Graphic Design is…

Graphic design, graphic design, and more graphic design, the term tends to make it around the block a lot in the business of designing websites, marketing and advertising, and similar professions. When you are looking to build a website, market your products, services or business, or seeking a logo design that best suits your business to use as your letterhead, or on business cards, the term “graphic design” will get thrown at you quite a bit.

So the question is, what exactly is graphic design?

Dictionary.com explains graphic design as “the art or profession of visual communication that combines images, words, and ideas to convey information to an audience.” For starters, that a great, easy to understand description of what a graphic designer is.

There are many specialties within the field of graphic design, such as print design, billboard design, web design (some aspects of web design can be seen as specialties within graphic design), online advertising design, logo and branding design, and the list goes on. There are many jacks of all trades in graphic design, of course, but each of the specialties and media used in design are very different from one another. Web design, for instance, has many elements that are very different from billboard design – core elements like what the design is meant for, the design outcome, various coding languages, and how “artistic” it can be. Most websites are not that “artistic” in a sense that they are not heavy with art—it is usually subtle. However, with cosing languages and programs making it easier to incorporate an artistic feel to web design there is a lot that can be done to improve a boring website with coding languages such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

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Best Graphic Design Books

1. Graphic Design: The New Basics
2. Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual
3. Color by Betty Edwards: A Course in Mastering the Art of Mixing Colors
4. Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual
5. How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul
6. Adobe Illustrator CS3 Classroom in a Book
7. The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
8. Designing Brand Identity
9. Non-Designer’s Design Book, The (3rd Edition)
10. Interaction of Color: Revised and Expanded Edition
11. Layout Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Building Pages in Graphic Design
12. Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Hands-On Training
13. Adobe Illustrator CS3 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques (How-Tos)