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Graphic Design is the process of communicating visually using typography and images to present information.
Graphic design practice embraces a range of cognitive skills, aesthetics and crafts, including typography, visual arts and page layout.
Like other forms of design, graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created and the products (designs) which are generated.
Uses
Graphic design is used whenever visual intricacy and creativity are applied to the presentation of text and imagery.
Contemporary design practice has been extended to the modern computer, in particular WYSIWYG user interfaces, often referred to as interactive design, or multimedia design.
Anywhere there is a need to communicate visually, there is potential enhancement of communications through graphic design.
Below are a few examples.
Administration
From road signs to technical schematics, from interoffice memorandums to reference manuals, graphic design enhances transfer of knowledge.
Readability is enhanced by improving the visual presentation of text. Intricate and clever pictures are used when words cannot suffice.
Advertising
Graphic designs have a unique ability to sell a product or idea through effective visual communications.
It is applied to products as well as elements of company identity like logos, colors, and text, together defined as branding.
Advertising and Branding has increasingly become important in the range of services offered by many graphic designers, alongside corporate identity and the terms are often used interchangeably.
Branding
Brands were originally developed as labels of ownership: name, term, design, symbol. However, today it is what they do for people that matters much more, how they reflect and engage them, how they define their aspiration and enable them to do more. Powerful brands can drive success in competitive and financial markets, and indeed become the organisation’s most valuable assets.
The dictionary definition of “branding” usually refers to the name and image of a product or service. However, in the business world we take it a few steps further. BNET defines branding as:
Branding is a means of distinguishing one firm's products or services from another's and of creating and maintaining an image that encourages confidence in the quality and performance of that firm's products or services.
We like this definition much better! It accurately describes the overall effect, goals and purpose of branding.
Education
Graphics are used in textbooks for subjects such as geography, science, and math to illustrate theories and diagrams.
A common example of graphics in use to educate is diagrams of human anatomy.
Graphic design is also applied to layout and formatting of educational material to make the information more accessible and more readily understandable.
Entertainment
From decoration, to scenery, to visual story telling, graphic design is applied to entertainment.
From cover to cover in novels and comic books, from opening credits to closing credits in film, from programs to props on stage, graphic design helps set the theme and the intended mood.
Journalism
From scientific journals to news reporting, the presentation of opinion and facts is often improved with graphics and thoughtful compositions of visual information.
Newspapers, magazines, blogs, television and film documentaries may use graphic design to inform and entertain.
Website Design
Graphic Designers are often involved in web design.
Combining visual communication skills with the interactive communication skills of user interaction and online branding, graphic designers often work with web developers to create both the look and feel of a web site and enhance the online experience of web site visitors.
In the job field, many companies look for someone who can do both graphic design and the web application development involved in web design, including programming.
There is a great deal of debate in the professional design community about whether this trend is positive, or if graphic designers are being over-tasked with unrelated skills and disciplines.
A collaborative web-design team may split the tasks between graphic designers and software engineers.
Design Tools
The primary tool for graphic design is the creative mind, Critical, observational, quantitative and analytic thinking are required for designing page layout and rendering.
If the executor is merely following a sketch, script or instructions (as may be supplied by an art director) they are not usually considered the author.
The eye and the hand are often augmented with the use of external traditional or digital image editing tools. The selection of the appropriate one to the communication problem at hand is also a key skill in graphic design work, and a defining factor of the rendering style.
In the mid 1980s, the arrival of desktop publishing and the introduction of graphic art software applications introduced a generation of designers to computer image manipulation and 3D image creation that had previously been laborious.
Computer graphic design enabled designers to instantly see the effects of layout or typographic changes without using any ink in the process, and to simulate the effects of traditional media without requiring a lot of space.
Traditional tools such as pencils or markers are often used to develop graphic design ideas, even when computers are used for finalization.
Computers are generally considered to be an indispensable tool used in the graphic design industry.
Computers and software applications are generally seen, by creative professionals, as more effective production tools than traditional methods.