What is Graphic Design

What is Graphic Design?

Graphic design is the process of creating visual and textual content in order to communicate messages to a target group. It involves the application of typography, photography, and illustration, in combination with visual hierarchy and page layout techniques.

As a term originating in the 1920s’ print industry and covering a range of activities including logo creation, it concerns aesthetic appeal and marketing – attracting viewers using images, color and typography.

Twenty-first-century graphic design extends beyond traditional print media and includes web design, packaging, wayfinding, and exhibition design.

The history of graphic design begins with the production of manuscripts in ancient civilizations,which placed an emphasis on typography for centuries.

They had to etch and ink representations painstakingly on stone, clay, papyrus, bark, parchment, and vellum.

With technological progress, the field developed into a distinct profession. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the creation of print media (e.g., advertisements, books for mass/worldwide distribution, and magazines) using a combination of visual and textual content grew.

Over time, graphic design has become one of the most important elements of work everywhere, building a language of communication that everyone understands wherever they are, through visual communication.

Graphic Design is Emotional Design

Although the digital age entails designing with interactive software, graphic design still revolves around age-old principles. Striking the right chord with users from the first glance is crucial. As a graphic designer, you should have a firm understanding of color theory and how vital the right choice of color scheme is. Color choices must reflect not only the organization (e.g., blue suits banking) but also users’ expectations (e.g., red for alerts; green for notifications to proceed). You should design with an eye for how elements match the tone (e.g., sans-serif fonts for excitement/happiness) and overall effect, noting how you shape users’ emotions as you guide them from, say, a landing page to a call to action. Often, graphic designers are involved in motion design for smaller screens, carefully monitoring how the work’s aesthetics match users’ expectations and enhance usability in a flowing, seamless experience by anticipating their needs and mindsets. With user psychology in mind some especially weighty graphic design considerations are:

• Symmetry and Balance (including symmetry types)
• Flow
• Repetition
• Pattern
• The Golden Ratio (i.e., proportions of 1:1.618)
• The Rule of Thirds (i.e., how users’ eyes recognize good layout)
• Typography (encompassing everything from font choice to heading weight)
• Audience Culture (re Color Use and Reading Pattern)

Overall, the mission vis-à-vis graphic design is displaying information harmoniously – beauty and usability must go hand in hand, discreetly carrying your organization’s ideals. Through a trustworthy visual presence, you hint to users that you know what they want to do – not just because you’ve arranged aesthetically pleasing elements that are where they expect to find them, or help them intuit their way around, but because the values your designs display mirror theirs, too. and that’s so important.

What does it take to be a graphic designer in this time?

Elements of Graphic Design:

Graphic design can use image-based designs involving photos, illustrations, logos and symbols, type-based designs, or a combination of both techniques. These designs can include various combinations of the following elements.

• Lines: Straight, curved, wavy, thin, thick, two-dimensional, three-dimensional.
• – When it comes to lines, the possibilities are limitless. Lines allow designers to divide a space or separate content in a layout. They can also be used to guide the eyes of the viewer, or make other elements follow a strategic path for added findability, to get the viewer easily from point A to point B.

A line is simply an element of design that is defined by a point moving in space.

• Shapes: A shape is a two-dimensional defined area created by lines. Different types of shapes include geometric, abstract, and organic shapes, all of which are basic elements of design. And offer a variety of ways to fill spaces creatively, to support text and other forms of content, and to balance a design. Shapes can be created out of nothing, using white space to give a design structure and clarity.

• Colour: Color is one element that is especially important in attracting attention because there is psychology behind the feelings that color can evoke. There are three main characteristics to color: hue (the color family), value (how light or dark the color is), and saturation (the purity of the color). Colour, or the absence of colour, is an important element of any design. With a solid understanding of colour theory, designers can amazingly influence a design and a brand, seamlessly integrating colour boldly or with brilliant subtlety.

• Typography: Typography is the art of arranging type. This one is critically important as it can greatly affect the design’s messaging. Different fonts, combined with varied sizing, colors, and spacing, can add power to the concept the designer is trying to communicate. Also the type can transform a message from mere text to a work of art. Different fonts, combined with customized alignments, spacing, size, and colour, can add power to the point you are communicating to the world.

• Texture: Texture in design refers to how things look like they’d feel if they were to be touched. For example, texture can be rough, smooth, glossy, soft, hard, etc. Texture is another element used to draw attention. It can be added to other elements like shapes, colors, images, and type. Even a smooth and glossy advertisement can seem tangible with texture. It gives a sense of a tactile surface through its visual appearance and adds a sense of depth, enhanced by selection of appropriate paper and material.

• Size: Small or large is used as an indication of importance and it can also create visual interest in a design by using contrasting sizes.

• Space: Space refers to the areas of the design that are left blank. These areas include any distance or areas between, around, below, or above other design elements. Designers intentionally place spaces in the design to add emphasis to areas of the design.

Tools of Graphic Design:

The design process had evolved tremendously with the continuous digitalization in our world today. But just because these processes have changed over the years doesn’t mean designers aren’t still using traditional graphic design tools, like the ol’ pencil and paper.

Most graphic designers use a hybrid process that includes both traditional and digital technologies. It’s common for designers to start the design process by sketching out concepts with traditional graphic design tools before hitting the ground running on the computer for finalization. Many designers start directly on computers using graphic design software. These tools have enhanced the creative process by allowing designers to explore ideas and achieve designs more quickly rather than completely hand-rendering designs.

Professional designers possess a creative mind with an artistic inclination, and so much more. Keen observation skills and analytical thinking are essential tools for graphic design, Designers employ a variety of methods to combine art and technology to communicate a particular message and create an impressive visual.

• Sketchpads: A traditional tool used to sketch out ideas; it is the quickest way to jot down the rough designs, which designers can develop further using other tools and technologies.

• Computers: Computers now occupy an essential place in every designer’s tool kit. Hardware such as tablets allow designers to expand their creative freedom and maintain that sketchpad feel.

• Software: Technology has opened new doors for realizing creative vision. Specialized software such as Illustrator and Photoshop can help to create illustrations, enhance photographs, stylize text, and synergize all of the pieces in incredible layouts.

Principles of graphic design:

The principles of graphic design suggest how the designer should best arrange the various components of a page layout to ensure the elements of the overall design are connected to one another. The principles of design include the following:

• Balance: Achieving visual balance in graphic design is done by using symmetry and asymmetry. This is achieved by balancing the design in weight – meaning shapes, lines, and other elements are distributed evenly. So even if the two sides of the design aren’t the exact same, they have similar elements. Balance is important because it provides structure and stability to a design.
• In short Balance is the distribution of the visual weight of objects, colors, texture, and space. If the design was a scale, these elements should be balanced to make a design feel stable.

• Alignment: Alignment is about keeping the design organized. All aspects of the design should be aligned with the top, bottom, center, or sides to create a visual connection between the elements.

The two basic alignment principles are edge alignment and center alignment. Each is essentially a different way of utilizing an invisible line.

Also alignment is vitally important in print graphic design because it:

• Allows you to arrange elements in a way that matches how people naturally scan the page.
• Helps balance your image so that it’s visually appealing.
• Creates a visual connection between related elements.

• Proximity: Proximity creates a visual relationship between the elements of the design. It minimizes clutter, increases viewer comprehension, and provides a focal point for viewers. It doesn’t necessarily mean the similar elements need to be put right next to each other, it just means they should be connected visually. In design we use proximity for two main reasons:

• To Create Connections:

Proximity can create relationships between visual elements in a composition, create relevance, hierarchy, create organization and structure.

• To Dispel Connections:

Proximity can also be used to suggest no relationship between elements, to break organization and structure.

By moving visual elements closer together or further apart, we are applying the proximity design principle. In design these two forces can be applied in various degrees to help achieve a particular effect or outcome to communicate a message.

• Repetition: Repetition is simply repeating a single element many times in a design. For example, you could draw a line horizontally and then draw several others next to it.

Once you’ve chosen how to use your elements, repeat those patterns to establish consistency throughout the design. This repetition ties together individual elements and strengthens the design but creating a feeling of organized movement.

• Contrast: Refers to the arrangement of opposite elements (light vs. dark colors, rough vs. smooth textures, large vs. small shapes, etc.) in a piece so as to create visual interest, excitement and drama.

And used to emphasize certain aspects of the design. Using contrast allows you to stress differences between elements, ultimately highlighting the key elements of your design that you want to stand out.

Types of graphic design:

Over time, graphic design has become pretty multifaceted. The overall concept is composed of different fields and specializations. Here are some of the most common types of graphic design:

Corporate design:

Corporate design has to do with the visual identity of a company.

Marketing and advertising design:

Probably one of the most widely known types of graphic design: marketing and advertising. When most people think of graphic design, they’re most likely thinking of marketing and advertising design. Social media graphics, magazine ads, billboards, brochures, email marketing templates, content marketing – all examples of this widely used type of graphic design.

Packaging design:

When you buy a new product, it most likely has some form of packaging or visual element such as a label, sticker, or wrapping that is used to prepare the product for distribution or sale; these elements are created by packaging designers. It’s crucial that these designers are aware of current trends within the marketplace to ensure successful product marketing.

Publication design:

Publication design traditionally refers to print medium, but again, with the constant digitalization of our generation, it has crossed over to digital publishing. Examples of publication graphic designs include books, newspapers, newsletters, magazines, and eBooks.

Environmental design:

This type of graphic design is commonly overlooked. Environmental graphic design is the use of visual elements in environments to connect people to those places. Architecture, road signs, signage, event spaces, and wall murals are all examples of environmental design.

Motion design:

Motion graphic design is a subset of graphic design and it’s exactly what it sounds like: graphics that are in motion. This can include animation, video games, apps, GIFs, website features, etc. This is still a somewhat new area in graphic design as technological advancements have allowed designers to explore new mediums.

Web design:

While web design isn’t necessarily a type of graphic design, graphic design is one element of web design, so it’s worth mentioning here. Web design also ties closely with UX and UI design.

• UX design (user experience design):

This specific type of design focuses on the structure and logic of the design elements that users interact with.

UX Design refers to the term User Experience Design, while UI Design stands for User Interface Design. Both elements are crucial to a product and work closely together. But despite their professional relationship, the roles themselves are quite different, referring to very different parts of the process and the design discipline. Where UX Design is a more analytical and technical field, UI Design is closer to what we refer to as graphic design, though the responsibilities are somewhat more complex.

• UI Design (User interface design):

Pertains to the interactive elements of a design. This type of design requires a good understanding of users’ needs because it focuses on anticipating what users will need to do on the device and ensuring that the interface has the elements that make those actions possible. These elements include things like dropdown lists, toggles, breadcrumbs, notifications, progress bars, etc. Basically, UI design is expanding the graphic design definition; designs that have any interactivity are UI, even if they incorporate static images.

Who is a graphic designer?

A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures (sometimes) and advertising. They are also sometimes responsible for typesetting, illustration, user interfaces, and web design. A core responsibility of the designer’s job is to present information in a way that is both accessible and memorable.

To put it simply, graphic designers are visual communicators and problem solvers.

The basics of a career in graphic design.

If you choose to work in graphic design, you can work in a few different settings.

• Work for industry-related companies, like design consultancies or branding agencies (agency graphic designer)
• Work with any company (in-house graphic designer)
• Work remotely on your own (freelance graphic designer)

Graphic designers should also possess the following specific qualities:

1. Analytical skills. Graphic designers must be able to look at their work from the point of view of their consumers and examine how the designs they develop will be perceived by the consumer to ensure they convey the client’s desired message.

• Artistic ability. Graphic designers must be able to create designs that are artistically interesting and appealing to clients and consumers. They produce rough illustrations of design ideas, either by hand sketching or by using a computer program.

• Communication skills. Graphic designers must communicate with clients, customers, and other designers to ensure that their designs accurately reflect the desired message and effectively express information.

• Computer skills. Most graphic designers use specialized graphic design software to prepare their designs.

• Creativity. Graphic designers must be able to think of new approaches to communicating ideas to consumers. They develop unique designs that convey a recognizable meaning on behalf of their clients.

• Time-management skills. Graphic designers often work on multiple projects at the same time, each with a different deadline.

Duties:

Graphic designers typically do the following:

1. Meet with clients or the art director to determine the scope of a project
2. Advise clients on strategies to reach a particular audience
3. Determine the message the design should portray
4. Create images that identify a product or convey a message
5. Develop graphics for product illustrations, logos, and websites
6. Select colors, images, text style, and layout
7. Present the design to clients or the art director
8. Incorporate changes recommended by the clients into the final design
9. Review designs for errors before printing or publishing them

Graphic designers combine art and technology to communicate ideas through images and the layout of websites and printed pages. They may use a variety of design elements to achieve artistic or decorative effects.

Work Environment:

Graphic designers generally work in studios where they have access to drafting tables, computers, and the software necessary to create their designs. Although many graphic designers work independently, those who work for specialized graphic design firms often work as part of a design team. Some designers telecommute. Many graphic designers collaborate with colleagues on projects or work with clients located around the world.

So to enter Graphic design, may you need to learn such as:

DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS:

Introductory course in the elements of design as an effective communication tool. Studies include concepts and applications of design elements and relationships.

Skills & Knowledge Gained:

Understanding of design applications for lines, colors, textures, shapes, values, and white space principles applicable to most graphic design projects.

INTRO TO TYPOGRAPHY:

Students are introduced to typography as it applies in design and how it affects meaning, brand, or personality.

Skills & Knowledge Gained:

Baseline skills in type styles and fonts used in text and logos

Basic understanding of how visual details may be perceived by an audience.

COLOR THEORY:

Students are immersed in the study of color, how it impacts cultural or psychological levels, and the effects of color interactions.

Skills & Knowledge Gained:

Understanding of color design in print, web, multimedia, and hand-held devices

WEB DESIGN:

Introduction to graphic design applications in online and multimedia publishing. Course focuses on technical environments and elements of navigation, usability, and web best practices.

Skills & Knowledge Gained:

Top-down understanding of graphic design methods for digital projects

Focus is on technique and theory, not on specific code or interface design software

Finally! Graphic design is becoming increasingly important in the marketing and sales of both companies and products. That being said, graphic designers tend to work closely with public relations and marketing professionals to better understand how they can communicate the messages that they need to.

And I think I mentioned here more than you need to know about graphic design.