Can Science Inform Graphic Design?

Tom White asks, “How does someone go from Rocket Science to Graphic Design?” While many aspects of graphic design necessitate creativity and an artistic approach, he bases his work and execution around a more scientific mindset. But he's not talking about AI!

According to White, a great professor once said, “Graphic designers are problem solvers,” and he finds more and more each day how accurate his lesson was. No matter what the problem may be, a graphic designer should be able to produce a relevant, logical, interesting, and intellectual solution. Anything less, according to White, would make said professor “barf, and go blind.”

Graphic Design is not a thing, rather it’s a process, an idea, a message that hones the fundamentals of graphic design such as:

• The Gestalt Theory (the sum of the whole is greater than its parts).
• Verbal + Visual = Message.
• The three factors that define a relevant and logical solution: 1) the nature of the problem, 2) the audience, and 3) the functional parameters).

Good design comes from extensive research and great attention to detail, and it always contains a solid intellectual concept. Bad design, on the other hand, as White’s professor so eloquently put it, “should be nuked with the whales.”

The professor’s last words of encouragement were blunt: “Now go out there, create world-class graphic design, and knock the world on its ass.”

And so, world-class graphic designer as he is, that is Tom White’s challenge and goal. With each new problem he solves, he must find a way to catch the world off guard. He must find a way to disrupt its balance, and then with one mighty blow, send it plummeting onto its rear end.

About the Presenter

Tom White

Tom White is currently the Design Director for St. Louis magazine as well as an adjunct professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. White earned a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design and Photography and a minor in Information Systems Statistical Analysis from Pennsylvania State University.

He has experience working with Saveur, AFAR , The Missouri Historical Society, The Hollywood Reporter, Ladies Home Journal, Midwest Living, GQ, and the city magazines, Honolulu, Washingtonian, San Diego, and Los Angeles.

White has received awards and recognition from The Society of Publication Designers, City and Regional Magazine Association, and the Tulsa Press Club. His favorite accolade was the honor of participating in the Type Hike Gateway Arch Poster Exhibition, celebrating our nation’s 60th national park. White’s poster design and that of the 59 other contributing designers are now part of the permanent collections in the Library of Congress.