Beginners Guide to Graphic Design
The place of graphic designing in the world of communication has become inevitable. Look around yourself, do you find anything that is being communicated to you in a plain monotonous manner? Take for example; the apps that you use daily, the hoarding on a tall building, or the banner of the shop that you frequently visit. You will notice that all these places want to tell you a story. However, their style of communicating their story or agenda might be different. But all of them have one thing in common that is visual communication which becomes possible via GRAPHIC DESIGNING.
So what is the literal meaning of Graphic Designing?
Graphic designing is a way of visual communication that can be effectively achieved when there is a perfect blend between creativity and strategy. For example, the food chain, Subway’s logo flashes right away in the mind as soon as you read it here. That is the power of graphic designing. Moreover, graphic designing works effectively in social media as well. A good graphically designed webpage or app is likely to attract more audience than a poorly designed one. Graphic designing is one of the biggest reasons why social media has now become an attractive place today. However, its main purpose is to create an impact by conveying the message of a project, event, campaign, or product.
For a beginner, it is first important to build your foundation in graphic designing. Here are certain basic elements of graphic designing that you must keep in mind:
Line
In graphic designing, a lot of importance is given to lines. It is the first building block of creating a visual. Line in designing helps the designer to define the structure of anything that is being drawn or written. Lines can be of various types – HORIZONTAL, VERTICAL, CURVED, ZIG ZAGG, DOTTED, BROKEN, etc. All of them have different impacts. However, what kind of line you are choosing to give structure to an aspect goes a long way in conveying the voice of your product.
Shape
Shapes in graphic designing are understood to be of two-three types – Geometric, Abstract, Organic. Geometric shapes are about definite structures that are usually two or three-dimensional, like basic squares, rectangles, triangles, pentagons, etc. Abstract shapes are not definite but they are understood by all human beings. For example, the logo denoting male and female. Organic shapes are less definite and are of natural shapes. For example; the shape of leaves, birds, etc.
Color
The spectrum of color in graphic designing is huge. The choice of color has a long-lasting impression on the viewer’s mind. Graphic designing incorporates colors of mainly three types – PRIMARY, SECONDARY, and TERTIARY. Humans respond differently to the sight of colors. Hence, it is a graphic designer’s call to use the right color for delivering the apt message.
Texture
In graphic designing, textures play a vital role in attracting the viewers because it sets the feel of the objective. It gives depth to a design and helps in creating perfect contrast and graphical imagery.
Fonts
When you are designing a logo, a website, or a banner, keep in mind that the kind of font that you are using to deliver your message equally matters as much as your design. The font type of the letters hugely makes an impact on the viewer who is reading it.
Image
An image can do half the job for a graphic designer when it comes to communicating the objective to the viewer. It can work on many levels for the graphic designer. It helps the graphic designer in enabling effective communication. Both photographic and illustrative images can be used in graphic designing depending on the desired communication.
“Good design is good business.” – Thomas Watson.
Learning graphic designing is a process. It takes dedication and practice. But once you master it, you can open up a plethora of opportunities for yourself in the field of graphic designing. For a beginner, it is much recommendable to avail courses in graphic designing as it is going to help you a lot in exploring this field.
