Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

GDF 111 Graphic Design Fundamentals

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Objectives

• Define graphic design• Become familiar with the

major areas of specialization

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Why Do We Need Graphic Design?

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Graphic design is everywhere• Graphic design is visual communication. Anything that needs

to be communicated that cannot be done verbally must be put into some form of design that gets a message across.

• Look around you. The pack of gum on your desk, the magazine cover, the cute saying on your coffee mug, and even the typeface in a TV ad are all examples of graphic design.

• Graphic design is a huge part of your everyday life and you probably barely notice it, but imagine life without it and it would be a strange world indeed.

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

What do graphic designers do?

• Graphic designers are trained to be able to inform, persuade, direct, organize, entertain, and attract attention with their designs. They combine art and technology in order to communicate a message. They do this through the strategic placement of images and text.

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

DefinitionsA graphic design solution can: Persuade Graphic design can be thought of as a visual language that

is used to convey a message to an audience. A graphic design is a visual representation of an idea that relies on

the creation, selection, and organization of visual elements to create an effective communication.

– Inform - identify– Motivate - enhance – Organize -Brand– Locate - engage– carry/convey many levels of meaning

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

The Graphic Design Profession

• The graphic design profession is an expert creative discipline that focuses on visual/verbal communication and meaning.

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Specialized Areas• Advertising – Involves generating and creating

specific visual/verbal messages constructed to inform, persuade, promote, provoke, or motivate people on behalf of a brand or group• “group” represents both

commercial industry and social cause (non-profit) organizations)

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Specialized Areas• Branding– The entire development process of creating

a brand, brand name, and a brand identity– Can entail developing an entire brand

experience• comprehensive strategic, unified,

integrated, creative program for a brand including every graphic design and advertising application for that brand with an eye and mind on how consumers and individuals experience the brand or group as each interacts with it

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Specialized Areas• Identity design – Involves the creation of a systematic

visual and verbal program intended to establish a consistent visual appearance—a coordinated overarching identity —and spirit or image for a brand or group

– Also called corporate identity, brand identity, and corporate design

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Specialized Areas• Corporate communication– Involves any visual communication applications that

communicate internally with employees, create materials for a sales force or other employees, as well as applications used by a corporation or organization to communicate externally with other businesses, the public and stockholders, and customers

– Emphasis is on maintaining a consistent corporate voice throughout any and all applications

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Specialized Areas• Environmental design– Solves problems about

information or identity communication in constructed or natural environments, defining and marking interior and exterior commercial, cultural, residential, and natural environments

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Specialized Areas

• Information design–highly specialized area of design– involves making large amounts of complex

information clear and accessible to audiences of one to several hundred thousand

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Specialized Areas• Interactive or Experience Design– graphic design and advertising for screen-based media, including

web, mobile, widget, kiosks, digital out-of-home, CDs, or DVDs, in which the user interacts with the application

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Specialized Areas

• Motion Graphics– screen-based visual communication moving

(sequentially) in duration, including film title design, TV graphics design, openers, e-mail videos, mobile motion graphics, motion for video-sharing platforms, and promotional motion presentations for any screen

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Specialized Areas• Package Design

– involves the complete strategic planning and designing of the form, structure, and appearance of a product’s package, which functions as casing, promotes a brand, presents information, and becomes a brand experience

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Specialized Areas• Promotional design

– Design intended to introduce, sell, or promote brands (products and services), ideas, or events and to introduce or promote groups and social causes

– Sometimes overlaps with advertising, in definition and purpose

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Specialized Areas• Publication design– Involves the design of editorial content– Also called editorial design.– The publication designer makes content accessible, interprets

the content’s intention to clearly communicate, enhances the reader’s experience, and establishes a voice, character/spirit, and format for the publication.

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Applications within Specialized Areas• Advertising

– Print ads, television commercials, unconventional formats, banner ads, web sites, “webisodes,” web films, product placement, viral marketing, direct mail, branded entertainment, product placement

• Branding– Brand naming, brand conception, brand identity, brand revitalization,

brand launch, brand relaunch, brand environments, global branding, corporate branding, social cause branding, brand strategy

• Identity Design– Logos, visual identity, corporate identity, branding

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Applications within Specialized Areas

• Corporate Communication– Annual reports, brochures, sales kits, marketing collateral, corporate

publications, business-to-business applications, corporate websites and intranet, and new product offerings applications

• Information Design– Charts, graphs, pictograms, signs, symbol signs, icons, web sites, sign

systems

• Environmental Design– Architectural interiors, interplan exhibit environmental graphics,

exhibits, environmental wayfinding (system of integrated signs)

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Applications within Specialized Areas• Interactive or Experience Design

– Websites, widgets, social networking, video sharing, photo sharing, blogs, vlogs, games and other entertainment, and mobile applications

• Motion Graphics– Film title design, TV graphics design, openers, e-mail videos, mobile

motion graphics, motion for video-sharing platforms, and promotional motion presentations for any screen

• Package Design– Structural packaging, packaging and visual identity systems, packaging

graphics, new brand development, and self-promotion, with applications ranging from consumer packaged goods to CDs to shopping bags and more

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Applications within Specialized Areas• Promotional design

– CD covers, book covers and jackets, posters, packaging, web sites, web banners, motion graphics (film title design, TV graphics design, openers, promotional motion presentations), multimedia promotions, giveaways, merchandise catalogs, direct mail, invitations, announcements

• Publication Design– Book design, magazine design, newspaper design, newsletters,

booklets

• Typographic Design– Custom and proprietary font design for digital type foundry, hand

lettering, custom typography

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Mass Media

• For many visual communications categories, different media can be employed.– Print, digital, broadcast, unconventional, or film

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

The Nature and Impact ofVisual Communications

• Produced in multiples, graphic design is created for a specific audience.

• In graphic design, a message is intentionally designed, transmitted, and then received by viewers.

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Employment in theVisual Communication Field

• The main places of employment for a visual communication professional are:

– Advertising agencies– Integrated

communication firms– Marketing companies– Organizations with in-

house design departments

– Freelance and self-employed designers

– Design studios– Branding firms– Publishers– Digital / Interactive

agencies– Guerrilla /

Unconventional marketing firms

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Collaboration• From developing a strategy to negotiating a fee to choosing a

printer, the client and graphic designer collaborate.A graphic designer also works with other visual communications

professionals– Creative directors– Design directors– Associate creative directors– Production experts– Photographers, illustrators, copywriters, and art directors – Specialists

(interactive / type/lettering / architects / film directors / producers / casting directors / talent (actors, musicians, and models) / music houses / IT professionals / psychologists / social anthropologists/market researchers)

– Printers and printers’ sales representatives

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

“Design Matters”

• Paula Scher, Pentagram– The visual communications profession helps

to drive the economy, provide information to the public, and promote research and development of goods and services.

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Ethics in Visual Communications

• Each individual designer is responsible to discover ethical ways to practice.

• Any design problem can be solved in a great number of ways and each solution has different economic and social benefits and consequences.

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Summary• Graphic design and advertising both play a key role in the

appearance of almost all print, film, and screen-based media, forming society’s popular visual landscape.

• Graphic designers and advertising art directors are the creative professionals who, through ethical practice, use constructed visual communication to convey messages and information to an audience.

• Visual communication can persuade, inform, identify, motivate, enhance, organize, brand, locate, engage, and carry or convey many levels of meaning.

Subject Name Code Credit Hours GRAPHIC DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS GDF 111 4

Summary• Visual communication professionals work in a variety of settings—design

studios, branding firms, companies, corporations and organizations with in-house design departments, publishers, interactive agencies, unconventional marketing firms, advertising agencies, and integrated communication firms, as well as in their own studios as freelancers. They collaborate with a good number of other creative professionals as well as with their clients.

• Design matters: Visual communication helps society in a great number of ways, from driving the economy to informing the public.

• Visual communication professionals need to be well educated with a strong liberal arts background and excellent training in design and writing. They must also be conversant in ethics.