Graphic Designing – an industry

(Sahar Riaz, Rawalpindi)

Graphic designing is popularly known as “communication design”. It is an art or a practice of planning as well as projecting the ideas using visuals and text. This type of designing is a creative process involving the talented hands of designer. It is rewarding and a challenging career for designers. Here are some ideas to help set you on that path. It is a form of communication that is physical and virtual involving images, letters, words and graphics. The type of graphic designing includes Posters, Billboards, Brochure, streamer, magazine designing, newspapers, book, business card, logo designing, website designing, mobile apps, game designing and website designing. There are certain tools specifically designed for graphic designing. It includes an industry of standard software i-e Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, InDesign, and Corel Draw. They are designed to be easily used and putting lesser effort in producing a master piece.

As a discipline, Graphic Design was first devised by William Addison Dwiggins in the year 1922. It has been seen in the history of humankind in the forms of caves of Lascaux, Rome's Trajan's Column, illuminated manuscripts of Middle Ages and the stunning neon of Ginza. All of these share majority of the same elements, principles, theories, practices and the languages. Late in 19th century in Europe, first printed design was officially published. It had a mark on it making it separate from fine arts. From the year 1891 to 1896, William Morris' Kelmscott Press published certain books. At last, in 1922, the name "Graphic Design" was first appeared in print media. It was mentioned by William Addison Dwiggins in an entitled "New Kind of Printing Calls for New Design".

Skills:

There are certain skills that a graphic design may involve. It includes stylization and the creative presentation of text and imagery. The graphic designer must possess:
1. Creativity, originality and imagination
2. Creative thinking
3. IT skills i-e Computer and Software Proficiency
4. Drawing and illustrative skills
5. The aptitude for finding feasible solutions to the problems
6. The know-how of printing techniques
7. The skills of photography
8. The capability of managing time, meeting deadlines and working out within budget
9. An understanding of latest trends
10. Type-setting

The process:

The process of designing any art piece starts with sketching. A sketch is a process in which the designer explores multiple ideas quickly on to the paper. Sketching does not involve the use of computer. This step is hand-rendered that is used to get approval for an idea execution before spending time in producing the finished visuals on computer. After the approval, the sketch is digitized by scanning it. Once the image is saved in the computer memory, the designer can easily re-design the sketch using any software e-g Adobe Photoshop. The resolution and the size is set according to the type of design. There are tools of drawing available in the software with which the designer can draw the design. After drawing, the design is saved as a digital file in the computer memory i-e .psd. The designer adds colors and edits it by applying color variation and special effects. Once, the design is completed the output file can be produced in any format like .jpg, .bmp, .png, .tiff etc. Graphic designers are capable of working in variety of environments. Many of them work within companies by devoting themselves to the market industry; some are freelancers who work on their own terms, ideas, and prices; and some work within non-design oriented organizations such as in-house designers.

Hence, graphic designing is an industry that has its own business trends and impact on the audiences for selling products and exhibiting them.

Sahar Riaz
About the Author: Sahar Riaz Read More Articles by Sahar Riaz: 32 Articles with 60360 views Being a professional designer and animator, I have completed my studies in designing i-e graphic designing, web designing and animation. Specializatio.. View More