If all graphic designers had to fit the text book definition of the term perfectly we (graphic designers) would all be magicians who could jump through rings of smoke and make multimedia artworks appear with the wave of a mouse and the words “abracadabra”. In reality most graphic designers are only informed about a few parts of the graphic design field. Graphic design has become a multimedia field.
The reality is that the field consists of:
- Illustration (digital or fine art illustrations including painting)
- magazine layout and book layout (what you find on the shelves of bookstores and super markets)
- textile design (carpets, materials and upholstery)
- print design and advertisement design (concepts for advertising campaigns and silkscreen printing for clothing)
- interface and web design (design and coding of websites and interface designs for software development and planning)
- video effects and editing (shooting and editing of corporate video and commercial video as well as special effects and animation)
- 3d modeling and animation (Creation and animation of 3 dimensional models like Shrek), and many other fields.
All of the above is considered to be Graphic Design.
Most graphic Designers will attempt to know as much as possible about all areas. Some have partners and friends that they often refer to for assistance with big Multimedia graphic design jobs. It is however not possible to be an expert on every field.
Graphic design is a term that is used in association with commercial art for the most part. It involves splicing together a multimedia concoction of art, computer skills, digital imagery, design concepts, advertising concepts, type, copyright, video material and more.
All the things we see around us contain elements of graphic work. People have asked me whether there is any work in my field. There are dozens of designers being churned out by most schools all around the country every year. Yet the market does not become saturated.
The following contain graphic design work:
- tv ad
- poster
- bus ad
- magazine
- kitchen appliance logo
- sweets wrapper
- bottle label
- bookmark
- many clothing items
You see these items around you every day ,which contain work done by designers. Is it any wonder that it is a field with so much work out there? Getting the work is a different story alltogether though. It is surprising to find that the field is often not valued as a skill in the way many other jobs are.
