Understanding the place graphic design has in our

world

Graphic Design Profession

Is an expert creative discipline that focuses on visual and verbal communication and meaning.

All graphic designers solve problems and generate ideas that take visual form.

Areas of specialization: Information design Identity design Promotional design Branding Brand Experience Publication design Advertising Environmental design Type Design and

Lettering

Information Design

Is a highly specialized area of design that involves making large amounts of complex information clear and accessible to audiences of one to several hundred thousand.

Whether the application is a chart, website, pictogram, or instruction booklet, the graphic designer’s task is to clearly communicate, make information easily accessible, and clarify and enhance any type of information to the user’s understanding.

Identity Design

Involves the creating of a systematic visual and verbal program intended to establish a consistent visual appearance-a coordinating overarching identity-and spirit or image for a brand of group.

Also called Corporate identity Brand identity Corporate desgin

Promotional Design

Intended to introduce, sell, or promote brands (products or services), ideas or events and to introduce or promote group and social causes.

Promotional design and advertising overlap at times in definition and purpose.

Branding

The entire development process of creating a brand, brand name, or brand identity

Brand Experience

Entails developing an entire brand experience-a comprehensive, strategic, unified, integrated, creative program for a brand, including every graphic design and advertising application for the brand, with an eye and mind toward how consumers and individuals experience the brand or group as it interacts with it.

Publication Design

Involves the design of editorial content, also called editorial design.

The publication designer makes content accessible, interprets the content’s intention in order to clearly communicate it, enhances the reader’s experience, and establishes voice, character/spirit, and format for the publication.

Advertising

Involves generating and creating specific visual and verbal messages constructed to inform, persuade, promote, provoke, or motivate people on behalf of a brand or group.

Environmental Design

Solves problems about information or identity communication in constructed or natural environments, defining and marking interior and exterior commercial, cultural, residential, and natural environments.

Type Design and Lettering

A highly specialized area of graphic design focusing on the creation and design of fonts, type treatment, and the drawing of letterforms by hand (as opposed to type generated by the computer).

Many type designers own digital foundries, which are firms that design, license, publish, and dispense fonts.

The Nature and Impact of Visual Communication

Graphic design is designed for a specific audience; a message is intentionally designed, transmitted, and then received by viewers.

Collaboration

Most graphic designers work closely with their clients.

From developing a strategy to negotiating a fee to choosing a printer, the client and graphic designer need to collaborate.

Why Design Matters

Graphic designers also use their expertise to inform people about important issues and promote good causes.

Creating logos for nonprofit organizations.