This week, we threw our designers on set to discuss their thoughts on graphic design and its significance in the business world. Is a professional graphic designer necessary? What is the difference between hiring a professional or a DIY-er? We hope to answer those questions and more in this week’s blog.
If you’d rather watch and listen to our designers talk about it, click *here* or on the image below.
What is Graphic Design?
Graphic design is the process of visual communication and problem-solving through the use of typography, photography, and illustration. It uses visual representations of ideas and messages to clearly and effectively communicate with the viewer through a visual hierarchy. Five main elements of visual hierarchy include:
- Scale
- Color
- Contrast
- Alignment
- Proximity
These elements drive the viewer’s eye to the most to least important information. Which will ultimately, lead them to do an action. For example, lead them to a website, make them register for an event, and donate to a cause.
Different Kinds of Graphic Design
Graphic design is all around you. For instance, the Starbucks logo on your cup of joe this morning, all the billboards you passed on the way to work, every app you have used on your phone, or your company’s logo. Here are a few examples of different areas of design.
Package design
When you go to the store, look closely at all the boxes and brands. All that packaging is package design. This often can impact how the user perceives the quality of the product. Apple is a great example of this. If you have ever opened an Apple product, you know what we’re talking about.
The box is easy to open and looks and feels expensive. They call this a “Sensory Experience.”
Corporate design
Corporate design is most likely what you think of when you think of graphic design. It is primarily logos and branding design. When properly designing for a brand, you want the logo to convey the proper message, but also, you want everything to have a cohesive look.
Notice how everything goes together nicely? That’s corporate design done right. The goal is that a designed piece should be brand compliant – even if it doesn’t have a logo on it. There is more to your brand than a logo.
Environmental design
Environmental design is not referring to the great outdoors. It’s about the space someone is in. You can experience environmental design in a mall, a local boutique, a hotel, or a corporate office. It is signage and designs that help guide people where they are supposed to go. It is also called wayfinding. The Society for Experiential Graphic Design defines wayfinding as “information systems that guide people through a physical environment and enhance their understanding and experience of the space.”
Ikea does this extremely well. Their maze on furniture and home decor is laid out intentionally and the design around the store guides visitors exactly where Ikea wants them to go. Even when you try to sneak through the shortcut in Ikea, you’re still following their intentional design elements.
Web design UI/UX
This has been our bread and butter lately. With the onboarding of several web clients, it seems like we have constantly been either updating or building websites. UI and UX refer to the user interface and user experience of a site. We wrote a blog on this topic called, A Beginner’s Guide to UX/UI Design. Example is Bullenbees:
Editorial Design
Editorial Design refers to designing for publications. Specifically, newspapers, magazines, and books. This kind of design requires several pages and precise measurements and planning, but the reward is worth it. To see and hold a final product that you create is like nothing else. One of our clients has been creating quarterly issues of a magazine for several years now. Go check out Sports Spectrum!
Why Do You Need a Professional Graphic Designer?
By hiring a professional designer you will save time and money. Typically a designer can have a project completed in a fraction of the time if you did it yourself. Good design has longevity, so by paying for great design once you are saving yourself from paying for sub-par design over and over again. A professional designer will know the most cost-effective ways to design your materials.
They will also know how to set up a file correctly and understand vendors’ spec sheets (example pre-press and packaging files).
It’s difficult to get quality leads or be taken seriously if your graphics and visuals don’t look trustworthy, clean or updated. Great design converts!
More Than Just Design
Design isn’t the only aspect of marketing. There is also strategy, animation, web dev, marketing automation and more. One of the benefits of partnering with VSG is that you get more than just good graphic design. You get a full marketing team. We like to think of ourselves as your marketing department or an extension to your marketing team.
Reach out to get in contact with our team and let’s use design to take your brand to the next level!
