Imagine that you had to send someone a message or get a point across or you want to either persuade or amuse someone. How would you get that message across? Some would say that you would have to write it down, say it on a loudspeaker or radio. That is all verbal communication. The key thing to do there would be to use visual mediums Graphic designers work with drawn, painted, photographed, or computer-generated images (pictures), but they also design the letterforms that make up various typefaces found in movie credits and TV ads; in books, magazines, and menus; and even on computer screens. Designers create, choose, and organize these elements—typography, images, and the so-called “white space” around them—to communicate a message. Graphic design is a part of your daily life. From humble things like gum wrappers to huge things like billboards to the T-shirt you’re wearing, graphic design informs, persuades, organizes, stimulates, locates, identifies, attracts attention and provides pleasure.
The term graphic design can refer to a number of artistic and professional order that focus on visual communication, as mentioned before and presentation. The field is also often referred to as Visual Communication or Communication Design. The reason for this is because at the end of the day, we see the design with our eyes. Communication Design specializes in the design and production of corporate marketing materials, visual identities, web sites, and other print and electronic. Many would not really understand why is it an art. They do not understand that Graphic Design is pretty much a combination of art and technology. It is as simple as that and that is the beauty of it. You can take a simply drawing of anything and just scanned it into the computer and turn it into graphics with vectors or rasterize the image, if it is one. It brings out a lot of creativity and that is why it is so interesting. Where else can you take a picture of yourself and turn it into a cartoon image? Not a lot of places or software that I know of except Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Graphic Design can be a very useful thing to know once you get a hand of things. Many have tons of money including Graphic companies off of designs that could have been design by any individual. But since many do no know how to use the diferent softwares available, its useless.
Many of us wonder what kind of software Graphic Designers use. The main softwares are made my Adobe which include: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe InDesign. These softwares have made companies tons of money because of the power that these software bring to the table. The first software that I want to talk about is Adobe Illustrator. This software is a vector based software which is used for layout designs, logo designs, etc. Many designers use this software to design business cards, magazine layouts, billboard designs, and many more. Another program that they use would be Adobe Photoshop. This program allows users to manipulate photos. Graphic Designers use this software to change an appearance of a photo, for example, he/she can take away a pimple on someone’s face. They can also mask out a photo of someone and take it completely out of the picture. The same goes for backgrounds. If I was a designer, I could take a picture of someone and totally eliminate the background and add a new one that is different then the original background. They also have the power to make a photo completely gray and make something stand out in color if they wanted. According to Wikipedia, Adobe Photoshop (Photoshop), is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems. Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS (Photoshop 7 was the final version which ran on the Windows 98 platform). Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop. The CS rebranding also resulted in Adobe offering numerous software packages containing multiple Adobe programs for a reduced price. There are two versions of Photoshop: Basic and Extended, with Extended having extra features available. Adobe Photoshop Extended is included in all of Adobe's Creative Suite offerings but Design Standard, which has the Basic version.
They also stated that "Photoshop CS5 was launched on April 12, 2010. In a video posted on its official Facebook page, the development team revealed the new technologies under development, including three dimensional brushes and warping tools. Adobe CS5 is expected to make strong use of CUDA technology on Nvidia graphics cards. A version of Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended was used for a Prerelease Beta. A large group of selected Photoshop users were invited to beta test in Mid-February of 2010.
The last software I would like to talk about is Adobe InDesign. Adobe InDesign is a software application produced by Adobe Systems. It can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines and books. Designers and graphics production artists are the principal users, creating and laying out periodical publications, posters, and print media. The Adobe In Copy word processor uses the same formatting engine as InDesign."
In order to be consider a valuable graphic designer a person needs to develop and learn several of skills. Although there are a variety of skills a person needs to obtain the three important skills are web design, photography, and the ability to draw with different mediums. With a competitive job market in the graphic design industry, having at least these three skills will make an individual stand out better.
Many people in today’s societies usually use the internet to go on several of websites a day. A large percentage of graphic designers are usually people who design these websites from obtaining and learning their skill in web design. According to Wikipedia they define web design as, “The skill of creating presentations of content (usually hypertext or hypermedia) that is delivered to an end-user through the World Wide Web, by of a Web browser or other Web enabled software like Internet television clients, microblogging clients and RSS readers” (May 9, 2010). The first person that design and published a web design according to Wikipedia was Tim Berners Lee in August 1991. His idea of making web designs allowed the graphic design industry to expand their field. This is why there are graphic designers who design web designs that involve specific tasks like organizing and styling a web page to attract more viewers.
In addition another skill that makes a graphic designer more valuable is photography. According to Answers.com, they define photography as, “The art or process of producing images of objects on photosensitive surfaces” (May 9, 2010).
Photography in today’s culture usually involves a person taking photos with a digital camera so that photo’s can be uploaded on to the computer. Graphic designer’s need develop a photography skill because in some point of their career they are going to have to know how to function a camera and learn how to take pictures. With graphic designers being able to perform the correct procedures of using and taking pictures with a camera, they will be able to mess with programs like Adobe Photoshop to make their pictures more creative.
Graphic designers also need to learn how to draw with different mediums. Most graphic designers already have an artistic mind, however not all of them know how draw with different mediums. Being a graphic designer that knows how to draw with pastels, charcoal, color pencils, paint, and many more other art instruments to design any picture will make that person more valuable to this industry. Usually graphic designers that know how design pictures with these mediums scan their final masterpiece on to the computer. These designers can help a person that needs a logo drawn to be posted on a website. Since these designers have an artistic mind they are able to create a mind blowing logo with using all different drawing mediums.
Having these three skills with a graphic design degree can make a graphic designer very well rounded and can give a person the opportunity to obtain a job in many fields. Some of the jobs a graphic designer can work as are being a Billboard/Magazine Designer, a Multimedia Designer, a Layout Artist, a Photo Editing or Photoshop Artist, or a Web Designer. A billboard designer is a job in the graphic design industry that involves designing billboards. They are in charge of only creating a picture that is asked for by customers. Usually billboard designers work for advertising companies to help and design advertisements through the pictures on the billboard. They design many billboards that are seen today by highways, or in the city, or anywhere else. According to the United States Department of Labor there average salary income estimates around $42,500 for first year employees.
Another job that a graphic designer can obtain is a magazine designer. Magazine designer’s designs cover pages for magazines, newspaper, books, etc. They even design several pages in a magazine or newspaper. Magazine designer’s main objective is to create a pleasing picture for viewers. They usually work for publishing companies, newspapers companies, or magazine companies. According to The United States of Labor, a magazine designer average salary for a first year employee is about $42,500.
A multimedia designer is another job in the graphic design field. A multimedia designer is in charge of many assignments. Unlike many other designers a multimedia designer has to work with the combination of combining art, text, audio, and design skills to create a video, audio, and animated images. Multimedia media designers usually either work for film studios, television stations, advertising agencies, and video production houses. According to ADitigitalDreamer.com, there average salary ranges between $35,000, and $60,000 a year.
A layout artist is also a job that can be obtained in the graphic design industry. A layout artist is in charge of the overall look for a printed media. These artists must select the appropriate color, the correct font, the correct size of words and pictures so that it can be easy to follow by viewers. Layout artists create brochures, articles, posters, and many more other types of projects. They usually work in advertising magazines companies, newspapers companies, and advertising agencies. According to ADitigitalDreamer.com, there average salary rangers from 25,000 to 50,000 dollars a year.
A person with a graphic design degree can also become a Photo Editing or Photoshop Artist. With the software program photo shop these artists are capable of manipulating, cropping, color correcting, and many more other options of fiddling around with photos. Some examples procedures of what these artists do is they remove pimples of people faces in pictures, they whitening people teeth, and they can also make a person who is obsessed look thinner in pictures. These artists work in companies like for magazines, modeling agencies, and year book companies.
A web designer is another job that is available to be people with a graphic design career. These people create the web layout and pages for all of the websites that we go on every day. Their main objective is create a page with specific design, a certain style set, and eye grabbing details that clients demand for. They usually work for many companies that are need for artistic web pages. There average salary, according to salary.com is 50,632 thousands a year.
In conclusion graphic design can categorized as a visual communication instrument and can be considered as part of the art world. Graphic design is combination of art and technology in which designers use their creativity to convey a message. They use software’s like adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Indesign to help them create these messages. Like many other art forms, graphic designers also need more than one skill to make them a valuable designer. The three most imperative skills that graphic designers need to make them be consider a valuable designer, are web design skills, photography skills, and the ability to draw with different mediums. People who have these skills and a graphic design degree can have the opportunity to obtain many jobs in this field like a Billboard/Magazine Designer, a Multimedia Designer, a Layout Artist, a Photo Editing or Photoshop Artist, or a Web Designer.
Bibliography
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