The increase in graphic design product needs opens a wide possibility and opportunity to work in the field. However, when you dive into the industry, this field has various specialties you can learn and explore. Before deciding what you want to be, let’s find out the graphic design types that suit your skill the most. What are 9 types of graphic design styles?
1. Branding & Identity Design
In business, one of the most needed graphic design specialties is branding and identity design. Many relate it to logo design. However, this specialty is more than just logo. It includes creating and managing the visual elements that represent a brand, organization, or product. The goal is to communicate a company’s values, mission, and personality to its target audience by establishing a distinctive and cohesive brand identity. The field includes:
- Logo design: Creating unique and recognizable symbols, wordmarks, or logotypes that serve as the core visual representation of a brand.
- Brand identity design: Developing a comprehensive set of visual elements that shape the brand’s identity. The consistent use of colors, typography, graphic elements, and imagery is part of it.
- Corporate identity design: Extending brand visuals to various corporate materials, reinforcing a cohesive and professional image for the organization.
2. Advertising and Marketing Design
As its name suggests, this graphic design type focuses on creating visual materials and content for marketing campaigns, advertising initiatives, and promotional strategies. Whether in print or digital form, its existence is the key element to promotional strategy in any company. The products of the design play a pivotal role in attracting, engaging, and persuading target audiences to interact with and invest in products, services, or ideas. It includes:
- Advertising design: Conceptualizing and designing visual elements for advertisements across various media. The designs must not only attract attention but also deliver a persuasive message to take action.
- Marketing collateral design: Involved in making marketing materials such as brochures, flyers, catalogs, and posters. They are used to provide detailed information about products or services.
- Promotional materials: They support specific promotional efforts and are often part of larger marketing campaigns. Designing promotional products, event materials, and sales materials is part of this field.
3. Digital and Web Design
The digital era pushes people to be more involved in using digital products. Therefore, a digital and web design field opens up great opportunities to develop your graphic design career. It focuses on creating visually engaging and user-friendly digital content and interfaces for various online platforms. This graphic design type includes:
- Web design: Creates visually appealing and user-friendly websites for online platforms focusing on layout and aesthetics.
- UI design: Designs on-screen elements for digital interfaces to enhance visual appeal and user interaction.
- UX design: Enhances the overall user experience by ensuring usability and satisfaction with digital products.
- App design: Specializes in user interface design for mobile applications, ensuring functionality and a cohesive visual identity.
- Social media graphics: Design visuals optimized for social media platforms to engage audiences effectively.
4. Print and Traditional Media Design
No matter how sophisticated digital media developed, people still love tangible things. That’s why designs for print and traditional media are still much needed. Designers in this field combine their artistic and technical skills to make printed materials and publications visually captivating, easy to understand, and memorable. Several branches of design that fall into this category are as follows:
- Print design: Aims to captivate viewers and convey information effectively through the physical medium. It includes designs for brochures, posters, business cards, and more.
- Publication design: Centers around designing layouts and visual elements for various printed publications, such as magazines, newspapers, books, and more.
- Typography design: Work to make written content visually appealing and readable, including selecting fonts, font sizes, spacing, and overall text layout.
5. Information and Visual Communication Design
Something that can be quick to read and easy to digest is what people love today. Hence, when you want to share complex information yet still interesting, you must include engaging visuals. It is what designers In information and visual communication design do. Some of the works can be found in:
- Infographic design: Creating visual representations of data, statistics, or complex information to help viewers understand the content more easily.
- Data visualization: Designing charts, graphs, and visual data displays to make data trends and patterns more accessible.
- Icon design: Crafting symbols and graphical representations that convey specific actions, concepts, or objects in a simplified and universally recognizable way.
6. Motion and Multimedia Design
When you love to be involved in more interactive creative works, you will love to learn more about motion and multimedia design. This graphic design type focuses on creating animated and interactive visual content for various digital platforms. You can learn more about:
- Motion graphic design: Producing animated graphics and visual effects for video, presentations, and digital media.
- Video editing and graphics: Editing and enhancing videos with visual elements, animations, and graphics to create engaging multimedia content.
- Multimedia presentation: Combining text, images, audio, and video to deliver information or tell a story to create an interactive and visually appealing presentation.
7. Environmental and Spatial Design
The graphic design products that we usually see around us are the products of environmental and spatial designers. The design involves physical spaces. It focuses on enhancing the user’s experience within these spaces. It includes:
- Environmental graphic design: Creating visual elements in public spaces, such as museums, retail stores, and more, to enhance navigation, wayfinding, and the overall experience.
- Exhibition design: Designing displays and exhibits for events, museums, trade shows, and galleries.
- Signage design: Developing signage and wayfinding systems for buildings, public spaces, and transportation facilities to guide and inform visitors.
8. Packaging Design
In business, packaging design is a crucial part of attracting customers. However, in packaging design, the designer is doing more than creating a visual design. The designer also must focus on its structural design. Of course, the goal is to attract consumers and protect the product. This graphic design type includes:
- Package graphics: Designing the visual elements, branding, and aesthetics of product packaging to make it visually appealing and informative.
- Structural design: Creating the physical structure and form of the packaging to ensure it protects the product, is functional, and aligns with the brand’s identity.
- Label design: Designing product labels that convey essential information, branding, and regulatory compliance while maintaining visual appeal.
9. Art & Illustration
Slightly different from other types of graphic design, art, and illustrations are design results that can be used to create and complement other graphic design products. It emphasizes the creation of custom visuals and artwork. This category encompasses various forms of artistic expression, including:
- Traditional art: The hand-drawn or painted artworks using techniques such as watercolors, oils, acrylics, and pencils.
- Digital illustration: Producing digital artwork used widely in books, magazines, advertising, and digital media.
- Concept art: Developing visuals and illustrations to represent concepts, characters, or environments for various media, including video games and film.
Types of Graphic Design Skills: Finding Your Path
The myriad of specializations and styles offer boundless opportunities. Each of nine types of graphic design skills category serves a unique purpose and audience. As you navigate this creative landscape, understanding these graphic design types will help you discover the style that resonates with your skills and aspirations. Your graphic design journey is an exciting exploration of creativity and communication.