‘Graphical Communication’ or as it was previously known ‘Technical Drawing’ is perhaps one of the oldest subjects that are still taught today. Its current title leaves no doubt as to what it entails. In fact, in our subject our aim is to communicate through graphics, hence the name Graphical Communication. Such communications can take many forms, from the design of an engineer to the house plans of an architect, a symbol on a door, a street sign, a computer or mobile phone icon and a freehand sketch to illustrate an otherwise vague idea. The oldest form of graphical communication comes in the form of paintings on walls of caves and prehistoric dwellings through which those primitive people have communicated to us ways in which they survived through hunting. It is truly a case in which a picture is worth a thousand words, especially when we consider that words had not been invented yet.
In Graphical communication students learn to draw:
Precise geometry and 2D shapes.
Descriptive geometry through Orthographic projection.
Various methods of 3D representation including Isometric, Oblique, Planometric, and One and Two-point Perspective.
Plotting loci of mechanisms.
Freehand representations of objects and ideas.
Developments of prisms and pyramids (known in mathematics as nets).
Computer-aided drawing.
Representation of data through graphics.
Graphical addition of vectors (without using maths).
… and much more.
If you are interested in any form of design, engineering, architecture, computer graphics and visual products, then this may be your ideal subject.
Mr A. Muscat
Graphical Communication Teacher