An Exploration of Graphic Design's Legacy
When I first got to college, graphic design was not my first choice for my major. I was a film major. I have always been a creative person and liked the filming community. However, I was required to take a visual design class in my second semester of freshman year. It changed my world. As a result of that class, graphic design became my major. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
At the time though, I wasn’t aware of how impactful the graphic design community was on society until I switched majors. Graphic design acts as the root of millions of careers. It can be hard to pick which one you may want to go into. I wanted to explore and deep dive into the major graphic design fields, to help beginner designers and creative people learn more about each. Because any graphic design field carries influence and importance to our society, it merely takes time to learn which field or fields sound best for beginner designers.
The Core Understanding of Graphic Design
To truly understand how graphic design works, we need a good definition to get a better understanding. I will be using the Interaction Design Foundation definition:
“Graphic design is a craft where professionals create visual content to communicate messages. By applying hierarchy and layout techniques, designers use tools to meet users’ specific needs and focus on the logic of displaying elements in interactive designs to optimize the user’s experience.”
The reason we have to define graphic design is because many of the core values that exist with it also exist in its related fields. Every single design field learns about the different design principles. Zeka Graphics lists the most common ones as line, color, shape, size, texture, space, and typography (study of types and font placements). For example, having a key understanding of color and typography allows one to understand regular graphic design, but also product design or web design, despite having many differences.
The Big Design Fields
The list of graphic design fields can vary from site to site but Rasmussen University lists some of the most common graphic design fields. They include the following:
Graphic Design: the basic practice of designing visual ideas for a person, project, or service.
Product Design: designing and creating products to solve a user’s needs.
Branding: creating an identity for yourself, product, or service
Website/Mobile Design: the process of lay-outing and designing websites.
UI/UX Experience: the coding and studying of how a user interacts with a product or see.
Print Design: designing print/physical paper for an audience.
Environmental Design: the designing of spaces to improve environments.
Animation/Motion Graphics: creating moving images or visuals.
Packaging Design: the creation of physical and visual designs of a product's packaging.
Marketing/Advertising Graphics: graphics designed to bring audiences for services.
Yes, there are many different types, and yet many of these fields often go hand and hand with each other. For example, it's very common for UX and web designers to work together because both are helping the user easily navigate through a website or mobile app. Another example is packaging and branding designers, both could work together to create designs made for a company to help build brand identity and make themselves more known.
Despite not being on the list, several other fields aren’t design-related that require designers to be a part of. Designers are a part of social media, sports, businesses, journalism and so many more. Many graphic design fields allow designers to work in fields like these. A fun example is brand designers. In 2023, Twitter officially became X. Such a logo change is something a brand designer or a product designer could accomplish despite being in social media. With so many areas to work, a graphic designer can be anywhere.
What Makes Each Graphic Design Field Important?
But why? Why is this all important to say? Why are there so many fields for graphics? It's simple. Every design helps add to our society, and we don’t even realize it. From making our digital devices to brands and their products or to that cute social media post you saw today, design is made to make something better. I think Goran Paun's article on design influence states it best,
“It’s the visual language that we use to interpret our world, understand information, and make connections.”
We need designs in our lives, but with so many different ways of helping out, it can be hard to keep track of what you may want to do. I understand that this may be difficult to take in for new designers to understand. But these fields are connected through simple graphic design and its principles. Any graphic design field is possible to study, and it will take time to learn, but hey we’re designers, we adapt and we learn, no matter what anyone tells us. I hope you’ve learned a bit about some design fields!
Thanks for reading!
