Graphic Design Fundamentals PDF

What is Graphic Design? Graphic Design is a process in which we use typography, images, colors, icons and other illustrations to communicatevisually. This term was first coined by William Addison Dwiggins on 1922 as he called himself a “graphic designer”. THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF GRAPHIC DESIGN ARE T...

What is Graphic Design? Graphic Design is a process in which we use typography, images, colors, icons and other illustrations to communicatevisually. This term was first coined by William Addison Dwiggins on 1922 as he called himself a “graphic designer”. THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF GRAPHIC DESIGN ARE THE FOLLOWING: Lines Shapes Form Texture Balance Lines can be used and commonly found in drawings or illustrations, textures or patterns, as well as on text composition whether to give emphasis, divide or organize content, or to guide the viewer’s eye. Impacts on lines also differs based on their attributes. These attributes include: Weight Color Texture Style Shape is a two-dimensional external boundary of an object. Any object outline that has height and width can be considered as a shape. Together with lines, they form the foundation of your design. There are two (2) major categories of shapes in design: Geometric – these are regular and mathematical shapes. Organic – these are freeform shapes Form is a three-dimensional shape. Shadows, perspective, depth, and sometimes texture creates a form. Without these attributes, a form is just a shape or series of shapes. Plain images/objects and flat designs can be enhanced by adding shadows or lightings to create an illusion of a form. It also gives the object a sense of place. Texture refers to the physical quality of the surface of an object in an artwork or design. Italso refers to how an object look or feels like. An object might be smooth, rough, shiny, hard, or soft. It can be in 3D (real texture) or 2D (visualtexture). Texture adds depth and visual interest to the flat images or objects. Texture can be used for: Establishing visual value or a focal point in an artwork. Having contrast within a design Making an artwork visually balanced. Balance Visual balance is the creation of visual equilibrium by relating elements such as line, shape, color, space or form in terms of their visual weight. Basically, there are two kinds of visual balance. Symmetrical balance From the name itself, symmetrical balance, which includes radial symmetry is when both two sides of a piece are equal. If you fold your artwork or piece into two or if you put an imaginary line between your artwork, each half is identical or visually similar to the other half. Asymmetrical balance Both sides of your composition does not contain the same elements but contain almost the same visual weight. Branding is simply what peoplethinks about you, your company, your product or your service. Identity or visual identity is the visual representation of abrand. It can be in a form of image,choice of color or typography, andmany more. Lucidpress (2018) enumerated the seven steps to creating a brand identity design: Establish clear purpose and positioning. Recall why you or your company exists, who your target audience are, and what makes you or your service unique from your competitors. Conduct thorough market research. Having a deep analysis on your target audience on what their personalities are which will lead you to the next step. Get a personality. Based on your research, determine your brand’s personality. Brand personality make a huge impact on the visuals of your marketing materials. Create a polished logo. In creating your logo, it should be simple, scalable, and memorable. Observe the logos of famous companies like Amazon, Google, and IBM. What do these logos have in common? Create an attractive color pallet. Your color pallet should be simple and contain one to three primary colors. Once you have established your color pallet, you may play with their color family. For example, if you choose blue as your primary color, you may use sky blue, baby blue, and other colors under the blue family to support your primary color. Select professional typography. When selecting fonts, it is important to consider these things: Do not make it fancy. Fancy typefaces only make your text confusing. Don’t mix fonts/typefaces. Do not mix fonts or typefaces in a word or sentence as it may give mixed interpretations to your audience. Mix contrasting fonts/typefaces. This is not similar to the above item. This means you may use serif typefaces for your product title and sans serif for the subtitle Choose on-brand supporting graphics. Your brand identity should have a visual library that include icons, images/photographs, design assets, and other supporting graphics. Layout and composition are the building blocks of design. These two focus on the arrangement of your objects or elements on your design. Your good texts, images, or other elements in the graphic will turn to waste if your layout is not well-composed. There are five basic principles of layout and composition: Proximity White Space Alignment Contrast Repetition Proximity - is the process of placing related elements together. Elements that are not related to that group should be separated to show that these elements are not related to that group. White space is not literally the white spaces that you found on the design but rather the negative space between lines, paragraphs, and element on the design. There are two types of white space: Micro white space Macro white space Hedge (2017) listed some of the importance of white space in design. Improved comprehension. Focus and attention Creates a breathing space for users The message Guide the user through local grouping- White space helps you to achieve the proximity of your design. Branding and Design Tone- Let us look back at the steps of brand identity design, the way how areyou going to apply white spaces in your design helps you create your own brand’s personality. Alignment helps designers to organize different elements in their composition. This is similar to the alignment that we see in MS Word or other productivity tools. Contrast means one element is opposite to the other element. This does not only apply to colors, but to typeface and size of elements as well. Contrast helps you to catch the viewer’s eye, create a direction, or giving emphasis to something. Repetition simply means to use of the same typefaces, color palettes, or other elements to achieve consistency in your composition. This create unity in your composition or make your projects connected to each other. Typography is the art of arranging texts that makes it readable and appealing to the viewer. It involves font style, typeface, and text structure. Font refers to the variation of weights of a typeface, while typeface refers to the text style. LESSON 9 COLOR Color Theory describes how different colors contribute to each other and how they appear as they are mixed into other color schemes. Hue-Refers to pure, vibrant colors. Saturation-Refers to the intensity of the color. It ranges from black and white (or grayscale) to vibrant color. Value-Refers to the lightness or darkness of a color, eg. from light blue to dark blue Monochromatic Color Scheme This color scheme only focuses on one color, and often using variation by incorporating saturations or values. Achromatic Color Scheme This color scheme only revolves on using desaturated colors like black, gray, and white. Analogous color scheme selects a group of three colors that are adjacent in the color wheel. Images are not just limited to photographs, it also includes graphics, and other illustrations. Having images on your composition makes it appealing to the eyes of your viewer. IMAGE FILE TYPES Vector Raster Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) Adobe Illustrator Document (AI) IMAGE FILE EXTENSIONS Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPG or JPEG) Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Graphics Interchange Format LESSON 10 PHOTO IMAGING AND POST PROCESSING Photography Photography is an art form like drawing and painting. Photographers use their camera to make us see life in a different way, feel emotions, and record stories and events. Greek for “Painting with Light” and can be considered both an art and science. Three basic types of Photography Landscape tells the story of a place and a person. Portrait tells the story of a person. Documentary tells the story of life as it happens.