1. Visual identity
The relationship of a company/organization with its public is known as branding. Brand identity is the way an organization conveys its personality, essence, and tone, as well as its emotions, experiences, and memories. Similarly, visual identity graphic design is the visual elements of brand identity that function as the face of a brand, so it can convey such intangible qualities through images, colors, and shapes.
Visual identity graphic designers work alongside brand stakeholders to design logos, color palettes, typefaces, and image libraries that represent the brand’s personality. In addition to creating regular business cards and company stationery, designers often generate visual branding guidelines (style guides) that provide best practices and examples of visual branding used in different media. These guidelines help ensure brand consistency across all future applications.
2. Marketing and advertising
Graphic design for most people represents designs made for marketing and advertising. Businesses rely on the best marketing efforts to influence the decision-making process of their target audience. Effective marketing allows people to participate based on their needs, wants, knowledge, and satisfaction with a product, service, or brand. Since visual content is more attractive to people, graphic design helps companies/organizations to communicate and promote themselves in a more effective way.
Marketing designers work alongside business owners, managers, directors, and marketing professionals to generate assets for marketing strategies. Some work as freelancers, while others work as part of an internal team or a creative group. Other designers specialize in a particular type of media, such as magazine ads and car wraps, or create a wide variety of collateral that is used for print and digital. They used to focus on print, but their role has evolved to add more digital assets to be used particularly for content marketing.
3. User interface
The user interface or UI is the way users interact with a device or an application. User interface design is the process of designing interfaces so that they are easy to use and provide a great user-friendly experience.
A user interface comes with everything that a user interacts with, such as the keyboard, mouse, and screen. However, in terms of graphic design, user interface design focuses on the visual experience of the user and the design of graphical elements, such as buttons, menus, and microinteractions, among others. The job of a UI designer is to create a balance between aesthetics and technical functionality.
UI designers work on mobile apps, desktop apps, web pages, and games. They work hand in hand with user experience (UX) designers, designers (who know how the app works), as well as UI developers, who write the code to make it work.
4. Publication
Posts that come in long-form pieces communicate with viewers through public syndication. They used to be in print media like books, magazines, newspapers, and catalogues, but there has been a significant increase in digital publishing in recent decades.
Graphic designers who specialize in publications coordinate with editors and publishers to make layouts that have carefully chosen typography and accompanying artwork such as graphics, illustrations, and photography. Publication designers may work as freelancers, as members of a creative agency, or as part of a publishing house.