Graphic design

Graphic design is the profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists of projecting visual communications aimed at transmitting specific messages to social groups with specific objectives, where the use of text and graphics is common. to communicate visually. The design is based on the principle of "form follows specific function".

Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of design and fine arts, whose foundations and objectives revolve around the definition of problems and determination of objectives for decision-making through creativity, innovation and Lateral thinking together with manual or digital tools, transforming them for their proper interpretation. This activity helps to optimize graphic communications. It is also known as visual communication design and visual design.

The role that the graphic designer fulfills in the communication process is that of encoder or interpreter of the message. Works on the interpretation, ordering and presentation of visual messages. Graphic design generally uses the aesthetics of typography and the compositional arrangement of text, ornamentation, and images to convey ideas, feelings, and attitudes beyond what language alone expresses. The design work can start from the demand of a client, a demand that ends up being established linguistically, either orally or in writing, that is to say, that graphic design transforms a linguistic message into a graphic manifestation.

Graphic design has, as a field of application, different areas of knowledge focused on any visual communication system. For example, it can be applied in advertising strategies, or also, applied in the world of aviation or space exploration. In this sense, in some countries graphic design is related as only associated with the preparation of sketches and drawings, this is incorrect, since visual communication is a small part of a huge range of types and classes where it can be applied.

Having origins in antiquity and the Middle Ages, graphic design as an applied art was initially linked to the rise of printing in Europe in the 15th century and the growth of consumer culture in the Industrial Revolution. From there it emerged as a differentiated profession in the West, closely associated with advertising in the 19th century and its evolution allowed its consolidation in the 20th century. Given the rapid and massive growth in the exchange of information today, the demand for experienced designers is greater than ever, particularly because of the development of new technologies and the need to pay attention to human factors that are beyond the competition of the engineers who develop them.

History of graphic design

The definition of the profession of the graphic designer is rather recent, in what refers to its preparation, its activity and its objectives. Although there is no consensus on an exact date when graphic design was born, some date it to the interwar period. Others understand that it begins to be identified as such at the end of the 19th century.

It can be argued that graphic communications for specific purposes have their origins in Paleolithic cave paintings and the birth of written language in the third millennium BC. C. But the differences in work methods, auxiliary sciences and required training are such that it is not possible to clearly identify the current graphic designer with the man of prehistory, with the xylograph of the 15th century or with the 1890 lithograph.

The diversity of opinions responds to the fact that some consider any graphic manifestation to be a product of graphic design and others only those that arise as a result of the application of an industrial production model; that is, those visual manifestations that have been "projected" contemplating needs of various types: productive, symbolic, ergonomic, contextual, among others.

However, the evolution of graphic design as a practice and profession has been closely linked to technological innovations, societal needs, and the visual imagination of professionals. Graphic design has been practiced in various forms throughout history. history; in fact, good examples of graphic design can be traced back to the manuscripts of ancient China, Egypt, and Greece. As printing and book production developed in the 15th century, advances in graphic design developed over the centuries that followed., and composers or typographers often designed the pages according to what type was established.

In the late 19th century, graphic design emerged as a distinct profession in the West, partly due to the process of labor specialization that occurred there., and in part because of the new technologies and business possibilities that the Industrial Revolution brought with it. The new production methods led to the separation of the design of a communication medium (for example, a poster) from its actual production. Increasingly, throughout the 19th century and early 20th century, advertising agencies, book publishers and magazines hired art directors who organized all the visual elements of the communication and integrated them into a harmonious whole, creating an expression appropriate to the content. In 1922, typographer William A. Dwiggins coined the term graphic design to identify the emerging field.

Throughout the 20th century, the technology available to designers continued to advance rapidly, as did the artistic and commercial possibilities of design. The profession expanded enormously and graphic designers created, among other things, magazine pages, book covers, posters, CD sleeves, postage stamps, packaging, branding, banners, advertisements, kinetic titles for television shows and movies, and websites. By the early 21st century, graphic design had become a global profession as technology and industry advanced. they spread all over the world.

Background

The book Die hystorie vanden grooten Coninck Alexander printed by xilography in 1491 by Christiaen Snellaert. The work of the xilographers was more like that of the craftsman than that of the graphic designer.

A Kells Book page: Folio 114, with decorated text contains the Tunc dicit illis. An example of the art and page diagramming of the average age.

The Book of Kells—a lavishly illustrated handwritten Bible by 9th century Irish monks—is for some a very beautiful early example of the graphic design concept. It is a graphic manifestation, of great artistic value, of the highest quality, and which even serves as a model for learning to design —because it even exceeds many of the current editorial productions in quality—, and also from a contemporary functional point of view This graphic piece responds to the set of needs raised by the team of people who made it, however others believe that it would not be a product of graphic design, since they understand that its conception does not conform to the idea of the current graphic design project.

The history of typography —and by transitive nature, also the history of the book— is closely linked to that of graphic design; this may be so because there are practically no graphic designs in which graphic elements of this type are not included. Hence, when talking about the history of graphic design, the typography of Trajan's column, medieval miniatures, Johannes Gutenberg's printing press, the evolution of the book industry, Parisian posters, the Movement of Arts and Trades (Arts and Crafts), William Morris, the Bauhaus, etc.

The introduction of movable type by Johannes Gutenberg made books cheaper to produce, as well as making them easier to spread. The first printed books (incunabula) set the model to follow until the XX century. Graphic design from this era has come to be known as Old Style (especially the typeface these early typographers used) or Humanist, due to the prevailing philosophical school of the time.

After Gutenberg, no significant changes were seen until the late 19th century, specifically in Great Britain, became an effort to create a clear division between the Fine Arts and the Applied Arts.

19th century

First page of the book The Nature of Gothic by John Ruskin, edited by the printing company Kelmscott. Arts and Crafts proposed reviving medieval art, inspiration in nature and manual work.

During the 19th century the design of visual messages was entrusted alternately to two professionals: the draftsman or the printer. The first was trained as an artist and the second as a craftsman, both frequently in the same arts and crafts schools. For the printer, the use of ornaments and the selection of fonts in his printed compositions were art. The cartoonist saw typography as a secondary element and paid more attention to ornamental and illustrative elements.

Between 1891 and 1896, William Morris's Kelmscott Press published some of the most significant graphic products of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and founded a lucrative business based on the design of highly stylistically refined books, selling them to the wealthy classes as luxury items. Morris demonstrated that there was a market for graphic design work, establishing the separation of design from production and fine art. The work of the Kelmscott press is characterized by its recreation of historical styles, especially medieval ones.

First vanguards

Cartel for the Moulin Rouge in Paris. Made by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec with lithography in color in 1891. Thanks to Art Nouveau, the graphic design provided order and visual clarity in the composition.

Isotype of the Bauhaus School. Founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius, it is considered the cradle of the design profession.

Poster for the Dada Matinée. Made by Theo van Doesburg in January 1923. The free typographic organization expresses the spirit of the Dada movement, its irrationality, seeks freedom and opposition to the state of things and visual expressions of the time.

Corporate identity design for Lufthansa, by the Ulm HfG Development Group 5. Ulm's school was a turning point in the design history, as there the design profession was shaped by a scientific methodology.

Current pictogram design for the service of United States National Parks. The idea of maximizing the forms in the symbols developed during the 1950s.

Early 20th century design, like the fine art of the same period, was a reaction against the decline of typography and late 19th century design.

The interest in ornamentation and the proliferation of changes in font size and style in the same piece of design, as a synonym of good design, was an idea that was maintained until the end of the 19th century. Art Nouveau, with its clear stylistic will, was a movement that contributed to a greater visual order in composition. Although it maintained a high level of formal complexity, it did so within a strong visual coherence, ruling out the variation of typographic styles in the same graphic piece.

The art movements of the second decade of the 20th century and the political turmoil that accompanied them brought about dramatic changes in graphic design. Dada, De Stijl, Suprematism, Cubism, Constructivism, Futurism, and the Bauhaus created a new vision that influenced all branches of visual arts and design. All of these movements were opposed to the decorative and popular arts, as well as to Art Nouveau, which under the influence of the new interest in geometry evolved into Art Deco. All these movements appeared with a revisionist and transgressive spirit in all the artistic activities of the time. In this period, publications and manifestos also proliferated, through which artists and educators expressed their opinions.

During the 1930s interesting aspects of graphic design composition developed. The change in graphic style was transcendental because it shows a reaction against the organicism and ornamental eclecticism of the time and proposes a more stripped-down and geometric style. Connected with Constructivism, Suprematism, Neo-Plasticism, De Stijl, and the Bauhaus, this style had an inescapable and lasting influence on the development of graphic design in the 20th century. . Another important element in relation to professional practice was the growing use of the visual form as a communication element. This element appeared mostly in the designs produced by Dada and De Stijl.

The symbol of modern typography is the sans serif or sans serif typeface, inspired by the industrial typefaces of the late 19th century. Edward Johnston, author of the typeface for the London Underground, and Eric Gill stand out.

Design schools

Jan Tschichold laid out the principles of modern typography in his 1928 book, New Typography. He later repudiated the philosophy he expounded in this work, calling it fascist, but it continued to be highly influential. Herbert Bayer, who directed the typography and advertising workshop at the Bauhaus from 1925 to 1928, created the conditions for a new profession: the graphic designer. He put the subject "Advertising" in the teaching program including, among other things, the Analysis of advertising media and the Psychology of advertising. It should be noted that the first to define the term Graphic Design was the designer and typographer William Addison Dwiggins in 1922.

This is how Tschichold, Herbert Bayer, László Moholy-Nagy, and El Lisitski became the fathers of graphic design as we know it today. They were pioneers in reproduction techniques and in the styles that have been used later. Today, computers have drastically altered reproduction systems, but the experimental approach they brought to design is more relevant than ever: dynamism, experimentation, and even very specific things like the choice of fonts (Helvetica is a revival; originally it was a design based on industrial typography of the 19th century) and orthogonal compositions. These great designers lived within the framework of the largest design school, the Bauhaus, and even some of them, such as László Moholy-Nagy, were teachers and were part of the school's programming.

In the following years the modern style gained acceptance, at the same time that it stagnated. Notable names in mid-century modern design include Adrián Frutiger, designer of Univers and Frutiger typefaces; and Josef Müller-Brockmann, an important poster designer of the fifties and sixties.

The Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) in Ulm was another key institution in the development of the profession of graphic designer. Since its founding, the HfG has distanced itself from a possible affiliation with advertising. At the beginning, the department in question was called Visual Design, but it quickly became clear that its current objective was to solve design problems in the area of mass communication, in the academic year 1956-57 the name was changed to the Department of Visual Communication, modeled after the Department of Visual Communication at the New Bauhaus in Chicago. At the HfG Ulm, it was decided to work primarily in the area of communication non-persuasive, in fields such as traffic sign systems, plans for technical devices, or the visual translation of scientific content. Until then, these areas had not been systematically taught in any other European school. At the beginning of the 1970s, members of the Bund Deutscher Grafik-Designer (Association of German Graphic Designers) revealed various features of their professional identity, as in the case of Anton Stankowski among others. Whereas in 1962 the official definition of the profession was oriented almost exclusively to advertising activities, it was now extended to include areas under the rubric of visual communication. The corporate images produced by Development Group 5 of the HfG Ulm, such as those created for the firm Braun or for the airline Lufthansa were also decisive for this new professional identity.

Gui Bonsiepe and Tomás Maldonado were two of the first people to try to apply ideas from semantics to design. In a seminar held at the HfG in Ulm in 1956, Maldonado proposed modernizing rhetoric, the classic art of persuasion. Bonsiepe and Maldonado later wrote various articles on semiotics and rhetoric for the English publication Uppercase and the magazine Ulm that would become an important resource for designers in that area. Bonsiepe suggested that it was necessary to have a modern system of rhetoric, updated by semiotics, as a tool to describe and analyze the phenomena of advertising. By means of this terminology, the so-called "omnipresent structure" of an advertising message.

The idea of simplicity as a characteristic of good design continued for many years, not only in alphabet design but in other areas as well. The trend of simplifying influenced all media at the forefront of design in the 1950s. At that time, the consensus developed that simple was not just equivalent to good >, but was also equivalent to more readable. One of the hardest hit areas was symbol design. The designers posed the problem of how simple they could be without destroying their informative function. However, recent research has shown that simply simplifying the shapes of a symbol does not necessarily increase its readability.

Second vanguards

Reaction to the increasing sobriety of graphic design was slow but inexorable. The origins of postmodern typefaces date back to the humanist movement of the 1950s. In this group, Hermann Zapf stands out, who designed two typefaces that are ubiquitous today, Palatino (1948) and Óptima (1952). Blurring the line between serif and sans-serif typefaces and reintroducing organic lines into the letters, these designs served more to ratify the modern movement than to rebel against it.

An important milestone was the publication of the First Things First Manifesto (1964), which was a call for a more radical form of graphic design, criticizing the idea of serial design, lacking worth. He had a massive influence on a whole new generation of graphic designers, contributing to the emergence of publications like Emigre magazine.

Another notable designer of the late 20th century century is Milton Glaser, who designed the distinctive I Love NY campaign (1973), and a famous Bob Dylan poster (1968). Glaser borrowed from the popular culture of the 1960s and 1970s.

The advances of the early twentieth century were heavily inspired by technological advances in printing and photography. In the last decade of the same century, technology had a similar role, although this time it was computers. At first it was a step back. Zuzana Licko started using computers for compositions very early on, when computer memory was measured in kilobytes and typefaces were created using points. She and her husband, Rudy VanderLans, founded the pioneering Emigre magazine and the type foundry of the same name. They played with the extraordinary limitations of computers, unleashing great creative power. Emigre magazine became the bible of digital design.

David Carson is the culmination of the movement against the sobriety and constriction of modern design. Some of his designs for Raygun magazine are intentionally illegible, designed to be more visual than literary experiences.

News

Today, much of the work of graphic designers is assisted by digital tools. Graphic design has been enormously transformed by computers. Starting in 1984, with the appearance of the first desktop publishing systems, personal computers gradually replaced all technical procedures of an analog nature with digital systems. Therefore, computers have become essential tools and, with the appearance of hypertext and the web, their functions have been extended as a means of communication. In addition, technology has also made itself felt with the rise of teleworking and especially crowdsourcing or massive outsourcing, it has begun to intervene in work modalities. This change has increased the need to reflect on time, movement and interactivity. Even so, the professional practice of design has not undergone essential changes. While the forms of production have changed and the communication channels have expanded, the fundamental concepts that allow us to understand human communication remain the same.

Impact

Graphic design as a discipline of aesthetics has evolved on a large scale; being currently an independent discipline capable of creatively developing visual communication, it is so that Ambrose and Harris (2009) say that "In the past, the designer focused on the aspects of graphic representation and illustration, but technological development has placed it at the center of the creative process.” (p.12) In this framework, graphic design is the manager of various functions that help to structure a visual message that has a positive impact on many aspects of communication. Regarding the functions that design fulfills, Newark points out that: It classifies and differentiates -it distinguishes one company, organization or nation from another-. It informs and communicates –it tells us how to bone a duck or how to register a newborn-. It intervenes in our state of mind and helps us form our emotions about the world around us. (Newark, 2002, p.6)

While pencils and markers are still used to sketch the initial ideas, nowadays the stages of layout and documentation are usually done with computers.

Digital tools for graphic design

During the last decade, the editorial production process has completely changed, as well as how the texts and graphics that constitute printed or digital publications are prepared. Digital systems have completely taken over.

The programs that are the essence of self-editing —or digital composition of documents— are:

1. Page composition programs such as Indesign, QuarkXpress or Scribus. They intend to do the same some more domestic alternatives such as Microsoft Publisher or Serif PagePlus.
2. Illustration applications (or vector drawing) such as Illustrator, CorelDraw, Inkscape or Freehand.
3. Uses to treat images and photographs, such as Photoshop or Gimp.

Adobe Photoshop

Image made with Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop is the world's best-selling image manipulation program, in more than 100 languages. On its platform, it offers various very specific tools to be able to edit each element of a digital image. This program is part of the Adobe package called Adobe Creative Cloud (until June 2013 called Creative Suite), which in turn also contains Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Acrobat Pro, Dreamweaver, among other useful tools.

This software is mainly used for retouching and photo montages, but it is also widely used for web design, and for creating any type of graphic design that can include a business card or brochure.

Xara Xtreme Pro

Xara Xtreme Pro and derivative versions are software developed by the British company Xara in 1981, based in Berlin and that after developing alone, going through the Corel company (as Corel Xara) joined the German company MAGIX that markets the different versions of Xara for desktop (windows platform) while Xara is focusing on the development of an online design platform based on this same software. Xara, formerly Computer Concepts Ltd. has developed software for a variety of computing platforms, in chronological order: Acorn Atom, BBC Micro, Z88, Atari ST, Acorn Archimedes, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and more recently, web browser-based services.

It is a versatile and fast tool, oriented to vectorial design, although with fewer functions than Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.

The first version of this software developed for Acorn Archimedes computers (artwork), dates from 1987.

Adobe Illustrator

Image made with Illustrator.

Adobe Illustrator is a program that creates vector and digital images using mathematical parameters and vectors. It is not recommended for technical drawing, although it could carry out work related to its tools. In fact, it is designed for the elaboration of logos, illustrations, fonts, simple documents such as business cards.

Create drawings by drawing straight and curved lines, closing outlines, and filling them with color. It allows you to add photos and texts, although this function is not its forte. It is complemented by Photoshop, which is a program for editing photos, adjusting them and generating special effects. The program also allows you to create a design from templates ranging from newsletters, letterheads and websites to DVD menus and video buttons as well.

Unlike digital photos, illustrator images do not lose their quality when enlarged because they are created through mathematical parameters and not dot maps. They are very light and of very good quality.

This software allows you to create sophisticated vector illustrations for virtually any medium. Industry-standard drawing tools, flexible color controls, and professional-style controls help you capture your ideas and experiment freely, while time-saving features like easy access options let you work quickly and intuitively. Improved performance and tight integration with other Adobe applications also make it easy to create outstanding graphics for print layouts, web and interactive images, and mobile and motion graphics.

Adobe InDesign

Book made with InDesign.

Adobe InDesign is a program that layouts editorial pieces such as books, brochures, and booklets. Work the texts and fonts optimally. The workspaces are divided into spreads simulating the desired format for the publication to be designed.

It is generally used for the preparation of print copies for its tools designed for the professional edition of printable documents.

Affinity Designer

Affinity Designer is a software very similar to Adobe Illustrator that also allows you to work with vectors. In Affinity Designer you can create from Illustrations to a banner for a business, in this program you have various tools with an intuitive, flexible interface and it has several improvements Unlike Adobe Illustrator. Affinity Designer is available for MacOs and Microsoft Windows devices.

CorelDRAW

Image made with Corel Draw.

Corel Draw, like Adobe Illustrator, is a program for creating digital images using mathematical parameters, such as logos and illustrations. It is a program created by the Corel Corporation. Unlike Illustrator, it has a friendlier interface for the standard user who is not a designer (although many of them use it), managing to penetrate a wider audience due to the ease with which vectors can be handled.

URL2PNG

This tool is useful for computers with very small screens, and this allows you to appreciate what a whole website looks like. Thanks to this tool, we will only have to provide the address of the website that we need to take a screenshot of, and we will obtain a total image of the site in PNG format. It is a very useful web application for graphic designers who are dedicated to making web page designs, since they will get a preliminary image regardless of the operating system or browser they are using.

Pixie

This is a program that serves as a color selector for all computers that have some version of the Microsoft Windows operating system installed, among others.

In fact, in recent years there has been a tendency to fatten these programs, adding features, so that they can carry out tasks of almost the three bases of self-editing mentioned. The main consequence has been the appearance of unnecessarily complicated, resource-consuming and slow programs, which sometimes make you long for the first versions, faster, simpler and more reliable, and with a better focus on specific jobs.

The basic rules of design are also applicable to digital design. Simplicity, consistency, a good composition, are a guarantee of good results, as they were before the invention of computers. Within the new digital era, both in the field of photography and in graphic design, new technologies, information technology, computers and digital equipment in general are increasingly used.

Canvas

Image made with Canva.

Canva is a simplified graphic design tool software, founded in 2012 and available in online edition as well. It uses a drag and drop format and provides access to over a million photos, vectors, graphics, and fonts. It is used by non-designers as well as professionals. The tools can be used for both web design and print and graphic media.

Other graphic design programs

In recent years, numerous graphic design programs have emerged given the popularization of computing with the arrival of new devices such as smartphones and digital tablets. Programs like Inkscape, GIMP or Pixlr have also become interesting options. These are free software programs whose use has spread because they are free.

Graphical representation of problems

A graph is where you can compare two or more variables in a table. Graphs describe relationships between two or more variables. The variable that is represented on the horizontal axis is called the independent variable or variable x. The one represented on the vertical axis is called the dependent variable or y variable. The variable y is a function of the variable x. Once the graph is made, it can be analyzed and conclusions drawn.

Representations are configurations that belong to highly structured systems, called; “Semiotic Systems” (Duval, 1993), which are made up of primitive characters or signs, to be combined through particular rules in each system. These rules structure the production system of the representation, which contributes to enrich its content.

Design in problem graphs

Design can clearly be found in graphics as there are a wide variety of types of graphics, graphic designers are creating animated graphics as this helps “the listener pay attention when you give them something visually appealing.

The most popular are line graphs:

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  Linear Graphics

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  Rail traffic

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  Circular chart

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  Graphic biplot

The problem with most graphs is that they tend to be boring and hard to understand, and when used in a presentation people can easily get distracted. The gapminder company develops statistics through animated graphs in which different data from countries or regions around the world are observed, in which each globe represents a country and the colors the continents. In this way people are attracted by the movement of the graphs.

When we make a graph to represent problems it is because there is a correlation between those variables."correlation" is when two variables are related and if variable "a" increases, variable "b" also has to increase since there is a correlation between them, they are linked. For example, if the drug problem increases, violence and drug trafficking also increase, this is a correlation since these three variables are linked by the same problem.

Graphical representations in mathematics

To identify and obtain equivalent fractions, graphical representations and number lines can be used, in which the equivalence of two or more fractions can be demonstrated. When there are mathematical problems, graphs are very useful, because you can compare different variables and verify the difference between them, solving mathematical problems.

Job performance and skills

The ability to design is not innate, but is acquired through practice and reflection. Even so, it remains a faculty, a potential thing. To exploit this power, permanent education and practice are necessary, since it is very difficult to acquire it through intuition. Creativity, innovation and lateral thinking are key skills for the job performance of the graphic designer. Creativity in design exists within established frames of reference, but more than anything, it is a cultivable skill, to find unsuspected solutions to seemingly intractable problems. This translates into design work of the highest level and quality. The creative act is the core manager of the design process, but creativity itself does not consist of an act of design. However, creativity is not exclusive to the performance of graphic design and to any profession, although it is absolutely necessary for the proper performance of design work.

The role that the graphic designer plays in the communication process is that of encoder or interpreter of the message. He works on the interpretation, ordering and presentation of visual messages. Your sensibility for the form must be parallel to your sensibility for the content. This work has to do with the planning and structuring of communications, with its production and evaluation. Design work is always based on a demand from the client, a demand that ends up being established linguistically, either orally or in writing, that is, graphic design transforms a linguistic message into a graphic manifestation.

Graphic design professionals rarely work with non-verbal messages. On some occasions the word appears briefly, and on others it appears in the form of complex texts. The editor is in many cases an essential member of the communication team.

The design activity frequently requires the participation of a team of professionals, such as photographers, illustrators, technical draftsmen; even from other professionals less related to the visual message. The designer is often a coordinator of various disciplines that contribute to the production of the visual message. Thus, he coordinates his research, conception and realization, making use of information or specialists according to the requirements of the different projects.

Graphic design is interdisciplinary and therefore the designer needs to have knowledge of other activities such as photography, freehand drawing, technical drawing, descriptive geometry, psychology of perception, Gestalt psychology, semiology, typography, technology and communication.

The graphic design professional is a specialist in visual communications and their work is related to all steps of the communication process, in which context, the action of creating a visual object is only one aspect of that process. This process includes the following aspects:

1. Definition of the problem.
2. Targeting.
3. Concept of communication strategy.
4. Visualization.
5. Production programming.
6. Production monitoring.
7. Evaluation.

This process requires the designer to possess intimate knowledge of the areas of:

1. Visual communication.
2. Communication.
3. Visual perception.
4. Administration of economic and human resources.
5. Technology.
6. Means.
7. Evaluation techniques.

The four guiding principles of graphic design are variables that the graphic design professional must take into account when facing a project, these are:^{[citation required]}

• The individual: conceived as an ethical and aesthetic unit that integrates the society of which it forms part and for whom the visual space is uniform, continuous and linked.
• The utility: because it responds to a need for information and this is communication.
• The environment: because it requires us to know the physical reality to contribute to the harmony of the habitat, and the reality of other contexts to understand the structure and meaning of the human environment.
• The economy: because it encompasses all aspects related to the study of the cost and rationalization of the processes and materials for the implementation of the elements.

The results that are produced in the Visual Design are given in the typologies of the image in the fixed, mobile, environmental and digital. The main results include:

1. Global image: Structure, verification and articulation of corporate identity, differentiated from the creation of brands, logos and different applications.
2. Editorial policies.
3. Data visualization (Informatics).
4. Information system and information nodes (Quioscos).
5. Coordination of Visual Design of information in the environment, applied to urban, architectural and scenographic scale.

Areas of Professional Practice

The field of graphic design encompasses several fundamental areas, the boundaries of which partially overlap in professional activity. The classification is based on the notion that each of the areas requires special preparation and talent or special advice according to to the complexity of the project. The areas are:

Design for information

Includes editorial design. Generally, these products are classified according to the size of the information available on posters, flyers, books, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, CDs, DVDs, etc. It also covers signage, which includes danger signs, traffic signals, maritime flag signals, railway signals, among others. The brochures are classified according to their number of pages and can be diptychs (two pages), triptychs (three pages), etc. They are also divided into advertising, propaganda, tourism, among others. Infographics, maps, graphs and bullets also fall within this classification. In the media it is presented in various ways such as in commercials or in the editorial part (books, magazines, catalogs, magazines, etc).

Design for persuasion

It is the communication design intended to influence the behavior of the public. It includes advertising and propaganda. Also included in this classification is the corporate identity that includes brands, iso-logo, commercial and tax stationery, tickets, brand application in archigraphy and clothing, vehicle graphics; the labels, which can be frontal, hanging, security, enveloping, etc.; and the containers, the most common are rigid, semi-rigid, flexible and cans.

Design for education

Includes didactic material such as instruction manuals, instructions for use, educational didactic files, etc. Industrial safety signage and signage for work spaces are also included.

Design for administration

Includes the design of forms, urban signage, tickets, postage stamps, promissory notes and, in general, any piece that is susceptible to counterfeiting.

Typographic Design

Elaboration of different types sans serif or sans serif, with serif, gestural, gothic, calligraphic, fantasy or any typography.

Logo Design (Branding)

Includes the design of the logo and corporate image of a company, product, event, etc., based on a specific theme.

Interface design

Also called control instrument design, it is responsible for the development of interfaces for different devices such as digital watch screens, mobile phones, digital cameras, and other devices. The visual aspect is the first impression that a user perceives of a site; An attractive and functional appearance is the best letter of introduction that a graphic designer has to promote credibility and trust in the site he designed and motivate the user to continue exploring the content. From this perspective, the graphical interface is conceived as a dimension whose function is to articulate communication between people and technologies to facilitate access to information and promote meaningful learning.

Digital graphic design

The Web, social networks and digital media are the new supports of the so-called digital graphic design, a graphic design whose destiny has ceased to be paper and has become the screen of a computer or multiple devices. An example of digital graphic design pieces are advertising banners, responsive logos or social media graphics for digital marketing campaigns.

Visual design

It consists of the creation of functional images with purely communicational purposes, for which new technologies are used for a more structured development. It studies the age and production of the fixed, mobile, environmental and digital image, based on the structures of the languages that operate, circulate and function in society, in order to understand the interactivity of devices and data with the viewer.. Likewise, it defines the methods to verify, experimentally, the communicative effectiveness of these data, with the purpose of reducing cognitive entropy. Visual design creates visual information and communication structures, supported by structural design elements and formal information and communication models.

Visual design integrates elements of printed visual communication (graphic symbols, posters, among others), dynamic audiovisual media (moving image, animation, videography, among others), digital environments (CD-ROM, Web, presentations, and multimedia events), environmental design (signage, elements in public space, archigraphy, among others) and the new visual communication spaces that arise from new technologies.

From this perspective, visual design coordinates, manages and administers visual information systems, categorizes visual variables, investigates cognitive processes, evaluates design methodologies, determines the relevance of image supports according to nature information for the general execution of a design project.

Current communication systems require a new visualization that allows understanding, internalizing and interpreting information in a more dynamic and active way. The visual design allows the creation of extensive communication systems, based on ergonomics that allow the user a more natural relationship with said information. It can also be called Visual Information Design, since all the information, data can be accommodated to see them graphically, that is why it is important to have a good design of infographics that is a clear example of accommodating information visually.

International Design Day

The concept was developed in 1995 by Kim Paulsen (Vice President 1993-1995) to commemorate the founding of the International Design Council on April 27, 1963. It also commemorates the essential roles of the graphic designer in society and commerce, making known the importance of this profession. The day initially known as "World Graphics Day" it became "World Communication Design Day" in 2012, "World Design Day" in 2015 and "International Design Day" in 2020.

The aim of International Design Day is to challenge designers to reflect deeply on the well-being of people within their local environments and to find innovative solutions to local needs using design as a vehicle to honor diversity, transcend borders and improve the quality of life. Held annually on April 27, participants from around the world are invited to come together, innovate and experience a moment of design by organizing initiatives and public events.