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Graphic design - basic knowledge part 1.

Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2024 10:37 am
by mstlucky8072
First and foremost, think about what you are designing. Paradoxically, it seems very simple, but there are many issues that you should consider. Ask yourself, among others, the following questions: What do you want to achieve with a given project? Who will it be aimed at? How will it be presented? What content do you want to convey? These and many other issues will help you get started.

I have had situations where before I started, for example, a poster project, I would think about it for several days or even many weeks. At this stage, I would often look for inspiration, knowledge on a given topic or check other projects of competitors in order to be able to do the task as best as possible. This stage is focused on research and analysis, which is important because it allows you to delve into the project as much as possible. It is a good practice to prepare your own brief for the client in order to make your work easier. It is worth mentioning a few websites where you can look for inspiration, these include:

Brand New,
Identity Designed,
Google Images,
Stock pages,
Pinterest,
Behance by Adobe,
Fanpage of other graphic designers.
Principle 2. Preliminary Designs and General Concepts
Once we have learned about the topic and analyzed the competition, we move on to the preliminary design stage. It is good to make preliminary sketches of projects or write down your ideas. Many people also use "idea boards" - I belong to this group, and my board is in a digital version in a CorelDraw file. I put photos, examples of other graphics or my own simple preliminary sketches there. This is to facilitate further refinement of the graphic elements on which I will base a given project, these include:

Selecting typography - I personally use both paid and free fonts. For both beginners and experienced graphic designers, Google Fonts is a great source of well-designed free fonts. It is also worth mentioning that graphic programs such as Adobe or CorelDraw will provide us with fonts that we can use in our projects when installing the program.
Implementation of graphic motifs - when designing, for example, a Facebook post or a leaflet, it is good to base it on a properly selected graphic element. This can be a fragment of the logo symbol, a graphic paytm database element referring to the specifics of the client's field for which we are carrying out the project, e.g. if the client is involved in the production of organic food, it is good to refer to such motifs, a seedling or a leaf, which helps to create clear visual communication.

Image

Searching for colors - The color range in design is of great importance, because colors can indicate the type of emotional charge. Red is associated with both good feelings, such as love, and negative ones, because it is associated with blood. Colors, in addition to building emotions, are associated with associations, for example, many companies related to ecology have a green logo, because green brings to mind nature.
Selection of photographs - Photographs are sent by clients, but just as often graphic designers themselves look for such photos on free or paid stocks. It often happens that the client sends a large number of photos, but in fact, few of them will be suitable for a specific project. This may be because only a few photos from the client are suitable for a given topic, or most of the photos are simply of poor quality or poorly made. In such a situation, in order to avoid misunderstandings, it is worth choosing the right photos and sending the projects to the client along with the justification for our choice.
Planning the work in terms of elements, which projects will be created - This is useful when designing, for example, a logo and a brand book. It is good to establish the scope of the project with the client, i.e. the elements that we will include in the brand book or design for a given brand. I think this is a great convenience.
Rule 3. Less is more
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is especially important in graphics. The phenomenon of visual communication, or simply speaking communication through a picture, is a great example of this. It can be safely said that humanity at its beginnings communicated through pictures. A great example can be, among others, the hieroglyphs from ancient Egypt or medieval frescoes, in which the main motif was danse macabre - in a clear and lucid way it reminded the recipient of death during the raging plague epidemic.

Nowadays, there is a return to communication through images. Often in social media, both on the board and in private messages, we use favicons or gifs. Considering the tendency of modern society to simplify communication to images, it is good to apply the rule - the less, the better. But we should not think that this is a phenomenon visible and used only and exclusively in the design graphics of today. A well-designed poster, logotype or cover can draw attention through an interesting idea or a well-executed project. It is worth mentioning here Karol Śliwka, an outstanding graphic designer who is the author of over 400 graphic signs.

When designing, you should follow this rule by using a small number of fonts (preferably only one from one family or a maximum of two types), limiting the color range to a few selected colors or not exaggerating with the number of elements in the graphic. However, you should not think that minimalism is the only way to make good and interesting graphics. A good example is the Polish School of Posters. Looking at the works of, for example, Henryk Tomaszewski, Waldemar Świerzy or Jan Lenica, we see that their designs are very complicated, but at the same time perfectly thought out, which certainly requires a lot of experience.

As a beginner graphic designer who is just starting out in design, it is better to make a minimalist design than a complicated one, because the latter type of design is much more demanding. Currently, when creating graphics for Facebook, especially sponsored ones, their readability is very important. The design should be made in such a way that it will focus the attention of the person scrolling through Facebook boards. Such a post should attract primarily with its image. Facebook limits the amount of typography placed on the graphic in sponsored posts to about 10-20% of its size, which is a significant limitation.