Graphic design - advertising and art
When you mix advertising and art, the natural result is graphic design ! The importance of graphic design in today's economy is huge, since visual impact is the most important and desired form of marketing communication. There are many graphic design schools, spread all over the world, training tens of thousands of graphic designers each year. Still, the market is demanding for more and more work, especially with the movement of graphic design online, in the virtual world.
Graphic design schools
Formal graphic design training is often the best way for someone to secure a job with an advertising agency. The idea that "a picture speaks a thousand words" becomes even more relevant when designing graphics comes into play. Visual representation of companies, services or products - this is what a graphic design school or a similar graphic design course will teach you. On the other hand, many of today's graphic designers are self-taught.
Principles
The basic guidelines of graphic design are closely related to those found in art manuals. Notions such as "negative and positive space", "visual weight" or "contrast" are part of the daily vocabulary of the graphic designer . However, this is where the "art" part of graphic design stops, leaving room for the other 50% - advertising. Reaching the targeted pubic and creating emotions and actions - this is what most materials produced by the graphic designer have as an ultimate goal. Logo design, business card design, web identity - all these are elements that are born and fine tuned under the eye (and mouse) of the graphic designer.
Eye candy Vs utilitarian graphic design
The term "eye candy" refers to visual elements that are very appealing and attractive to the human eye (and mind). However, quite often, graphic design falls under the spell of millions of colors, textures, 3d effects and light effects while loosing other important elements of the project, like text legibility, good contrast for the titles, visible logo, consistent corporate identity design and so on. The utilitarian aspect of graphic design focuses mainly on transmitting the message to the viewer, without any distractions. A professional graphic designer will know when and how much to take out of each extreme and use the elements that make sense and manage to transmit a clear and memorable message in a pleasant and attractive form and color.
More information on logo design, business card creation, graphic design tips and other useful resources can be accessed through our other articles.
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