Due to the information revolution in the world, every individual wants to be connected with other parts of the world through varied means of information and communication technology. Hence, the importance of print media in every day’s life has really increased.
Print media is one of the oldest and basic forms of mass communication. It uses physically printed media, such as newspapers, magazines, billboards, posters and journals to reach consumers, business customers and prospects.
We are as attracted to each of the media as we read newspapers daily or weekly, go through the pages of magazines, watch out hoardings while travelling.
Let’s understand how print media is deeply involved in our life and how we can utilize it to make a career in this.
Impact of print media
In a fast-changing world of information technology, many thought the existence of print media is in danger, as it was being thought it would be overtaken by the television and the Internet. But because of upsurge in readership of many quality newspapers and magazines prove that the print media will always have a major role in everyday life of a person who wants to be well informed.
For example: even while traveling you will see a hoarding on the side of a bus or at the back side of an auto. Without even stepping out of your home, the newspaper has advertisements with creative designs & images.
It is all because of easy accessibility, affordability, portability and above all, the authenticity of information makes print media so essential to the spectators without any discrimination on economic standards.
What is Printing Media Design?
It is basically an art of choosing and placing visual elements such as typography, images, symbols, and colors together to convey a message to an audience. Print media is a platform that uses graphic design technology to prepare creative such as brochures, leaflets, visiting cards, banners, hoardings, or anything that can be printed.
Types of Print media
Print media cannot be just limited to graphic designing and making banners, brochures etc. It is a large platform that covers a big number of target audience and has special methods of printing and publishing.
Few media types are considered are print media like –
1. Newspaper: Newspapers are the big part of our daily life that reaches a large number of people. However it is difficult to target every specific audience but still it is effective being a broad range media.
- There are three main specifications and criteria to decide upon newspaper advertising – size, distribution and audience. Moreover, types of ads that can be placed in newspapers are – display ads, classified ads and printed inserts. Graphic designers and DTP operators are involved in this procedure to decide and place the designs for final output.
2. Magazine: Magazines are the sources that can focus the target audience as the ads in magazines are printed on the basis of types of readers based on demographic, geographic and lifestyle criteria. There are magazines of different types like – Entertainment magazines, Art & Craft magazine, Business and Finance magazines, Children magazines, Beauty & wellness magazines, Institutional magazines and many more types thus it has a fixed variety of audience.
- Graphic designers play a specific role in this industry because they make it highly creative, informative, colourful, with appropriate content and graphics, info-graphics, visual elements etc. using specific applications.
3. Outdoor advertising: We are surrounded by outdoor advertisements wherever we go and whatever we see on billboards, hoardings, banners, posters, etc. are considered as the biggest source of advertising. It can cover every different topic, audience type in a wide range.
- Advertisers can focus on target areas and use appropriate advertisements e.g. when a movie is nearby its release date, we can see posters, banners, backlit boards etc.
4. Yellow pages: Yellow page advertisements have more potential when it comes to sales as this page is used to complement or emphasize the effect of your ad, work or business. People pay specific attention to it as it contains important information like a directory that highlights the main product and service, location, contacts, etc.
Role of Graphic Designer in Print Media
As mentioned above, the Role of a graphic designer has been very evolving in print media. A graphic designer works as an artist, visual thinker, presenter and communicator for the creative outcomes.
A graphic designer combines technology and art to present his/her imagination in the form of visuals in front of the potential viewers.
Graphic designers are involved in almost all the creative industry whether print media, web, post production, animation etc.
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A lengthy story of an interesting topic and a high-quality content with facts may go unread by most of the readers mainly because of its bad presentation. But a story that deals with a topic may generate interest in the readers if it is presented in an attractive manner graphically.
A graphic designer has a major role in the making of a good newspaper, brochure, banners, signage, posters, catalogs, flyers and magazine. Other than focusing on overall looks, a professional graphic designer uses his visual skills using best graphic design applications to make the information an attractive presentation.
“A tiny illustration or sketch can sometimes be more effective and communicative than words”
Career Options in Print Media
Career in this field can be very rewarding for those who wants to be part of media industry. Printing and graphics industry is among those industries which need highly trained and creative professionals. Job prospects for graphic designers continue to be vast & ever-growing in the print industry.
The opportunities of exploring creative career opportunities can vary from print production for out–of–home media to creating advertisement for newspapers & magazines.
Basic applications used in print media
Some of the Common Job Titles in this Field:
- Graphic Artist/ Designer
- Art Director
- Creative Director
- Production Artist
- Visualiser
- Layouting Artist
- Image Editor
- Digital/ Matte Painter etc.
Future of print media and graphic industry
With the increasing technology and creativity, demand for creative designers is increasing continuously. A graphic designer should have deep and practical knowledge of print media as it will help him or her to understand the need and importance of creative as per the project.
Today all the creative agencies, MNCs, Corporates, Food industry, etc. are looking for in-house designers so one should be very well learned and be a unicorn to make an impact with his/her work which is quite possible with deep theoretical and practical knowledge.
Apart from being an in-house designer, one can be a freelance designer and can work for more than one client or project based work but it needs a lot of hard work, classic graphic design skills and strong portfolio to make your own identity.
Author’s note
If you are designing graphics for print media, it is essential to be familiar with print designing. It is a vast field and every graphic designer should make themselves acquainted with the rules of print designing and latest graphic design applications.
The best way to acquire these skills is by joining professional graphic design institute in Delhi which offers both short-term and long-term certificate and diploma courses. These courses in popular graphic design applications like Illustrator, CorelDraw, InDesign, QuarkXPress, etc. will help any individual to create eye-catching visual designs and learn how all its related materials will be tactically used which will attract users in an amicable way to build confidence and curiosity in the brand without losing the significance of its contents and what it stands for.
