Graphic design is the practice of visual communication, using imagery to convey information and concepts to a viewer. But it is also a fairly nebulous term. Depending on whom you ask, it might exclusively refer to analog (or printed) design products. To some, it is the overriding label to describe almost any other discipline containing the word “design.” And for others, it can even encompass art itself. So what is graphic design anyway?
Given that graphic design intersects with so many aspects of a business —marketing, sales, branding, and customer relations to name a few—it is important to understand what exactly it is we are talking about when we reference this term. That task is made extra difficult when so many new design roles and niche terms are constantly being added to the pool. To make things easier, we’ve put together this guide delving into what the word “graphic design” does and does not mean.
What is graphic design?
Graphic design is an interdisciplinary profession that involves strategically using aesthetic principles to give order and meaning to visual content. It can describe both a concept and a physical thing: specifically, it is an academic subject, a practice, an industry, a product and a purchasable service.
Graphic design is about leveraging aesthetics to help an audience digest sometimes complex content. To better understand this, let’s take a look at some common examples of graphic design’s sub-disciplines and the different information being conveyed:
- Logo design – communicates a brand’s identity
- Web/app design – communicates navigational cues, interactions, and written content
- Print design – communicates order and importance of written information
- Cover design – communicates the contents of a book/album/magazine
- Advertisement design – communicates the intended experience of a product for sale
- Label/packaging design – communicates product information
A brief history of the word “graphic design”
In the grand scheme of human history, art and communication, “graphic design” is a relatively recent concept. The first recorded usage of the term was in a 1908 San Francisco educational trade manual for printers and a 1918 California School of Arts and Crafts, Berkeley advertisement for a course on “Graphic Design and Lettering.”
Graphic design as an unnamed concept, of course, existed long before then. But when the term first showed up in an academic context, this foundation was laid for graphic design to become a formalized process, strategy, and even philosophy that could be learned. Many of the conventions that would become associated with the term—how to handle form, material, typography, and color—would also be established in academia, notably the famed Bauhaus school in the 1920s.
The early 1900s was also not that long after the advent of big corporations, rising out of the Industrial Revolution of the previous century. Thus, the formal practice of graphic design emerged alongside a growing commercial economy, and it has been most often used for the purpose of advertising and branding ever since.
The digital age brought about a subtle shift to the way we define graphic design. Now, it no longer describes a fixed thing, but something that can change, something that the viewer can literally interact with. While this has brought many new disciplines into the graphic design field, the underlying principles and purpose of visual communication have remained the same through the ages.