A graphic designer is a professional within the

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscip ...

and

graphic arts A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface.

industry who assembles together images,

typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...

, or

motion graphics Motion graphics (sometimes mograph) are pieces of animation or digital footage which create the illusion of motion or rotation, and are usually combined with audio for use in multimedia projects. Motion graphics are usually displayed via e ...

to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed, or electronic media, such as brochures and

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

. They are also sometimes responsible for

typesetting Typesetting is the composition of text by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or '' glyphs'' in digital systems representing '' characters'' (letters and other symbols).Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random ...

illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, video ...

, user interfaces. A core responsibility of the designer's job is to present information in a way that is both accessible and memorable.

Qualifications

Designers should be able to solve visual communication problems or challenges. In doing so, the designer must identify the communications issue, gather and analyze information related to the issue, and generate potential approaches aimed at solving the problem. Iterative prototyping and user testing can be used to determine the success or failure of a visual solution. Approaches to a communications problem are developed in the context of an audience and a media channel. Graphic designers must understand the social and cultural norms of that audience in order to develop visual solutions that are perceived as relevant, understandable and effective. Graphic designers should also have a thorough understanding of production and rendering methods. Some of the technologies and methods of production are drawing, offset printing, photography, and time-based and interactive media (film, video, computer multimedia). Frequently, designers are also called upon to manage color in different media. For instance, graphic designers use different colors for digital and print advertisements. RGB - standing for red, green, blue - is an additive color model used for digital media designs. However, the CMYK color model is made up of subtractive colors - cyan, magenta, yellow, and black - and used in designing print media. The reason for the different models is that when designing print ads, colors look different on the screen and when printed onto paper. For example, the colors appear darker on paper than on screen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graphic Designer Computer occupations Computational fields of study Mass media occupations Visual arts occupations Office and administrative support occupations

Qualifications

See also

References