Ever wondered, why some advertisements attract you more than others? Or why that particular billboard caught your sight faster than the rest even by just being on its side? Well, as an observant child, I always used to wonder so, and with time I realized that this is not always because of the placement of that billboard or the information they are providing in a particular advertisement. Although, these criteria play an important role in marketing or advertising besides them what attracts the viewer’s attention is its presentation. But what about the presentation? If every advertisement has some patterns, images, text, and color then what is it that makes it stand alone in between the rest? Now that is where Graphic Designing plays its role. The main object of a Graphic Designer is not only restricted to providing a required design with the aim of just putting all the required information with some graphics in it. But to present the combination in a manner that easily catches someone’s attention, collaborating evenly with the right amount of information with it.
So, what are the basic criteria that define Graphic Design? What are the major elements that make a Design stand out in the market? What are the roles a graphic designer is responsible for? These might be some of the questions that cross your mind when you think of pursuing your career in Graphic design and this is the place that will lead you one step closer to moving forward towards your aim of becoming one. So, let’s begin with our very first and foremost question before you think of becoming a Graphic Designer.
What is Graphic Designing?
The most important part that a brand plays is to represent and communicate what the brand wants to speak for itself. This is very well quoted by Mr. Paul Rand’s, a legendary Graphic Designer, who is known for his corporate logo designs,
“Design is the silent Ambassador of your Brand.” ~Paul Rand
The first impression is everything that matters for a start and it is often seen that a Brand’s Designs, considering its logo, advertisement, or posts create its impression over others. So, in order to maintain a good brand identity a well-designed brand is most likely to seek attention in the market and can present its professionalism but more to that it can also be a good influencer to establish the trust of its customers. Yes, this is what a good design can do for a brand. It just takes the right selections of ideas, layouts, color schemes, typography, and the concept behind the design, and boom you have it. Wait, Layouts? Color theory? Typography? What are these? Well, these are the most basic aspects of Graphic designing. So, let’s just quickly look for what are the element that takes a design from average to Wow.
Key Elements of Graphic Designing
Typography
As the word suggests “Typography” is the art of arranging the text involved in your design, in a form that makes it readable as well as approaching to the viewer’s sight. It is one of the important elements that contains the direct information that a design is trying to speak. That is what makes it a priority for a graphic designer to master the concept of typography. The concept of Typography includes a lot of things in it, starting from the basic that is selection of a font to moving forward with its alignment, spacing, readability, consistency, creativity, and whatnot. It acts as a powerful tool for all Graphic Designers,
Color Theory
So when moving forward to the concept of color theory. The most prior question that comes up is, what is a color theory? When it is being asked about the foundation elements of a Design, the Color theory is the one that stands in front of all. It helps the designer to make attractive and appealing designs, keeping the emotional concept and idea of the brand of which the Design is to be made. The selection of the right colors is also a lot that speaks for itself. Different color has a different concept behind them and for giving a personal touch of the idea into your design, colors are the part that can help you do so.
Layouts
Layout is the element that gives a structure to a design. It is the one that decides how and where the other elements should be placed in order to make the design comfortable for the viewer’s sight. Deciding on the layout can also be said to be deciding the alignment of elements, balance of a design, and appropriate use of white/negative spacing between the elements which all combined together will give us an imaginary outline of how our design will be going to look after the final placements and adjustments.
Discussed above were some key elements of Graphic design that play a vital role in the final presentation of any design. From the level of brainstorming to submitting the final project of the designs, these elements stick with it. When we talk about the elements of Graphic designing. There is a completely different universe with a lot and lots of different concepts which are all totally a Designer’s choice on the basis of the idea which they have behind that particular design but for now, we will be keeping it for some other day.
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What are the roles that a Graphic Designer plays?
As a part of a creative industry, if we talk about Graphic designing it is itself a vast and dynamic profession. Where every Designer can provide a totally different variety of ideas and visuals. But when you dive deeper into it you can still find some of the key roles which a graphic designer performs. These roles need to be understood first before one gets into the industry or wants to collaborate with a Designer and they are as follows.
- Visual Communicator – There will be nothing wrong if you call a graphic designer a visual communicator, as we have already discussed above when a design is presented, it speaks in a non-verbal form with the help of its elements. Considering this we can say that this is the main object of a graphic designer, to communicate with the help of visuals. There can be many different ways to communicate with the help of a design for instance we can say: logos- speak for the unique brand identity, icons- provide a face to a particular segment, and printable or digital advertisements- influence and teach the viewer about the product, brand or service accordingly.
- User Experience Designer – In the world of a dominant digital presence, it is important, that the websites and application interfaces are designed in a user-friendly and customer-engaging manner. Where again a Designer steps in and studies the needs and wants of a customer which will help them to provide them with the most relevant interfaces according to their demand.
- Print Design – Despite of the wide shift towards Digital mediums, Print Media Still holds its position in this world and so do Printed Graphic designs. There is a large range of Print Design Specialists, i.e. graphic designers whose focus area is to create Designs that will further be used in the form of printed mediums like business cards, brochures, posters, and more. They build the idea of their design by keeping in mind that it will be presented in the physical form rather than a digital project.
- Marketing Designers – Graphic designing not only plays a role in building the brand identity but also helps in maintaining it, with the help of creating stunning designs for its social media handles, making flyers, banners which helps to maintain the brand’s aesthetics by presenting the idea of the brand even in its advertisement.
These are some of the key roles, that a Graphic Designer performs while working on different designs, accordingly. As talked about before, designs have no boundaries, it’s totally the choice of the Designer to come up with the idea on the concept of the design. It’s the skill of a person that helps them give that touch in their design which makes it unique from others. Although talking about the skill, there is a major misconception about Graphic design which is that to become a Graphic Designer one needs to be good at sketching, fortunately, it is a complete myth, if a designer is good at sketching, yes it is a bonus for them but if one is not good with sketched, believe me, don’t stop yourself to become a designer if you have a creative mindset towards designs. A Graphic Designer just needs to use a perfect blend of – Creativity, technical knowledge about designing, and attention to detail. Which brings out their best design out of that blank white sheet.
Conclusion
Graphic designing is the hidden organ of a brand playing a vital role in the establishment of a business, helping it stand alone in the market collaborating with other marketing tools as well. But besides the wider perspective, a Graphic Designer needs to understand the basic criteria on which a design is built, from making appropriate use of the key elements of the design and making it presentable to understanding the client’s need and concept behind it and providing them the most satisfactory design they could get. Whether it is about making a Digital Design or a Printed Design, A business card, or a user experience website. Every design works on the principle of three basic criteria i.e. skills, creativity, and technique, mixing them with the concept brings out the desired results.
Moving to the end, not only as a designer but be it anyone one should not stop working on their creative side, remember something can bring a lot to you only if you know how to make use of it to the fullest.
