Graphic Design

Most advertising agencies have an in-house graphic design team responsible for creating the images and designs used in advertisements and other promotional tools. Clients and designers work together to create images and graphics to represent the products and services they wish to promote in the marketplace. It is the goal of the advertiser and the client to create brand association and product memorization within consumers through the use of these graphics.

History

The history of graphic design dates back as far as the seventh century and the Tang Dynasty. Wooden blocks were cut to print images on textiles to produce Buddhist texts. The use of graphics and images continued to progress and, eventually, became easier to reproduce due to the invention of the Gutenberg press in 1450. The era of this form for graphic design is referred to as the Old Style.

Graphic design did not get its name until the twentieth century. The phrase was first coined by William Addison Dwiggins who wrote the book “New Kind of Printing Calls for New Design.” It is considered the first book to use the term graphic design and discusses its uses. Since the 1920s, typographers and graphic designers have been manipulating images and typefaces to create unique designs.

Advertising and Other Applications

Graphic designs are not only used in advertising but other applications as well. Graphic designers are used for many different things including road sign designing, comic books, music CD artwork, logos, and much more. Just about any image that has been created and reproduced can be considered a graphic design. Advertising is one of the main platforms that relies heavily on graphic designing. Graphic designers work with advertisers to draw, photograph, paint or create computer generated images and pictures used in advertisements. They also create typefaces and fonts that are used to create business logos, magazine covers, book covers, restaurant menus and more.

Designers

Graphic designers use a variety of tools to produce a finished graphic design project. In recent years, computer programs used to produce digital and computer generated art have become increasingly more popular. These computer generated images are not just point and click, they require a creative thought process to produce a final image. Those in graphic design positions use judgment and creativity to form design layouts and digital artwork. The use of computers and desktop publishing programs have made it possible for graphic designers to explore multiple ideas much faster than old fashioned hand drawn sketching methods. Desktop publishing allows a graphic designer to create a prototype quickly so clients can look at a number of design options before settling on a final design image. Images are easily manipulated and rendered using tools and design options offered by graphic design programs.