By Robin Landa
Kean University, Department of Design

When you see a design that makes you say, "Wow!" it's most likely the result of creative visual thinking. Creative designers think about what they see and are able to see what they think. Graphic design is a creative profession involved with solving communication problems, conceptualizing, exploring and experimentation.

Graphic design is the application of art and communication skills to the needs of business and industry. These applications include: marketing and selling products and services; creating visual identities for institutions, products, companies; environmental graphics/signage; information design; and visually enhancing messages in publications. Mass communications media -- print, film and electronic media -- are the vehicles for these messages. Whenever you see a logo or read an advertisement, you are on the receiving end of communication through design.

You don't have to go to a museum or gallery to see graphic design; graphic design is ubiquitous. Everything from your toothpaste tube to CD covers to web banners is designed by a visual communications professional. Graphic design, once called commercial art, is an integral part of contemporary culture.

BRIEF HISTORY

Book jackets. CD covers. Soap boxes. Menus. Posters. Outdoor boards. Web banners. Television commercials. Magazines. Graphic design and advertising surround us. Today, virtually everything that is packaged, promoted, sold or read is designed. But, it wasn't always like that.

Not until after the Civil War did trademarking and packaging become common. Brands started to appear. Advertising in newspapers helped generate revenue for the newspapers as well as sell the brands. Design and advertising became an integral part of the free-market system.

The industrial revolution--in combination with the great advancements in the printing industry, a rising literacy rate, the ability to manufacture, and the need to sell--helped establish the modern market place. That in turn created a need for product identification, advertising, and people to create this art. Graphic design was an art that could help sell and identify goods, stimulate sales, and inform the public about new products and ideas.

Graphic designers use words (type) and pictures (visuals) as well as other graphic elements to communicate. Their art is a visual-verbal expression. The graphic designer mediates between a client with a message to send and an audience. The designer uses visuals and words on behalf of the client in order to inform, persuade, or sell. Regardless of the specific design problem, the graphic designer has two interconnected goals: to communicate a message to an audience and to create a design that will have impact.

Graphic design brings together two different things: artistic creation and the practical world of commerce. A designer is a creative artist who deals with the realities of planning, client needs, craft, materials (papers, inks, glues and varnishes), budgets and visual communication. All graphic design is functional. For example, a pictogram on a restroom door signifies gender. An advertisement is meant to promote sales, distinguish a product, inform, provoke, motivate or call to action. An editorial layout can enhance communication and readability, and add interest.

In the visual communications profession, graphic designers can generalize and solve many graphic design problems or be specialists; for example, a designer may specialize in information design, editorial design, or promotional design. There are jobs available in graphic design studios (small, mid-size or large), corporate design departments, institutional design departments, advertising agencies, publishing houses and web design studios.

Robin Landa is a Professor of Visual Communications in the Department of Design at Kean University and author of "Graphic Design Solutions" (2nd edition)

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