What is Graphic Design?

Were you attracted by a beautiful brochure you came across at a company you visited or did you like the color scheme of the website you visited sometime back or did you enjoy the animation movie you saw last week? All these are nothing, but different aspects of the vast field of Graphic Designing.

Graphic Designing is a form of art for a specific ‘goal’ or ‘purpose’.  Before you begin working on any graphic designing work, you need to have a plan; there is a reason for creating a logo or designing a website. Graphic Designing involves use of words, images, symbols and so on. It is a pictorial representation of concepts, ideas, facts or figures.

Various Elements of Graphic Designing:

Graphic Designing is a very creative field where experts can make use of different elements/ingredients to create interesting and appealing graphics. Let’s look into some of these:

1. Varied Line Forms:

‘Lines” are the lifeline for a graphic designer. An impactful logo, a gorgeous flyer or an online banner, all or some of them will involve some forms of lines (may be straight lines or the curved ones). For instance, a thin curved line can create a beautiful business card, or straight thick lines can be sued to create margins in a catalogue design. A graphic designer can just play with endless permutations and combinations of lines and create splendid designs.

2. Colors and Color Schemes:

Who doesn’t love colors? Ask a graphic designer, and know how colors are close to his/her heart. A good color scheme can make a dead design look alive and attract attention of millions; on the other hand, a bad RGB or CMYK combination can ruin all the efforts of a designer. There is a vast potential to play with colors and create eye catching graphics. Colors and color schemes are what make graphic designing a glamorous field in itself.

3. Shapes and Figures:

A simple circle can donate so many things to so many people. Shapes communicate so much that even words cannot convey. Shapes bring balance and harmony to a design. Use of a combination of shapes conveys the core message in a very aesthetic manner.  We can create various patterns and layouts with different types of shapes and figures.

4. Type:

Even letters, numbers and words can form very significant elements of graphic designing. There are various fonts available on the net (many of which can also be freely downloadable) to make your message clear and crisp to the readers. For instance, a big bold font for headings and a neutral font for the body can really bring the message out. Placing the text just anywhere in the design doesn’t convey your message clearly. It is the font type, position of the font, font size, font color and elements like Bold, Underline and Italics that makes words and numbers look meaningful.

5. Texture:

You must have picked up magazines or read some books. How did you feel while touching those? Were the papers glossy ones or with matte finish? What we are talking about here is the ‘Texture’ of an object…the surface of an object.  Textures play a very important role in Graphic Designing, especially in Print Media. How a graphic designer selects the paper for his next packaging design or gives a stone effect or a brick effect to his/her Ad banner, all these textures give depth and richness to images and graphics.

6. Cliparts, Illustrations and Photographs:

One good photograph or one good illustration can speak much more than a thousand words could. You must have come across many black and white sketches, how simple they may look but convey the right message to the right people in a very humorous way. One relevant photograph can help graphic designers reduce their unnecessary efforts in composing words and letters. This is why photographers are an essential part of graphic designing.

7. Space

Space refers to the amount of background color (white space, negative space) available in a design. TO make your graphic appealing, you shouldn’t fill the entire space with different elements. Infact, try to keep the shapes, fonts and strokes to the minimum and give some breathing space to your design. This makes your message more noticeable. A neat-looking and clutter-less design can help to achieve your goals than a clutter-some full of elements design.

Tools of Graphic Design:

Just like any other skilled craftsman, whether it is a pottery maker or a painter, a graphic designer also requires certain tools to craft his/her masterpiece. Some of these are mentioned below:

1. Pencils & Sketchpads:

One needn’t be great at drawing or sketching, but this is always an advantage for a graphic designer. One can quickly draw a rough layout or an idea with a paper and pencil. Pencil is one of the simplest but powerful tools for a graphic designer.

2. Computer Systems:

In today’s IT Era, no Graphic designer can think about working without making use of a computer. Infact, just like programmers, computers have become an essential part of designers today. Various combinations of different software, online tools and hardware like graphic tablets are regularly used by graphic designers of today.

3. Books on Graphic Designing:

No matter how advance the technology gets, books will always be the best friends of people. There are some very useful and noteworthy books available on graphic designing, some of which are – User experience design by Gavin Allanwood and Peter Beare, Make your own luck by Kate Moross, Type Rules: The Designer’s Guide to Professional Typography by Ilene Strizver, Creative Advertising: An Introduction by Miriam Sorrentino and so on.

Graphic Designing (a marriage of art and technology) is everywhere. Whether you purchase your favorite chocolate with great-looking packaging or come across a hoarding on the roadside or browse an online shopping portal, you are viewing graphics in different forms.  So, the basic objectives of Graphic Design are to attract attention, communicate the message and convince the readers. 

Also, read related articles on Graphic Designing:

Graphic Design Careers
How to become a Graphic Designer?

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