Graphic Arts Glitches

A cliché, as you know, is an overused and worn-out phrase, and these are to be avoided like the plague in your essays. Indeed, someone once said, I quote, There is no greater danger to either education or thinking than the popular phrase. Let me digress a little further. Originally, a cliché was a printer's term, back in the days when letters were set one by one for a ready-made block of type of frequently used phrases, usually in the newspaper business. So, there you are. Clichés were also known as stereotypes. Now, if you think of graphic design as a language with its own vocabulary, grammar, and so on, it too must have its clichés. Obvious examples would be the twin Greek masks of comedy and tragedy that symbolise the theatre, and, more popularly known, the heart as a symbol of love, especially on Valentine cards and so on. Far from being a terrible fault, as it would be in literature, the visual cliché is essential in the world of graphic communication. This is certainly true when it comes to advertising and propaganda. The visual cliché can give immediate life to an idea and a clear meaning to what could be a mere abstraction.