Graphic Design
What is Graphic Design?
Graphic design is a craft where professionals create visual content to communicate messages. By applying visual hierarchy and page layout techniques, designers use typography and pictures to meet users’ specific needs and focus on the logic of displaying elements in interactive designs to optimize the user experience.
Graphic Design is about molding the User Experience Visually
Graphic design is an ancient craft, dating back past Egyptian hieroglyphs to at least 17,000-year-old cave paintings. It’s a term that originated in the 1920s’ print industry. It continues to cover a range of activities including logo creation. Graphic design in this sense concerns aesthetic appeal and marketing. Graphic designers attract viewers using images, color and typography. However, graphic designers working in user experience (UX) design must justify stylistic choices regarding, say, image locations and font with a human-centered approach. That means you need to focus on—and seek to empathize the most with—your specific users while you create good-looking designs that maximize usability. Aesthetics must serve a purpose—in UX design we don’t create art for art’s sake. So, graphic designers must branch into visual design. When designing for UX, you should:
Consider the information architecture of your interactive designs to ensure accessibility for users.
Leverage graphic design skills to create work that considers the entire user experience, including users’ visual processing abilities.
For instance, if an otherwise pleasing mobile app can’t offer users what they need in several taps, its designer will have failed to marry graphic design to user experience. The scope of graphic design in UX covers creating beautiful designs that users find highly pleasurable, meaningful and usable.
“Design is a solution to a problem. Art is a question to a problem.”
— John Maeda, President of Rhode Island School of Design.
What Are the Elements and Principles of Graphic Design?
The elements and principles of graphic design include line, color, shape, space, texture, typography, scale, dominance and emphasis, and balance. Together, they work to create visually appealing work that conveys a message.
Line
Lines are present in nearly every design, whether they are straight, curved, thin, thick, dashed, long, or short. Lines connect any two points. They are useful for dividing space as well as directing the viewer’s attention in a specific direction.
Color
Color is perhaps the most important and obvious element of a design. It can create impact right away, and it is noticed by everyone, even those without a design background. Colors can be used in backgrounds or within other elements like lines, shapes, or typography. Colors create emotions and moods. For example, red can represent passion and green can represent nature.
Shape
Shape, also known as form, is the combination of lines. Shapes can be circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, or other abstract forms. Most designs include at least one shape. Similar to color, shapes have different associations. A circle may be used to represent unity, whereas a square could represent structure. The color, style, background, and texture of a shape can all influence the viewer’s perception.
Space
White or negative space is crucial in design because it enhances readability for the human eye. Good designs will utilize space to give other elements room to breathe.
Texture
Textures are becoming more commonly used, replacing single-color backgrounds. Textures can include paper, stone, concrete, brick, and fabric. They may be subtle or obvious and be used sparingly or liberally. Textures can be helpful to create a three-dimensional appearance.
Typography
When working with text, Graphic Designers need to consider the relationship between how text looks and what it says. Typography is the art of arranging text in legible and engaging ways. Different moods or emotions can be expressed through different type choices. Good typography should create a strong visual hierarchy, provide balance and set the right tone.
Scale
The scale and size of objects, shapes, and other elements can make certain parts of a design more dynamic. Scale can be used to create a visual hierarchy. Using scale, Graphic Designers can create focal points and highlight important areas.
Dominance and emphasis
Dominance and emphasis create a focal point in a design. It helps with the design flow and can guide the viewer to other parts of the design.
Balance
Graphic Designers need to consider how design elements are distributed. Balanced designs offer stability, while unbalanced designs can be dynamic. Balance is achieved through shapes, colors, textures, lines, and other elements.
Harmony
Harmony is one of the main goals of graphic design. In a good design, every element needs to work together and complement each other. However, if everything is the same, a design can become monotonous. Designs need to strike a fine balance between harmony and contrast.
What Are the Different Types of Graphic Design?
Graphic design is all around us, which means there are a range of graphic and UX design areas and specializations. Each type of design requires specific graphic design skills and techniques.
Illustration for graphic design
Graphic Artists create original artwork through a combination of media and techniques. They often have a background in fine arts, animation, or architecture. Graphic Artists collaborate closely with writers, editors, marketers and art directors across all types of graphic design.
Marketing and advertising graphic design
This type of design is used to sell products or services. This may involve print advertisements, such as posters, billboards, flyers, catalogs and packaging, or digital advertisements, such as television ads, video ads, or social media posts.
If Graphic Designers work in this area, they spend a lot of time creating assets for marketing strategies and campaigns. They develop ideas, research consumer habits, and create designs that speak to the target audience. This type of design involves a strong knowledge of how to sell a product and how to entice consumers.
Web design
Web design involves planning and building the appearance, layout, structure, and design of websites. It focuses on the front-facing aspects of a website, including the user experience. Although somewhat similar to a graphic design career, Web Designers combine a variety of visual elements, such as text, photos, graphics, and video, to create appealing and user-friendly sites and pages. Web design is also closely connected to UX and UI design.
Publication graphic design
This design focuses on creating layouts and selecting typography and artwork, including photography, graphics, and illustrations. Graphic Designers in this area work with books, newspapers, magazines, and catalogs. They need to understand color management, printing, and digital publishing.
Packaging graphic design
Packaging not only protects products, but it is also an important marketing tool. Graphic Designers in this area develop concepts, mockups, and print-ready files. Packaging graphic design requires an understanding of print processes, as well as industrial design and manufacturing. Packaging Graphic Designers need to track trends and competitors so they can create packaging that stands out to consumers.
Motion graphic design
Motion graphic design is a new specialty area in the graphic design industry, though it is quickly growing and demand is increasing for Motion Graphic Designers. At a basic level, this type of design involves any graphic in motion. This can include animations, banners, title sequences, trailers, or video games.
Environmental graphic design
Environmental graphic design is a multidisciplinary practice that combines graphic, architectural, interior, landscape, and industrial design. This type of design connects people to places. Typically, these Designers will have a background in graphic design and architecture. They should be familiar with industrial design concepts and architectural plans. They may work on projects such as public transportation navigation, retail store interiors, signage, and office branding.
Visual identity graphic design
Visual identity graphic design focuses on the visual elements of a brand. It aims to communicate a brand’s identity through images, shapes, and colors. Graphic Designers within this area create elements like logos, typography, color palettes, and image libraries that represent a brand. They also develop visual brand guidelines to ensure brand consistency across all uses.
Benefits of Graphic Design
Investing in graphic design can offer many benefits for a company, including:
Consistent, identifiable branding
Having a Graphic Designer create or select the right logos, images, graphics, or layout for your creative materials will create visual consistency for your company across all of the different channels it uses to interact with clients. Think of any successful company and how much graphic design plays into its branding and any forward-facing design choices.
Visual communication
Beyond establishing your brand, graphic design is a key tool in telling your target audience what you want it to hear. A photograph or text alone can’t convey all that good graphics can, so it’s the job of a Graphic Designer to find out ways to create emotionally resonant creative materials.
Boost sales and competitive position
Good graphic design will make a company more visible in the marketplace, which will translate to a boost in revenue. Given the link between smart graphic design and concerns like usability and user experience, there’s plenty of evidence to show that just graphic design alone has a major effect on customer behavior.
Only graphic designing can help you navigate to a color scheme that is attractive for the majority of your target users. It may lead to higher user engagement and ultimately a higher conversion rate.
Every design is a solution to a problem. In applying a digital marketing strategy you must come across various problems that need to be addressed with creative solutions. Graphic design helps you produce different images, logos, designs, patterns, tables, shapes and signs, and banners, etc. that have the potential to make a huge impact for your business.
