Graphic Design Basics

So you want to be a graphic designer? Welcome to this Graphic Design Basics course, which will teach you everything you need to know to get started. 

First, what is graphic design?

Graphic designers use a mix of visual elements like images, typography, logos, and complex page layouts to communicate ideas. Graphic design is important because aside from making something look visually stunning, it also organizes complex information to be delivered in the most comprehensible way.

Before we start with the course, let's take a quick look at the history of graphic design. Here's a basic timeline:

• 38000 BC: Humans began creating cave paintings, the first known form of visual communication.
• 3000 BC: The Sumerians created the first written languages with the purpose of recording trading and inventories. The earliest languages were logographic, meaning that they used icons to represent entire words and concepts.
• 200 AD: People in China used wood reliefs to print on silk, clothing, and paper.
• 1040: Beijing invented the world's first movable type printing press from porcelain.
• 1455: Johannes Gutenberg developed the movable type and printing press, using it to print a copy of the Bible. The invention allowed for the mass production of books.
• 1760–1840: The Industrial Revolution brought new printing technologies to increase efficiency, like lithography and eventually chromolithography.
• Early 20th Century: Typography took on a much bigger role through science, posters, newspapers, and advertisements. These years were full of art movements that heavily influenced design trends, such as the Bauhaus and Swiss Design.
• Late 20th Century to Today: The invention of computers, software like Photoshop, and the Internet paved the way for new design disciplines like web design, interactive design, UI, UX, digital product design, and a myriad of other digital designs.

Every design piece is composed of the basic principles of design, such as:

1. an appropriate color palette
2. a carefully chosen typeface
3. carefully typeset text

In this section, we'll take a look at design principles, color theory, vocabulary, and elements of typography. But first, let's start by defining the role of a graphic designer. William Addison Dwiggins wrote an article in 1922, "A New Kind of Printing Calls for New Design". In it, he described exactly what his role was:

We can communicate through logos, brand systems, layouts, design artifacts, collateral, etc. But all of this helps a brand, book, or entity organize and clarify information, tell the story, and ultimately connect with people in a meaningful way.

The principles of design are a set of rules that designers can follow when creating a composition to create a visually pleasing work. The purpose of these rules is to deliver a message in the most organized and functional way. So let's go through each of these principles.

Balance

Any element placed on a page carries a visual weight. It can range from form to size, color, and texture. In order to make a design feel stable or have balance, the elements need to have a certain scale. Lack of balance would make your design feel heavy on one side and empty on the opposite.

You can have symmetrical balance or asymmetrical balance. Symmetrical balance is when the elements on the right side have the same visual weight as the elements on the left side. Asymmetrical designs have different elements on the left and the right side, but equal visual weight.

Unity

Unity is the harmony produced by all the elements in a design piece. Using similar colors that match and integrate elements organically makes it appear as if they belong together. You can achieve unity by making clear relationships between the visual elements.

Lack of unity would make your design feel cluttered and confusing. Not only that, but viewers will be attracted to the wrong element of the design and won't get a clear message.

Contrast

Contrast refers to the level of difference between design elements in order to create visual hierarchies. The variation makes certain elements stand out more than others, and you can apply contrast by using colors, textures, sizes, and shapes. Contrast can also create a focal point, drawing the viewers' eyes to certain elements.

Repetition

Using repeated elements in the layout can be pleasing to the user. Repetition is repeating a single element through the design. We can call a grid a repetition of lines, because it creates a certain consistency. Repetition can also be achieved by repeating elements in a design, like a logo or tagline in a brand development project.

Pattern

Pattern refers to the repetition of more than one design element. While repetition focuses on a single element being repeated, pattern refers to multiple elements repeated throughout a design like wallpapers and backgrounds.

Rhythm

Rhythm is the visual tempo of a combination of elements when used repeatedly and with variation. It gives the feeling of organized movement. Rhythm is a principle of design that is usually hidden in works of art, and it is not as obvious in design.

Movement

This refers to the path the viewer's eyes take through a composition. Movement in a composition creates interest in a dynamic play that keeps the viewer engaged. It can be created with rhythm when using a variation of an element repeatedly.

Emphasis

Emphasis is a strategy to draw the viewer's attention to a specific design element. This could be a button, a website, an image, etc. The purpose is to create something that will stand out from the rest of the page.

Proportion

Proportion is the sense of unity created when all the elements in a composition relate well with each other. Proportion, as a principle of design, doesn't necessarily refer to the size of one element, but to the relationship of two or more elements. For example, in layout hierarchy, the proportion of the headline compared to the photo caption needs to be larger, as the headline is the most important element. Smaller elements have less importance.

Harmony

Harmony as a principle of design is the sense of cohesiveness between the elements in a composition. The elements shouldn't be exactly the same or completely different but related in some way. Color palettes or similar textures can create a sense of unity between different components.

Variety

In the principles of design, variety is about creating visual interest that will keep viewers or users engaged with your design. Holding their attention and guiding them through the composition will create a powerful experience. Variety adds something interesting to create contrast and tension, e.g. mixing organic shapes with geometric shapes.

In color theory, colors are organized on a color wheel. Artists and designers use this tool to develop color harmonies that are pleasing to the eye and evoke certain emotions.

The color wheel consists of three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. Mixing these three colors gets us the three secondary colors: purple, green, and orange. And by mixing primary and secondary colors, we get three tertiary colors: blue-green, blue-violet, and yellow-green.

The color wheel can also be split into two main temperature groups. Warm colors are associated with the sun, warmth, fire, energy, and action, while cool colors are associated with calm and peace.

Color Profiles/Spaces

As graphic designers who work in print and digital, we have to be familiar with color profiles or color spaces. This is very important to know, and it is based on the final result of the project. RGB and CMYK are two different color spaces that are used for different mediums:

Color Qualities

Here are some definitions of terms we use when referring to color qualities:

• Hue is any color on the color wheel. It is another word for color.
• Saturation is the intensity or the purity of the color.
• Value is how light or dark a color is.
• Shade is created by adding black to a hue or color, in other words, darkening a color for it to be rich.
• Tint is created by adding white to make a color less intense.
• Tone is created by combining black and white or gray with a hue.

Color Harmony

Let's take a look at some essential color harmonies that can get you started on creating your own color palette:

• Complementary color harmony pairs two colors directly opposite on the color wheel. Red and green or blue and yellow are basic examples of this. This helps create a strong contrast.
• Split Complementary color harmony uses one base color and two secondary colors. So instead of using a complementary color, two colors placed symmetrically around it on the color wheel are used.
• Analogous color harmony works by combining a main color with colors that sit next to it on the color wheel. This color scheme can produce a calming energy because it's so easygoing and doesn't have much contrast.
• Monochromatic takes just one basic color from the color wheel and uses its different shades, tones, or tints to create a palette. It looks simple and cohesive.
• Triadic color harmony uses three colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel, forming a triangle.
• Tetradic colors are two sets of complementary colors that form one part. These colors work best when one of the colors is dominant in the palette and the rest are used as accent colors.

Color Psychology

This is a very powerful tool to use in graphic design. Colors have the ability to impact a person's impression of a brand and evoke certain emotions. Just like warm colors are associated with the sun and cool colors are associated with peace and calm, the rest of the colors in the color wheel also affect perception and behavior.

There are many factors to consider, like cultural background, gender, age, and many more as colors can be perceived in different ways. But here are some general positive and negative associations of different colors:

What is typography?

Type Anatomy

First, let's look at some basic terms in type anatomy.

• Serifs are the small feet at the end of a stroke on a letter or a character. Serifs are usually used for long body copy because they are highly legible.
• Ascenders are any part of a lowercase letter that extends above the x height, e.g. in the letters b, d, or h.
• Descenders are any part of a lowercase letter that extends below the baseline, e.g. in the letters g, j, p, or q.
• Axis refers to the direction of the stroke in a letterform, often taking inspiration from how letterforms might appear if drawn with a pen.
• Ear is a finishing stroke, usually on the upper-right side of the bowl of the lowercase g.
• Bowl is the curved part of the character that encloses the circular or curved parts, also called counter, of some letters, such as lowercase b, d, o, uppercase D, and uppercase B.
• Shoulder is the round part of a letter such as r, m, or n, all lowercase. This name comes from the fact that it resembles a human shoulder.
• Stem is the main, usually vertical, stroke of a letterform also known as a stroke, and that's the main or high stroke of a letter.
• Spine is the main left-to-right curvy stroke in the uppercase and lowercase s. The spine may be almost vertical or almost horizontal depending on the typeface.
• Ligatures are special characters, which are a combination of two individual characters. Some letters can bump into each other when printed, and ligatures allow them to flow better together.
• Lowercase is the small form of letters in a typeface.
• Uppercase refers to the capitals in a typeface. The name comes from the days of metal type. Capital letters were kept in the upper part of the type case.
• Font style is the adjustment of the character or case, such as italics and all caps.
• Weight is the overall thickness of a typeface's stroke in any given font. The most common weights are regular and bold, but weights can cover extremes from the very light to the very heavy.

Type Classification

Knowing the different typeface categories is essential if you want to distinguish them. Here are the main categories:

• Sans Serif: Sans serifs are fonts without serifs. Sans serif fonts are the most versatile category of typefaces. You can use them as display fonts or long-form copy.
• Grotesque Sans Serif: These fonts were commercially popular in the 1900s. They feature a slight contrast between thick and thin strokes and an open aperture gap in some characters.
• Neo-Grotesque Sans Serifs are refined versions that came later and were intended to be more neutral and legible. They feature a uniform stroke and a closed aperture gap.
• Humanist Sans Serifs are based on the proportions of Roman-style capitals, and some characters have a calligraphic influence. They feature a higher contrast between the strokes and a wider aperture.
• Geometric Sans Serif Fonts usually feature circular bowls and rectangular proportions. They don't have a stroke contrast but are more uniform and have a complete vertical axis.
• Serif Fonts: Serif fonts have serifs, the small feet at the end of a stroke on a character. Serif fonts can be used as body copy as they are easy to read and very comfortable to the eye.
• Old Style Serifs were developed between the 15th and 18th centuries to be used as metal type for early printing processes. These feature slightly rounded, cupped, and inclined serifs.
• Transitional Serifs came into the picture in the 18th century as a transition between old style fonts and modern styles. The main feature here is sharper serifs.
• Modern Serifs became more refined in detail thanks to advances in the printing processes. They feature completely straight, flat serifs that sometimes can make them look less legible and more fashionable.
• Slab Serifs are easy to identify from the rest of the serif subgroups. The serifs are heavy and square, and they have the same stroke thickness, so they're very uniform. These fonts were used for advertisements in the early 1800s.
• Script Fonts are based on the flow of cursive handwriting and are divided into two main categories, formal and casual.
• Formal Script Fonts are elegant typefaces used on wedding invitations and diplomas. They are inspired by writing from the 17th and 18th century. They feature connecting tails and flourishes, and they look very elegant and regal.
• Casual Script Fonts are inspired by brush strokes from the 20th century. They are more relaxed and friendly compared to formal scripts.
• Monospaced Typefaces have a fixed width, meaning that all the characters occupy the same amount of horizontal space. These fonts bring to mind typewriters in computer programming.
• Display Fonts don't fit into any of the previous categories. They are one of the largest and most diverse categories. Display fonts aren't suitable for body copy and are often experimental.
• Variable Fonts aren't really a style of typeface, but more of a file format. This OpenType format developed jointly by Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Adobe includes a new technology called OTF Variations. A variable font can contain a font's entire glyph set, up to 64,000 variants, including weight, width, and slant.

Typesetting Basics

It's always important to put legibility and clarity at the forefront. Remember that our job as graphic designers is to communicate and organize information. Typesetting helps polish up a design piece to achieve clarity and comfort. Not many designers put this level of attention to detail, but if you do, it speaks volumes. Here are the basics of typesetting:

• Readability: This refers to how type is set on a page. It is the arrangement of fonts and words in order to make written content flow in a simple and easy-to-read manner.
• Legibility is how a typeface functions. It is a measure of how easy it is to distinguish letters or words from one another and how easy blocks of text are to read. There are different factors like x-height, character, width, weight, and other design traits that can determine if a font is legible.
• Size: The smaller the type size, the more difficult it is to read, especially if your audience includes children or elderly people. Always consider who you're designing the content for.
• Line Length: As a rule of thumb, there should be 45–70 characters per line. When the column width is too narrow, it can result in many hyphenated words, forcing the eyes to jump to the next line too often. On the other hand, long lines can cause confusion for the reader when they go from line to line.
• Leading (also known as line spacing): The amount of leading you will need in a text box is based on the type size and the x-height of the font you're using. To maximize readability, make sure there is enough line spacing because too little line spacing can result in the lines crashing into each other.
• Tracking (or letter spacing): This refers to the space between a group of letters in a line of text. Adjusting the tracking can enhance readability.
• Kerning is the adjustment of the space between two individual characters within a word. It is mostly used in logos or headings to enhance legibility.
• Alignment: In paragraphs of Western text, alignment refers to the invisible vertical lines implied by a block of type. When type is left-aligned, each new line begins from the same point on the x-axis. Right alignment isn't used that often, and center alignment should only be used for short-form text.
• Rags: these are the uneven vertical margins on a block of text when it is left-aligned or right-aligned. You can fix them by hyphenating words where necessary or doing a soft return for a new line break.
• Rivers: These are gaps that appear to run through a block of text, which usually appear in justified text. A common way to fix this is by removing justification or typesetting each line with hyphenation and soft returns.
• Orphans and Widows: An orphan is a paragraph opening line at the beginning of a page or column that's separated from the rest of the text, and a widow is a single word or line at the end of a paragraph that's separated from the rest of the text. These two problems can be solved by adjusting the kerning or tracking or by adding manual line breaks.
• Font Case: Uppercase is when every character is capitalized in a sentence. Lowercase is when no letters are capitalized. Sentence case is when the first letter of the first word in a sentence is capitalized. And title case is when the first letter of each main word is capitalized.

So that was a lot of graphic design theory. Now it's time to get more practical and look at what graphic design entails in the real world. In the next few sections, we'll take a look at design examples from the concepts we covered in the previous chapters.

You will learn how, depending on the discipline, you will have to make different design choices. Always keep in mind that there is a brief to work off, a design solution that needs to be achieved, a message to be communicated, and a user whom we are designing for.

Print design is any design where the final form is intended to be printed. Since the rise of digital tools, every design will most likely be designed on a computer, but the end product will be printed. This covers anything like brochures, shopping bags, stickers, labels, book covers, posters, business cards, flyers, and magazines. Here are some examples:

Digital product design is the process of designing a software application, website, or platform. UI and UX design are part of this process. UX is focused on conducting research on the user experience (UX). UI designers focus on this as well, but on a more systematic level, making sure that the user interface (UI) looks good and feels cohesive.

In the example app design below, notice how the different screens feel cohesive. They share a simple color palette and a call to action that stands out, and they have a great sense of hierarchy through the typographic elements. And there's a consistent illustration style from one screen to the other.

Digital design involves designing elements for display on a digital device, such as thumbnails or banner ads. It can also sometimes involve movement like animation, modeling, and interactive pages.

In the example below, notice how the YouTube thumbnails look enticing, interesting, and call for attention in just a few milliseconds. The fonts are easy to read, the designs are quite simple because of the small size of the thumbnail, and they use interesting colors and compositions to catch the eye.

In the banner ads below, we can see multiple sizes, but they all use the same elements. The dark background helps draw attention to the shoes, as well as the light-colored typography. Sans serif fonts can create a sense of urgency, especially when used in all caps. You'd see this type of banner in passing when scrolling a website, so it's very important that the design is striking, easy to read, and features an image with plenty of impact.

Now let's take a look at brand design, which often includes print design, digital design, and even digital product design. So what is brand design?  

A good brand helps you understand the company's history, purpose, values, and beliefs through all of these brand design elements. Here's a look at the brand design process, based on a real brand presentation I did for one of my clients, the owner of a coffee company.

1. I started by asking what inspired the owner to start their own brand, their background, and their likes and dislikes. I asked about the target market: the age and profiles of the type of people who would typically buy this coffee.
2. Based on that interview, I built out a presentation with the direction we wanted to take the brand in. I described the essence of the brand, the audience, keywords that described the brand, and what makes this brand different from its competitors.
3. I used moodboarding to communicate all of this to the client, highlighting individual traits such as its focus on lesser-known coffee regions, especially female producers.
4. Based on the unique traits of the company, I developed a color palette that was inspired by the research so far. Alongside that, I provided classic and edgy color combinations that the owner could apply to the brand.
5. From there, I developed two concepts to present to the client. I suggest presenting just one or two concepts. That way, there's time to focus on the quality of the concepts. And if the right questions were asked in the initial interview, we then have a specific direction to move in.
6. As a next step, I took all of the feedback from the client and refined the chosen concept. This is a good time to test the design in print or digital to make sure everything works and make any necessary changes.
7. From there, I created a final presentation for the client.
8. Once the project was approved, I created the brand guidelines to help the owner to apply the design consistently in the future. You can see some example pages from this document below.

Now, we'll take a look at different design tools to use and design assets that can help us speed up our work. A solid design process can help designers deliver quality work and get the job done in an organized and efficient manner.

So in this section, we will take a look at some useful tools that can help you improve your projects at every stage of the design process. We will cover tools for easier workflow, moodboarding, and color palette development, and we will take a look at design assets and their benefits.

First, let's talk about the different design disciplines. Graphic design is the creation of visual compositions to solve problems and communicate ideas through design elements like typography, imagery, color, and form. There's no one recipe to do that, so that's why there are several disciplines. Here's an overview:

While there are different disciplines, many of these jobs have a similar workflow:

1. Generally, we start with a design brief from the client or creative director that contains the details, purpose, and goals of the project.
2. Next up, we have the brainstorming phase, where we collect everything from the research and aim to solve the problem from as many angles as possible.
3. After the brainstorming phase, we should have multiple solutions and concepts, and now we need to narrow down the solutions to a max of three concepts, or ideally two, and even better if it's just one.
4. Next, it's time to prepare rough sketches or layouts to present to the client or team. The concept presentation should be concise and to the point. Remember that often clients aren't designers, so it's important to explain every concept in detail and why we have made certain decisions.
5. Clients will then provide feedback. Ideally, this feedback will include more than "I like or I don't like", and it will be more concept-driven.
6. The next step is to incorporate the feedback from the client into the design, polish the details, present the final product, and deliver the necessary digital files. If it needs to be sent to press, then you will need a PDF, or you will need to push it live if it is a website.

Now let's take a look at some of the different software that designers use:

• Adobe InDesign is great for publishing magazines, book designs, and multi-page documents.
• Photoshop is good for digital painting and photography work.
• Lightroom is for more specialized photography work.
• Illustrator is great for vector-based designs, illustrations, and logo designs.
• Premier Pro is ideal for making videos.
• After Effects is used for motion graphics.
• Figma is a great collaborative web application for UX and wireframes, or interface design.
• Canva is a user-friendly app that helps you create marketing designs like posters, ads, videos, and social media graphics.
• Affinity Designer is a good alternative to Illustrator, as are other apps like Sketch, CorelDRAW, and Inkscape.
• Affinity Publisher is similar to Adobe InDesign, and you can even import InDesign files to work there.
• Adobe XD and Sketch are good for UI/UX design.
• FontLab is a professional font design application  that has been the industry standard for many years, while FontForge is a great free option.
• Trello is a useful online tool for organizing design projects among teams.
• Milanote is an awesome, easy-to-use tool for organizing ideas and projects through visual boards. 

Design assets have become essential for the busy designer on a tight budget. Here are some useful sources of design assets:

• DaFont has a great library with plenty of fonts that suit a wide range of projects.
• Google Fonts offers high-quality free fonts, with a wide range of open-source fonts to try out and download.
• Coolors is a great tool to help you get started with a color palette. You can pick colors, get inspiration, generate random palettes, and even go as far as checking contrast and creating gradients.
• Happy Hues is another great tool for colors. If you like a color palette but you don't know how to apply it, this site can give you inspiration and examples as to how and where you could use the color palettes.
• Envato Elements lets you find anything from vintage fonts to futuristic fonts and even some of the best experimental fonts in the industry. It also provides all kinds of useful graphics, templates, add-ons, and much more.

Try Envato Elements

Now let's talk about how technology has affected graphic design.

Our main purpose as graphic designers is to communicate. Technology has made it easier to reach and spread information at a much faster rate due to the Internet. Here are some recent changes to graphic design due to technology:

• Brands can have more exposure online, allowing them to have a direct relationship with consumers.
• Digital graphics quality has improved greatly—what before would have been done with collage can now be created by painting in Adobe Photoshop or feeding words to an AI.
• Nowadays, we can take amazing photographs not only with cameras, but also with our phones.
• Connectivity has made it possible for many designers to work remotely.
• Technology has made the field of graphic design expand by creating overlapping disciplines. UI and UX wouldn't have happened without the Internet revolution. The traditional graphic designer was known for creating packaging or ads for marketing. It now has evolved into a wide range of disciplines, all of which have communication and technology as the common denominator.
• When it comes to fonts, in the past we needed multiple font files, but now we have variable fonts, where one font file contains multiple typographic styles that vary in weight, style, and size.

I think it is important to emphasize here that graphic design has a purpose.

Finally, let's go through an overview of everything you learned in this course. Graphic design is the creation of visual content with a communication purpose. You learned about the different visual elements that are involved in creating a design. We looked at the basic principles of design so you can organize elements on the page. We covered color theory and its concepts, and we gave an overview of typography, history, and its classification.

We also looked at the different design disciplines that exist presently and the more traditional ones. You also saw examples of the different design choices you can make based on the discipline. To make your design process easier, I showed you some tools that can help you have a seamless workflow.

Last, we took a look at how technology has evolved and affected our industry. While technology has developed quickly, we must remind ourselves about the core job of a graphic designer. It all lies in a balance between making something look visually stunning and organizing complex information that's being delivered in a comprehensible way. At the end of the day, communicating with clarity is the priority.