Topic: What is Graphic Design?

The term graphic design can refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines which focus on visual communication and presentation. Various methods are used to create and combine symbols, images and/or words to create a visual representation of ideas and messages. A graphic designer may use typography, visual arts and page layout techniques to produce the final result. Graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created and the products (designs) which are generated.

Education for Graphic Design

The majority of schools, colleges, universities and institutions around the world educate students on the subject of graphics and art.

In a Delhi based ADMEC Multimedia and Graphic Design Institute, this subject is taught in a broad variety of ways, each course teaching its own distinctive balance of craft skills and intellectual response to the client's needs.

This Institute prioritises traditional craft skills—drawing, printmaking and typography—over modern craft skills. Other courses may place an emphasis on teaching digital craft skills. Still other courses may downplay the crafts entirely, concentrating on training students to generate novel intellectual responses that engage with the brief. Despite these apparent differences in training and curriculum, the staff and students on any of these courses will generally consider themselves to be graphic designers.

Graphic Design Uses:

Common uses of graphic design include magazines, advertisements, product packaging and web design. For example, a product package might include a logo or other artwork, organized text and pure design elements such as shapes and color which unify the piece. Composition is one of the most important features of graphic design especially when using pre-existing materials or diverse elements.

Graphics are visual elements often used to point readers and viewers to particular information. They are also used to supplement text in an effort to aid readers in their understanding of a particular concept or make the concept more clear or interesting. Popular magazines, such as TIME, Wired and Newsweek, usually contain graphic material in abundance to attract readers, unlike the majority of scholarly journals. In computing, they are used to create a graphical interface for the user; and graphics are one of the five key elements of multimedia technology. Graphics are among the primary ways of advertising the sale of goods or services.

Business

Graphics are commonly used in business and economics to create financial charts and tables. The term Business Graphics came into use in the late 1970s, when personal computers became capable of drawing graphs and charts instead of using a tabular format. Business Graphics can be used to highlight changes over a period of time.

Advertising

Advertising is one of the most profitable uses of graphics; artists often do advertising work or take advertising potential into account when creating art, to increase the chances of selling the artwork.

Political

The use of graphics for overtly political purposes—cartoons, graffiti, poster art, flag design, etc—is a centuries old practice which thrives today in every part of the world. The Northern Irish murals are one such example.

Education

Graphics are heavily used in textbooks, especially those concerning subjects such as geography, science, and mathematics, in order to illustrate theories and concepts, such as the human anatomy. Diagrams are also used to label photographs and pictures.

Educational animation is an important emerging field of graphics. Animated graphics have obvious advantages over static graphics when explaining subject matter that changes over time.

Many of the Illustrated Dictionary uses graphics and technical illustrations to make reading material more interesting and easier to understand. In an encyclopedia, graphics are used to illustrate concepts and show examples of the particular topic being discussed.

Film and animation

Computer graphics are often used in the majority of new feature films, especially those with a large budget. Films that heavily use computer graphics include Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Harry Potter films, Spider-Man and War of the Worlds.

Career Path:

There are many career paths to take within the field of graphic design. Graphic designers may choose to work as book designers, in web design, branding, illustration, logo design or often a combination of several fields. Belong is an ongoing list of job options within the field of graphic design.