Abstract
The world of visual communication and graphic design was among the first non-IT professional sectors to be affected by digital transformation as early as the early 1980s.
The introduction of word-processing and text-editing software in the late 1970s, the introduction of graphical interfaces, a meta-project in the field of digital communication (1982-84) and desktop publishing in the strict sense (Aldus Pagemaker adopted by Apple as early as 1985) represent the steps that led the world of graphic, typographic and editorial design from analogue design and development processes to a fully digital supply chain.
The user-friendly WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) approach, the proliferation of personal computers, largely due to the user-friendliness of Apple's Macs and the focus on typography in its operating system, the development of raster photo retouching software (Adobe Photoshop between 1988 and 1990) and vector image editing software such as Aldus/Macromedia Freehand (from 1988, discontinued by Adobe in 2003) made the world of graphic design and production accessible to non-specialists, between 1988 and 1990) and vector image editing software such as Aldus/Macromedia Freehand (from 1988, then discontinued by Adobe in 2003 after its acquisition) opened up the world of graphic design and production to non-specialist audiences and operators not trained or educated in the specific field. This expansion of disciplinary training opened up a significant debate in the 1990s and 2000s about the role of discipline and training in relation to the profession. If software is accessible and sufficiently intuitive, what is the specific contribution of a designer? Is knowing how to use design and production tools sufficient to call oneself a graphic designer? Has the democratisation of the means of production facilitated the development of a widespread and transferable culture, i.e. graphicacy?
The world of education in the meantime arrived at the university, with first (BD) and second (MD) level courses (at least in the Italian panorama), and has thus found a balance between the more practical operational aspects - the teaching of software and digital tools for design - and the theoretical-historical-critical ones - gestalt theory, visual semiotics, history of graphics, etc. - mediated through design practice, often through a learning-by-doing approach.
The recent introduction of artificial intelligence-based textual and visual content processing and production tools – ChatGPT and Midjourney being among the first and most hyped in the figurative realm – is once again creating a transition both in the professional field – I ask the AI to process a speech, a text, to produce an image for me, with a style, a certain rhetoric, etc. – and, consequently, in the educational sphere.
The paper proposes a series of open questions and as many possible paths in the field of university education in the field of communication design in the laboratory of the transition of the fifth revolution or AI and generative algorithms.