DIGITAL IDENTITY

46 Pictures in Pixels

Seismic shifts in communications technology are rapidly transforming graphic identity design. The brave new digital world has given rise to the concept of digital identity.

Simply put, digital identities bring graphic identities into digital spaces. However, this new landscape is vast, and navigating it requires both traditional design sense and technological savvy.

As graphic identities move into a digital context, designers will encounter some notable differences. Print on paper offers high resolution, but low color depth (typically only two to six inks, with solids and halftone screens). Digital displays, on the other hand, offer relatively low resolution but high depth of color (RGB used in millions of color combinations). Instead of simple line art shapes or screens of halftone dots, digital devices display pixels—square “picture elements”—to create images. Out are clean, sharp graphics; in are softer, pixilated (antialiased) edges.

Graphic identities in digital spaces present new opportunities—more colors available in more places—and new constraints, such as the problem of creating a nice-looking image in a 16-by-16 pixel favicon.

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Chris Robb, Mark Unger, Forest Young

Courtesy: Google

Large and small companies alike are dealing with the new constraints and opportunities of digital graphic identity.