Perceptible to the sense of touch.
Surfaces and objects can be described as tactile when they are designed to be felt, rather than purely seen or heard.
Tangibility
Capable of being touched or felt, having real material substance.
This may also be extended to the outward perception or appearance of having tactility or substance.
Texture
The visual and especially tactile quality of a surface. Texture relates to the properties held and sensations caused by the external surface of objects arising from the sense of touch. Texture can also be used to describe a pattern that has been scaled down to the point where the individual elements that go on to make the pattern are not distinguishable.
10 Surface Texture >>
Product designers have long understood the value of physical materials and the sense of touch in the realization of designed objects.
Graphic designers often operate within a similar fi eld of operation, and the natural affordance of a surface texture – its tactile attributes – may be essential to the feeling being communicated.
6. Process and Materials
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It should also be noted that the ephemeral nature of much graphic design output does go some way to explain the nature of designed artefacts as material objects. Necessity, budget and the speed of production can play a major role in limiting the range of materials selected to complete a project. The choice of paper for printing long runs of fl yers or posters, for instance, is often driven by cost considerations, together with availability and the standard supply networks, account practices and technical processes of the printing bureau dealing with the production, rather than the tactility, quality or durability of the material itself.
Form Follows Technology
Developing technologies also play a major role in the material nature of graphic design artefacts. As print and screen technologies develop, so new working methods and aesthetic possibilities are opened up for
the designer. The history of graphic design as a subject is inherently intertwined with that of developing print, mechanical and, more recently, electronic reproduction processes; from letterpress, lithographic and digital printing to the evolution of the world wide web and interactive digital technologies – with the latter now moving back toward at least a sense of a tactile experience through the development of sophisticated touch-screen interfaces.
Each new technology has seen a shift in contemporary graphic design aesthetics, and design historians have made detailed studies of the impact of each change in both working methods and materials.
The development of increasingly sophisticated photolithographic printing techniques between the 1870s and 1950s, for instance, prefi gured a widespread shift to the inclusion of photographs – rather than woodcuts, etchings and hand-drawn illustrations
Durability
The capacity to withstand wear and tear or decay. The quality of structures or forms of continuing to be useful or purposeful after an extended period of time and usage. The power of resisting agents or infl uences that tend to cause changes, decay, or dissolution. In relation to graphic design, these elements might include physical handling, heat, light or compression, for instance, and durability describes
the manner in which the material surface withstands fading, tearing, distortion or corruption that might disrupt the reading of the design.
6. Process and Materials
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– within a range of inexpensive printed matter, such as posters and magazines. Similarly, the late 1980s and 1990s saw the development of a range of previously inconceivable design methods, which could be achieved only through the use of computer technology. The 21st century witnessed an explosion in the use of peer-to-peer and social networking through the Internet, together with the growth of multifunctional mobile devices for communication, information retrieval and social networking. Designers have had to adapt quickly to the potentials of these new environments.
The process of materials experimentation runs in parallel to the processes discussed in Chapter 4: Theory in Practice – but whereas the visual research methodology is primarily concerned with the composition and arrangement of visual elements, materials research follows similar investigations with
the tactile form of the designed object. These two areas go hand in hand, of course: the materials always affect the surface aesthetic as well as adding to the complex chain of signifi ers and visual grammar of the object, through which the reader or viewer derives meaning. Senses other than sight may also play a part, communicating through the size, weight, volume and
‘feel’ of the designed artefact. Through a range of tests related to the visual and tactile form of the graphic outcome of a project, the designer can help to focus the intended message more clearly in the eyes, and hands, of the reader.