Week 5 - by Tang Yook Meng

WHAT IS GRAPHIC DESIGN?

About.com defines graphic design in this way:

"Graphic design is the process and art of combining text and graphics and communicating an effective message in the design of logos, graphics, brochures, newsletters, posters, signs, and any other type of visual communication. Today's graphic designers often use desktop publishing software and techniques to achieve their goals."

The Scope of this Industry...

Designs can include: brochures, posters, magazine covers, magazine layouts, tickets, business cards, T-shirts, signs, logos, book layout (typesetting), importing advertisements into a newspaper, websites, cd covers, dvd interactivity elements, Internet banners, flash animation, web interfaces, iPad app interfaces, and more.

Another use of this art form is in print media: Newspapers, magazines and others in the industry use it to a large extent to design their covers and pages. Use of the modern art form makes the pages more eye catching and attractive to the readers.

Graphic designing is not possible without some level of artistic inclination in the designer. It requires a good eye for color and combinations for the overall picture to turn out well.

Graphic design basically is creative process that combines art and technology to communicate ideas using text and/or graphical elements. A graphic designer aim is to create something that is pleasing to the eye, and gets the attention of the viewer. In other words, you (as a graphic designer) have a message you want to communicate. How do you “send” it? Designer can use any visual medium at all-if you are making a poster; type a letter; create a business logo, a magazine ad, or an album cover; even make a computer printout-you are using a form of visual communication called graphic design.

Graphic designers work with drawn, painted, photographed, or computer-generated images (pictures), but they also design the letterforms that make up various typefaces found in movie credits and TV ads; in books, magazines, and menus; and even on computer screens. Designers create, choose, and organize these elements-typography, images, and the so-called “white space” around them-to communicate a message. Graphic design is a part of your daily life. From humble things like gum wrappers to huge things like billboards to the T-shirt you're wearing, graphic design informs, persuades, organizes, stimulates, locates, identifies, attracts attention and provides pleasure.

Image-based design

• To represent the ideas their clients want to communicate.
• Images can be incredibly powerful and compelling tools of communication, conveying not only information but also moods and emotions.
• People respond to images instinctively based on their personalities, associations, and previous experience.
• The images must carry the entire message; there are few if any words to help.
• Images may be photographic, painted, drawn, or graphically rendered in many different ways.
• For example, a chili pepper is hot, and this knowledge in combination with the image creates a visual pun.

Type-based design

• Rely on words to convey a message, but use words differently from the ways writers do.
• The words look like is as important as their meaning.
• The visual forms, whether typography (communication designed by means of the printed word) or handmade lettering, perform many communication functions.
• Arrest the public attention on a poster, identify the product name on a package or a truck, and present running text as the typography in a book does.

Image and type

• Combine images and typography to communicate a client's message to an audience.
• Designers explore the creative possibilities presented by words (typography) and images (photography, illustration, and fine art).
• Once a design concept is chosen, designers use illustrators and photographers as well as with typesetters and printers to create the final design product.

Symbols, logos and logotypes

• Special. Highly condensed information forms or identifiers.
• Symbols are abstract representation of a particular idea or identity to recognize as representing a particular concept or company.
• Logotypes are corporate identifications based on a special typographical word treatment. Some identifiers are hybrid, or combinations of symbol and logotype.
• Designer must have a clear vision of the corporation or idea to be represented and of the audience to which the message is directed.

http://www.aiga.org/guide-whatisgraphicdesign/

http://www.adigitaldreamer.com/articles/what-is-graphic-design.htm