What is graphic design?
Graphic design is an increasingly accessible and widely used discipline nowadays, and its importance in advertising campaigns and all visual communication is growing. But before we get into the details, it’s good to understand what exactly graphic design means.
Graphic design is the creation of visual content to promote ideas, concepts or products, to convey social, cultural or political messages using images, shapes, colours, graphic collages and even textures.
Given the multitude of fields and purposes in which graphic design is used, and where it is arguably even essential, there are numerous types of graphic design, each with its own set of skills and techniques. For this reason, there are many designers who specialise in a single type of graphic design, while others go for several types that are most often related and even intertwined.
Like many other fields, but perhaps even more than others, graphic design is constantly changing, which is why designers must constantly adapt and improve, learning new trends and tendencies, always being up to date with new tools in the field, to adapt or change their specialization according to the evolution of this discipline.
Brands use graphic design for logos, advertising materials, advertisements, packaging design, websites and even internal company communication.
Here are the different elements that make up a design:
- Line
- Form
- Colour
- Size
- Texture
Also, in addition to these main and basic guidelines to follow in making any type of graphic design, there are certain concepts that are good to keep in mind, and these are, as in art: simplicity, continuity and symmetry.
Of course, it is very important to know the basic principles and criteria, but the creativity of each designer is also essential and is the guarantee of the uniqueness of the design created, a criterion highly sought after by clients.
Graphic design types and features
We know that you can find a lot of information about graphic design online, but we also know that sometimes the information can be confusing and you can feel “lost” in technical terms and fancy descriptions, so we offer you a list of the main types of graphic design.
Marketing design
With the rise of e-commerce globally, marketing design has become predominantly digital (but that doesn’t mean print has become unimportant! We’ll come back to this later).
What you need to know: a marketing designer works directly with marketing experts who develop promotional strategies to effectively and visually convey the characteristics of the brand or product.
Marketing design includes:
- Creating visual identity online
- Newsletter design
- Graphics for social media platforms
Brand design
Most people think of logo design when they hear of brand design, but graphic design encompasses all the elements that create a brand’s identity, conveying its values, characteristics and uniqueness.
Therefore, brand design includes all those elements that define visual identity, such as: colours, textures, graphics, symbols or icons.
Product and packaging design
A product or packaging designer aims to make the product (or brand) stand out, to differentiate it from the competition, while preserving the brand identity and primary purpose of the product or brand.
Graphic design for printing and advertising
As I said earlier, print should not be neglected, although the focus is very much on online.
This type of graphic design is similar to marketing design in that it aims to promote the brand’s services and products, but this type of designer prepares materials that will need to be printed (from magazine ads to large prints or album covers).
It’s important to bear in mind here that online and print design have slightly different visual needs in terms of composition, light and contrast.
Web design
In the multitude of websites we browse every day, a web designer needs to know how to make the website attractive and user-friendly, so that it attracts the consumer and makes them browse and, of course, purchase the products or services presented.
In addition to the attractive look and user-friendly interface, a website will also be consistent with the brand’s visual identity, such as colours, logo or symbols.