Graphic Designs in Business

Can you imagine life without graphic designs? Today’s world is full of designs which you might not aware of it. In every aspects of our lives from the moment we wake up till the time we goes home, we see graphics everywhere. It has became a part of our lives and businesses too.

Businesses use Graphic Design in a various of ways for their products and services promotion such as poster, newsletter design, banners, flyers, logos, brochure design, business cards, letterheads, websites and etc.

Graphic design is the use of graphic elements and text to communicate ideas or information to specific audiences. It refers to a numer of artistic and professional disciplines which focus on visual communication and presentation. Various methods are used to create and combine symbols, images or words to create a visual presentation. Typically, graphic design is most commonly-used to create marketing materials in businesses such as magazines, advertisements, logo, web design and more so.

Graphic designers or graphic artist as sometimes called are the one resposible in creating unique and amazing graphic designs. They mainly plan, analyze and create visual solutions to communicate people. I would say that they are the one mostly needed in most businesses today because they find effective ways to get messages across in print, electronic and film media using a variety of methods they know. It may be through photography, animation, color, illustration and other various techniques.

Graphic design when done successfully by graphic designers, it attracts attention, enhances the message you are sending and adds credibility to your business.

A good graphic designers can communicate a message through design.

A good graphic designers build trust and confidence in companies and helps in brand development..

A good graphic designers can enhance the image of advertising.

A good graphic designer welds artistic concepts.
A good graphic designer is legible.

A good graphic designer creates appealing and attractive design.

A good graphic designer is unique.

A good Graphic designers consider cognitive, cultural, physical, and social factors in planning and executing designs for the target audience

A good Graphic Designers gather relevant information by meeting with clients, creative or art directors, and by performing their own research.

Communications done by visual effect is far more effective than written communication; even the unspoken significance of emotion and importance are conveyed. Is the topic serious or playful? Has the viewer to be soothed, stimulated, and urged to action? Graphic Designers control the message and so there cannot be any compromise in the world of graphic designs. Graphic Design is important wether like it or not, it simply create balance between design and technology.

Though this is the age of computers, even prior to this computer revolutionized production designing was a part of everyone’s life. Graphic Design has always kept a position of cutting edge. Communications done by visual effect is far more effective than written communication; even the unspoken nuances of emotion and importance are conveyed. Is the topic serious or playful? Has the viewer to be soothed, stimulated, and urged to action? Graphic Designers control the message and so there cannot be any compromise in the world of graphic designs.

Steps to an Efficient Graphic Design Process

Graphic design process (GDP) is the art of putting together text or images using a variety of creative techniques such as drawing, painting and/or computerized effects. Aside from website designing, applications of graphic design process also include movies, television shows, or commercials.

Creating a graphic design masterpiece that will instantly stir-up interest and curiosity of purposeful as well as accidental website users and researchers is achieved by following an easy and efficient graphic design process. Basically, starting a graphic design project is a team effort between the website owner/s and graphic designer/s.

Here are easy and efficient steps to achieve great benefits in doing the graphic design process:

Meeting

Begin your GDP job by setting up a meeting (live chat through Skype or Yahoo Messenger or personal) to discuss the scope and concepts of the project. Get the detailed requirements of the client and information about the business or product to be able to develop the content, design and goal of the project.

You can also ask for the client’s sample of favorite work that you can use as model for your new project. For your part, you can show the portfolio of your projects and request the client which designs he would like to pattern his project. Then, you can discuss the color schemes, type of images, animations and target audience of the project. You should also discuss the pricing, specifications and the delivery date of the project.

Researching

Successful business have strong research base. Before jumping right into graphic design process, save yourself time and energy by researching about:

the client’s business and/or products,
fresh ideas,
latest trends,
innovations,
suitable images and
competitors of the client’s business or products.

Conceptualizing

Conceptualizing in graphic design process is an approach of putting ideas and information you have gathered and researched into graphical or illustrated forms. You will creatively organize and translate these ideas into graphics and pictures so that a new design about the business or product is developed.

Once the concept of the project is agreed upon by you and the client, you can now start to translate the concepts into a hardcopy.

Lay-outing & Designing

You can save so much time and energy by starting with simple lay-outing or quick sketches of logo concepts, line drawings showing where elements will be placed on the page or even a quick handmade version of a package design. Then present this lay-out to your client and ask for any changes. For web design, wireframes are a great way to start with your page layouts.

It’s always a good idea to present your client with at least two or more versions of design. This gives the client some options and allows you to combine their favorite elements from each. You can encourage your client to do “mixing and matching” of the designs you provide.

After you have both agreed on the lay-outs and designs, you can now proceed to implement the concepts and designs ready for presentation.

Presentation & Revising

Once your proposed work is done, be able to make a formal presentation and defend why you came up with such concepts and designs. From their suggestions you can present a second round of designs. Since you’re the designer and the one in authority, don’t be afraid to give your opinion on what looks best. After this second round, it isn’t uncommon to have a couple more rounds of changes before reaching a final design.

Approval & Finalizing

It is possible getting several rounds of approval on designs. Once, the final design is approved you can now proceed adding the final touches of your work and getting ready for final submission.

Why hire a professional graphic designer or a graphic design firm?

Many business firms owners believe that hiring a professional graphic designer will cost them more then they want to pay or can afford. They start thinking that they can design their website and logo on their own. But is that an effective method and will it have the same impact?

When you plan to start a new company, one of the first things you will need is an identity. Your neighbor’s son comes up to you and says that he enjoys drawing and wants to design the logo for you. You willingly agree thinking that you will be able to save a lot of money and tell him to do it for you. He gives you a beautiful design, you like it, but do you think this is the design you are looking for and one that would represent your company effectively? Will it be able to catch the eyes of the potential clients you are targeting? What is the monetary value associated with a logo design and isn’t it a good idea to get a quote from a professional designer? Just like all other things that you can find in the market today, there is a wide and huge range that you can contact and use for your job.

Graphic design has become an important IT industry today and that is because professional designers not only create good designs which are used in a company’s web platform or in simple words, website, but also think in terms of strategic marketing when creating it. The number of graphic and web design agencies has increased tremendously because there is a high demand all over the world. Most business organizations want to go online today and thus, need to create a website. When a website is being created, it is important that it is not only visually attractive but also information rich. The looks that you need in order to make a website visually catchy can only be created by a professional graphic designer or a graphic design firm with an experience in that kind of work and can show you their prior work in a strong portfolio. They will be able to provide you with a complete and satisfactory answer for all your design needs.

When it comes to a professional graphic designer, he or she will be able to help you in meeting all your design goals. They use their high potential of creativity and can design all of the necessary items you will need to properly market your company, such as logos, identity materials, promotional brochures, and a website. They will do that keeping in mind the branding rules that have been developed before any other work started. These rules and guidelines will help to keep a consistent look and feel through all of the items to be created in the future.

A professional web designer will perform many different jobs for you. The different design areas that he/she may cover include:

1) The logo: The logo, the name, and tagline need to act together to communicate a clear message about your new organization’s purpose and values.

2) Banner design: The advertisement that will be placed on websites to promote your company.

3) Animation: Animated video making is quickly becoming an integral part of web marketing.

There are a number of other design areas also that a graphic design firm will take care of. In order to perform all these activities, the graphic designer will use some of the most effective and intelligent design tools and platforms provided from some of the major software development companies today. You may feel that you can use the same tools and do all design activities on your own but that is not how it works. There are a number of versions and complex features within graphic design software and only a professional designer can understand and use the software to its potential. When a project is assigned to a professional designer, he/she decides which software is most suitable for the task.

If you want to communicate your message clearly and effectively, the best choice is to hire a professional graphic designer for the job. Once you hire a professional graphic designer, you will have more free time which you can use to focus on other things in your business while a pro will handle the design project and convert your ideas into fruition in a period of time that will be shorter than what you would take.

It may seem easy to handle the design project on your own but it is not all that easy. Following three mistakes are the most common, committed by people who try to do the job on their own:

1) Poor Text: The text that is placed on your website should be placed in such a way that your reader is guided easily through the message and is quickly able to skim through areas which are important.

2) No consistency with other marketing materials: The branding guidelines are not followed or even worst, they have not been developed.

3) Bad color choices: Often, too many colors are used or colors that don’t work together to promote the proper message. This make the website disturbing for the eyes and a potential web site viewers are turned away.

All these things are well taken care of by a graphic design firm of your choice. Don’t hesitate to contact any graphic design company after viewing their portfolio on line and they will be more then happy to assist you. Make sure to ask for a detailed quotation or a proposal before hiring such a firm.