What is graphic design for?

Imagine for a moment that the briefing of your project starts from the basis of being a brand design where you also have to design each of the secondary parts (stationery, photographic backgrounds, online and offline media with the brand, etc.)

In addition to that, you also have to lay out a small catalog or identity manual that shows the development of the brand. And if the brand you are designing is suitable for web pages, you must also adjust it so that it adapts perfectly to the web format you design. At first glance, everything we are telling you may not be completely unknown to you, well, everything we have mentioned is part of graphic design. 

That is why in this post we bring you the answer to your question «What is design for? and since we do not want to make you wait too long, we will explain it to you below.

The graphic design

Graphic design belongs to the area of ​​graphic arts, and is defined as a discipline that is mainly responsible for the creation, using graphic elements (geometric shapes, fonts, color ranges, etc.) of a series of projects that give rise to what we know as advertising.

Why advertising is very introduced in the design? This question is very peculiar to ask if we still do not understand the main functions of the design. That's why graphic design moves around a lot. the creation and design of advertising media that give rise to the promotion or sale of these.

In other words, graphic design will always try to design those projects that need a marketing strategy and aim to reach a certain audience. For this reason, advertising is one of the roots that form design, since they go hand in hand and one would be nothing without the other.

Main functions

The design fulfills a series of functions to achieve, in this way, the planned objectives:

• Graphic design has a preliminary research phase, before designing it is necessary to investigate. It is important know first-hand the what and the how and above all the who. These are short questions that every designer should ask themselves before a briefing or a project with a certain client. The information that we manage to capture will serve us for all the processes that come later.
• It also has a series of ideas that manage to create graphic elements or what we know as small graphics or sketches. These ideas serve to be discarded or chosen, depending on what best suits the project that we are going to carry out.
• Design is also about communicating and interacting through what we design. That is to say, he does not do it loudly speaking but communicates with others through an iconic language. Hence the importance of a brand being recognized by users and adjusting to the values ​​of the company and the market.
• Psychology also comes into play, as it is the basis of the principles of every designer. In marketing it is known as design thinking and it is the basis for ensuring that everything we design comes to fruition and is recognized.

a good designer

So far we have explained what design is, but you still may not know what a good designer needs to have to achieve the goals we have mentioned. That is why not all people are good at designing and not all of us are made to do everything.

• The first thing a designer must have is creativity and an open mind that allows you to carry out and be prepared for any project that comes your way. That is why it must be able to transform a simple breafing into a project that fully complies with the ideas suggested by the client.
• What else must have is definitely character, you must provide a character and a serious and professional personality in what you do. Do not confuse personality with communicative tone. The tone is the way in which the brand or what we design will address its public, the personality is everything that the designer will have to carry out the projects.
• An active person with objectives or goals he is certainly also an important personality in the role of designer. That is why you must have planned objectives and meet them, otherwise you will not be able to exercise 100% in what you do since the design is based on being a discipline where certain main objectives prevail.

What is design for?

The design complies with a series of characteristics that make it a kind of functional technique, since everything that is designed has a why and a what for.

• Design helps us to be ourselves, in each project we carry out there is always a brand or a personal imprint that identifies us as designers, that is why when we talk about design we also talk about identity.
• It also helps communication, as we have mentioned before, we use a language that helps us connect with our way of working and our designs. Thanks to this, more and more people are inspired by other designs and in this way they manage to create a kind of universal language.
• Many companies have managed to achieve success in the market thanks to a good marketing strategy. That's why graphic design also positions and helps for many people within the business field to make their brand known.
• The design makes you an autonomous person, and it does not mean that you work only for yourself, but rather that it makes you a person with independent roots, capable of working alone or in a company and achieving the planned objectives.
• You deal with all the existing graphic elements, you become familiar with them and you also know how to place them according to each context, it is what we call visual hierarchy. In addition, you not only connect with the way of positioning the elements but with the psychology of each of them.

Design Types

We understand that graphic design belongs to the family of graphic arts, but we are not able to decipher some of the subfamilies or typologies that exist. That is why, below, we are going to show you the types of graphic design that exist, so that in this way you open your mind and let yourself be guided by the one that best suits your qualities and tastes.

Editorial design

Editorial design belongs to the family of layout for catalogs and magazines. It is one of the phases that can perfectly be in a brand identity project, for example, the development of an identity manual could be one of the elements that are designed in this part of the project.

As for its characteristics, it is highlighted that the designer during this phase becomes familiar with the fonts, and learns to select them. In addition, it also develops a text hierarchy and uses resources such as color profiles and printing systems.

In short, not everything is based on designing books or magazine covers, but it is also necessary to delve into an essential creative framework to be able to correctly elaborate the designs.

Web or mobile design

Web or mobile design it is the most interactive part of graphic design. It is responsible for the development of online advertising media and helps reinforce the importance of a brand. It is also one of the phases that could be in an identity project, especially if the brand we are designing is planned for web pages.

During this phase, the designer prepares the dimensions of the media to be designed (banners, posts, profile image, etc.)

photography and illustration

At first glance they may be two completely different worlds, but if we take a look at an advertising poster (an essential element of graphic design) an illustration or an image cannot be missing to accompany it.

Both go hand in hand, and this does not mean that a person who is dedicated to design should know how to draw or photograph, simply must take into account essential qualities of some of them.

Packaging or packaging design

This is where all the packaging for your branded product comes into action. Once we design the brand, it will be necessary to prepare packaging if the product to be sold is physical.

That is why here the designer or designer you must take into account functional aspects of your product and of the container: materials, dimensions, graphic elements to add, etc.

Identity

Identity design encompasses everything that has to do with developing a brand from scratch or even as part of a redesign. It is one of the phases where the most work is done since everything is taken into account so that the brand you design is recognized.

In this type of design, all the named graphic elements must be taken into account, as well as Have knowledge of marketing and advertising. 

Conclusion

Design is the basis of everything that surrounds us, so much so that it has become a new way of communicating a message. We hope that you have learned more about design and especially that you understand the important role it plays on us as a society.