What is graphic design?

Graphic design is the process of choosing and organising words, images and messages into a form that communicates and influences its audience.

It’s about achieving strategic results
It uses different formats like posters, websites and packaging
It address contemporary issues
It’s a process involving research, idea generation, prototyping and eventually words and pictures

To explain what graphic design is we have talked to well known graphic designers and to some of their clients to find out what’s involved in commissioning, designing and delivering a piece of graphic design. Below you can watch films, browse through case studies and articles and use guides to what it's like to have a career in graphic design.

What is graphic design The graphic design process What a graphic designer does

Manchester Art Gallery's information assistant's T-Shirt designed by Holmes Wood

An introduction to graphic design

Graphic design is almost everywhere. Crammed into our homes, all over our cities and dotted around the countryside, its images, letters, colours and shapes are consciously put together to perform all sorts of functions.

Graphic Design Films

Neville Brody, Quentin Newark, Graphic Thought Facility, Applied Information Group and more graphic designers share their thoughts on what a graphic designer does

Typography

The origins of graphic design could be traced back to the 15th century, the invention of the mechanical printing press and the introduction of moveable type which meant printed material could not only be reproduced in volume, but a predetermined ‘design’ could be set.

Pirelli poster designed by Alan Fletcher

Imagery

There are dozens of ways of making pictures. Whether they use photography, illustration, painting or digital imagery, graphic designers understand the impact of a picture.

Corporate identity

Arguably the most obvious and prominent manifestation of graphic design is corporate identity, encapsulated by a company logo.

Packaging graphics

The graphics on packaging always have to work very hard in a notoriously ‘noisy’ visual environment of the supermarket or shopping centre, communicating both function and emotion.

Signs

Graphic designers often translate the two dimensional elements of their craft, text and pictures, into signs, wayfinding and branding in three dimensional environments.

Terrace forms designed by Oscar and Ewan

Information design

Information design is the discipline of laying out and displaying information, whether it be simple or technical, so that it is easy to understand and is usable.

Editorial design

Like most graphic design, newspaper and magazine design is an exercise in combining technical detail with artistic flair. The core components of editorial design are text and pictures, so a keen understanding of typography, layouts, grids and composition is essential.