Definition: Clip art is a catchall term for several types of non-photographic graphic images. The name comes from the books of graphic images once used as a graphics source – the users would cut out or “clip” the desired artwork from the book to place into layouts. Later, it was common to scan the images from the books. Today, clip art comes on CD-ROM or can be downloaded from the Web. Clip art comes in many styles and can be used ‘as-is’ or as a starting point for creating custom illustrations and logos.
Yes, I do use clipart. Of course not all the time. Fortunately, I have enough skills to create what I need usually by hand. But clip art rocks; Let me proudly explain why.
There are many types of clipart that range from topic to topic and from low to high quality. I find a lot of images that really call out to me from design books with clipart. Most of my designs, I do create myself. But when I find something made by another designer and think it will make a great graphic, I will use it. Those images are always copyright free, royalty free or public domain. Usually because they were made back in the day before copyrighting was even a concept and many of the artists are unknown. I would love to credit designers if I knew who they were.
I know there is some bad art and really, really bad clip art (think microsoft’s default clip art images). But there are tons of beautiful well-designed clipart images. I say it loud and proud–I love those cheesey-looking Dover clipart books. To me, art is art no matter how it’s packaged.
There are two schools of thought in the graphic design world about clipart. The first school hates clipart and never ever use it. They believe that whatever images your projects needs, you have to create it yourself. Half my teachers at Parsons emphasized this and would gawk at the idea that I use them. The other school believes that clipart should be used when needed and can help make a project great. Many of my teachers gave us free range to do this.
Of course, I am still a bit believer in handmade work so if you can create the illustration, drawing, image, etc. by hand then you should (so don’t be lazy). But if you don’t have the skill, find help. I believe that any designer should take advantage of all that is available to them. Graphic design is different than fine art. For graphic designers, the audience is your muse, while for fine artists, they are their own muse.
Graphic design must communicate to its audience. Because of that graphic design is fundamental based on the idea of cliche. Milton Glazer spoke of this concept (but I can’t remember where–I will add the info when I find it). Definition of Cliché: A once pithy, clever sayings in which someone encapsulated an idea or feeling. Thousands of other people used and reused those sayings, until they became trite and tiresome.
In the design world, clichés are symbols and typefaces that immediately encapsulate an idea or feeling. For example, this slab serif font always screams SPORTS!
Designers need to use these types of clichés to communicate a known feeling or idea to the viewer. The normal viewer will only look at a design piece, poster, postcard, website for a couple of seconds and if it doesn’t communicate properly the viewer will move to something else. Of course, a good designer will only use the cliché as a starting point, but will grow and expand the idea to something fresh and original looking. A bad designer will end with the cliché without adding something unique. There is a balance to be reached between the cliché and original design. You know when you’re looking at a great piece of design because you will immediately get a sense of what its saying without feeling like you’ve seen it before. Clipart can help you with communicating the right message, you just need to find the right clipart–stay away from any default clipart coming from the computer or any software.
