An Ultimate Guide On Graphic Designing | Definition, Objective & Types
Graphic Design is one of the most creative fields and an essential element for any business today.
As a Graphic Designer, your goal should be to strike a balance between aesthetics and user experience.
There is a misconception that Graphic Designing is only limited to the creation of Logos, but in reality, it is much more than that.
As a Graphic Designer, you should know how to effectively communicate visual messages using visual hierarchy, page layouts, colours, images, and typography.
Having said that, Graphic Design is also a skill that can be acquired by self-learning and you don’t necessarily have to have graduated from a Design School.
This blog is an Ultimate Guide on Graphic Designing which will give you an in-depth understanding of the definition, objective, types and much more!
Key Takeaways
- As a graphic designer, you should know how to effectively communicate visual messages using visual hierarchy, page layouts, colours, images, and typography.
- Graphic Designers working in the UX domain should highly focus on marrying aesthetic appeal with marketing skills.
- The graphic design incorporates emotional design.
- Apart from artistic skills, one must have a firm understanding of the market trends, competitors, marketing skills, and the art of striking the right balance between aesthetic appeal and usability to survive in this field.
Scope of Graphic Designing in India
Even though this field has great potential, India faces a shortage of Graphic Designers.
In a report published in 2019, Paula Graham Gazzard, Director of Contemporary Visual Arts Network says,“By 2020, the potential market for design in India is expected to be Rs 188.32 billion. The number of designers required by 2020 in India’s industrial, graphic, communication, packaging and other design domains is potentially 62,000. There are around 7,000 qualified designers in India with perhaps 5,000 studying design”.
What is the objective of Graphic Designing?
If you have fun sketching, drawing, has good computer skills and a firm hold on marketing, then Graphic Designing may be a potential career path for you.
Graphic Designing is one of the in-demand skills in the Advertising Industry.
Often when you are working as a Graphic Designer for Advertising firms, you will be directly or indirectly working for the clients to produce design elements, creative visual concepts, and coordinate between the art production and marketing unit.
Most importantly, you will be making sure that the output you are producing aligns with the brand identity and appeals to the target market.
Also Read: What is Graphic Designing
the basic idea behind UX: Marrying Aesthetic Appeal and Marketing
For the Graphic Designers working in the UX domain, it can also be defined as the craft used by professionals to marry aesthetic appeal with marketing skills.
Your end product should cater to both the organization’s goals and user experience.
Therefore, you should use your Graphic Designing skills to:
- Create a streamlined user experience keeping in mind the accessibility, usability and visual aesthetics.
- Have a firm understanding of visual architecture.
The relation between Graphic and emotional design: The Duo
The first thing you need to know about the relation between graphic and emotional design is Graphic Design incorporates emotional design.
Emotional design refers to the craft of evoking emotions through visual communication to give a user a positive experience about the brand or an organization.
Since Graphic Design is a form of visual communication, you should have an in-depth understanding of the colour schemes and colour theory.
The colour scheme you are choosing should reflect the organization as well as the end-user expectations, over a period of time the end user would start relating the colour to the particular brand. For Example Gradient Green and White for Dettol.
Typography and UI/UX design
Typography is another important element of Graphic Designing.
Typography refers to the craft of arranging texts in a clear, legible, readable and aesthetically pleasing fashion.
You should make sure that the font styles are aesthetically appealing and readable at the same time.
Your motive should be to create a streamlined display of visuals. In a website, the transition of the visual elements including Typography style, size and placement should be gradual, keeping in mind a “human-centred approach”.
Also Read: Difference Between UI and UX
Where can I learn Graphic Designing?
Today, everything you need an answer to is available on the internet.
If you are planning to take up Graphic Designing as a career path then you would have to have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree from a reputed Design School as a qualification to land a job.
But, if you want to upskill yourself or want to experiment with this domain, there are plenty of online courses like Udemy, Coursera and edX.org that offer a great learning experience as well as a certificate of completion, which will add value to your resume.
What are the Types of Graphic Designs?
So far we have understood that Graphic Designers use colours, images, alignments, typography and marketing skills for visual communication.
Graphic Design is a broad area of specialization. Basically, like every other industry, the Art Industry also keeps on constantly evolving.
They are currently using 7 types of Graphic Design Styles apart from the UI/UX Graphic Design, which has been covered in the previous section.
In this section, we will be going through a brief overview of those 7 types.
1. Visual Identity Graphic Design:
Visual Identity Graphic Design is the craft of conveying the brand identity through visual elements.
Brand Identity refers to how a brand/organization conveys its message, tone, personality and emotions to its audience.
A visual identity graphic designer often has to create colour palettes, logos, packaging design, and typography required for brand identity purposes.
Therefore, apart from the Graphic Designing Skills, he/she should have a firm understanding of the market trends, competitors, creative and marketing skills,
2. Marketing and Advertising Graphic Design:
As a marketing and advertising graphic designer, you will have to coordinate between marketing and content professionals and directors to work on the creative visual elements of the marketing strategy.
As a marketing designer you might specialize in multiple media platforms or a single one but ultimately the goal is to create engaging visual marketing content which will help the brand to communicate its message smoothly to the audience.
3. Publication Design:
This is one of the most classic types of Graphic Designing.
As a Publication Designer you will be closely working with writers, editors and publishers to carefully choose and create the apt typography, colour palette, imagery and illustrations for publication purposes.
The type of publication may range from books to catalogues.
4. Packaging Graphic Design:
Packaging plays a very important role for any brand. It is one of the vital marketing elements which conveys the brand identity to the end users.
Therefore, as a Packaging Graphic Designer you should have a sound knowledge of brand identity, industrial design, market trends,time-management, critical and problem solving skills.
5. Motion Graphic Design:
Motion Graphic Design, which was formerly restricted to Television purposes, has started to gain a lot of popularity nowadays.
Technological advancements have increased the growth and development of this area of expertise and today you will witness motion graphics in — Trailers, Promotional video and even animated logos.
A motion graphic designer would be required to have a firm understanding of — coding, 3-D modelling and marketing depending on the industry you’re working in.
6. Environmental Graphic Design:
Environment Graphic Design often overlaps with Architectural, Industrial and landscape design as the ultimate aim is to emotionally connect places to people.
This is achieved by designing places more memorable, interesting and easier to navigate. Thus, giving the user a great experience with the place.
This type of graphic design is used in multiple places ranging from office branding to wall murals.
Wrapping Up
Graphic Designing is one of the most creative fields today. To be a Graphic Designer, only artistic skills won’t be enough.
One must have a firm understanding of the market trends, competitors, marketing skills, and an art of striking the right balance between aesthetic appeal and usability.
There are many myths surrounding this field, like Graphic Designing is limited to Logo Making and is very easy to learn.
But, in reality, Graphic Designing is much more than that. Currently, there are 8 types of Graphic Designing and as time passes, depending on the advancement in technology and innovation, more types and variations might emerge.
