real and growing synergy between France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Holland.
In order to open up digital culture to a greater number of graphic designers, it is necessary to consider hybrid approaches that allow the relationships between code, tools, and graphic design to be understood in a collective manner.

(1) On her website, graphic designer Amélie Dumont explains, for example, that she has "a very special interest for (...) experimenting with code" in her projects, and that she has "only been working with free software since 2016", as these two things go hand-in-hand. www.amelie.tools/
(2) Anthony Masure, "Visual Culture. Open Source Publishing, Git et le design graphique", strabic.fr, 28 November 2014, www.strabic.fr/
(3) Frank Adebiaye, "Licencier ès lettres", Back Office, no 1, Paris, Édition B42 and Fork Éditions, 2017.