What is graphic design?

Graph­ic design is the artis­tic dis­ci­pline of cre­at­ing visu­al images, sym­bols, con­cepts, and dig­i­tal lay­outs by using their hands or com­put­er soft­ware in order to com­mu­ni­cate ideas and infor­ma­tion to the pub­lic at large. Graph­ic design­ers see their work appear in pub­lished adver­tise­ments, mag­a­zines, books, web­sites, and oth­er visu­al for­mats. In many ways, graph­ic design is the use of art for a par­tic­u­lar pur­pose where the design­er is hired to achieve cer­tain objec­tives through the use of mul­ti­me­dia. Stu­dents who study graph­ic design in school learn to be pro­fi­cient with a num­ber of dif­fer­ent soft­ware and medi­ums to cre­ate visu­al images. Graph­ic design degrees have become the most ver­sa­tile art degrees, and the field is expect­ed to con­tin­ue to grow. If you are inter­est­ed in find­ing a pro­gram to hone your graph­ic design skills, be sure to check out our rank­ing of the Top 30 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Graph­ic Design. Skills that are devel­oped in a graph­ic design pro­gram include:

• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion: Graph­ic design­ers are hired to com­mu­ni­cate cer­tain ideas through the use of text and images. They also have to be able to artic­u­late their ideas to clients in order to come up with a plan of action for an indi­vid­ual project.
• Cre­ativ­i­ty: Graph­ic design­ers need to be able to think out­side of the box in order to con­vey their ideas in a dis­tinct­ly visu­al medi­um. Being able to cre­ate an indi­vid­ual style helps graph­ic design­ers dis­tin­guish them­selves from oth­er competitors.
• Tech­no­log­i­cal Afflu­ence: The tech­ni­cal abil­i­ty to manip­u­late soft­ware towards a cer­tain effect is what helps dif­fer­en­ti­ate graph­ic design­ers from oth­er types of visu­al artists. Graph­ic design­ers are expect­ed to have com­mand over the lat­est soft­ware pro­grams for visu­al art.
• Time Man­age­ment: Graph­ic design­ers often have mul­ti­ple projects that they are work­ing on at a sin­gle time. Being able to mul­ti­task and pri­or­i­tize cer­tain projects is an invalu­able skill that allows graph­ic design­ers to be suc­cess­ful in their field.
• Typog­ra­phy: In addi­tion to pic­tures and mov­ing images, graph­ic design­ers often use text to con­vey cer­tain ideas in their work. Hav­ing knowl­edge of fonts, line height, and track­ing will help graph­ic design­ers artic­u­late the mes­sage that they are being hired to communicate.
• Com­put­er Code Famil­iar­i­ty: Graph­ic design­ers do not have to be mas­ter coders, but under­stand­ing basic HTML, CSS, and Java will go a long way in hav­ing design­ers under­stand the inner work­ings of their cre­ative process. If a graph­ic design­er wants to cre­ate web­sites, a basic under­stand­ing of cod­ing is a must.

If you have a com­mand of the full skill set of a graph­ic design­er, you will be a high­ly desired free­lance or salaried work­er. The num­ber of jobs avail­able to graph­ic design­ers con­tin­ues to grow and includes posi­tions such as:

• Dig­i­tal Mar­keter: Cre­at­ing adver­tise­ments for the internet.
• Photographer/Photojournalist: Telling sto­ries through photography.
• Web Design­er: Cre­at­ing web­sites that are func­tion­al and visu­al­ly engaging.

If any of the schools on our list of the Top 30 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Graph­ic Design might be able to help you on your way to get­ting hired as a graph­ic design­er, be sure to vis­it their web­site and request more information.

Relat­ed:

25 Best Bachelor’s in Graph­ic Design

15 Best Online Bachelor’s in Graph­ic Design

10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Graph­ic Design

10 Most Afford­able Online Bachelor’s in Graph­ic Design

25 Best Bachelor’s in Mul­ti­me­dia Design

15 Best Online Bachelor’s in Mul­ti­me­dia Design

10 Fastest Online Bachelor’s in Mul­ti­me­dia Design

10 Most Afford­able Bachelor’s in Mul­ti­me­dia Design