So what is Graphic Design?

In a nutshell it is a collaborative effort of designers, writers, photographers and illustrators creating and producing and marketable visual image conveying a message to a target audience. It is the job of the designer to mesh these all together to create the perfect visual image of a business.

Design can also aid in selling a product or idea through effective visual communication. It is applied to products and elements of company identity like logos, colors, packaging, and text. Together these are defined as branding. Branding has increasingly become important in the range of services offered by many graphic designers, alongside corporate identity.

Company Identity

Whilst the terms are often used interchangeably, branding is more strictly related to the identifying mark or trade name for a product or service, whereas corporate identity can have a broader meaning relating to the structure and ethos of a company, as well as to the company’s external image. Graphic designers will often form part of a team working on corporate identity and branding projects. Other members of that team can include marketing professionals, communications consultants and commercial writers.

The importance of branding and brand recognition cannot be underestimated. Much of advertising today focuses on brand promotion and recognition. If you can get a positive reputation among people pertaining to your brand, you can sell almost any product. If you have successfully marketed your brand, your customers and clients will in effect pay to advertise your brand by using your product or service. What this should teach you as a business person is that branding is one of the most importantly things you can do. People don’t shop much anymore on the basis of a particular product; they shop based on the reliability of a brand they have heard about or have tried.