Graphic Design made simple (G101) #Lesson 1

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Hello friends welcome to my blog, I mean welcome to our first class in this course, Graphic design made simple,a graphic class organized for newbies and amateurs.

It's a beginners class like I said and Am going to be making this as simple as possible so we can all be carried along. I trust we are ready for the lesson.

I know your mind is so prepared to start putting one or two things together to create those beautiful designs but then I wouldn't want to rush you, by jumping into designs of fliers and the likes. Let me walk you through the basics and principles before we start the design proper.
Lets take a ride together...shall we? I believe your response yes! 😊

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Table of Content.

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• Introduction

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• What is Graphic design

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• Types of Graphic Design

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Introduction

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Graphic design is something we see everyday and everywhere. You may not have taken cognisance of this but it's the fact.People around us are trying to communicate something visually, you can see this even on this platform where we get to post content almost everyday with a cover design.

Brand owners and people who are into one business or the other also wants to put themselves out there, they want something that will represents them and perpetually put them in the mind of people even when they are not there in person . Hence the need for this powerful tool; graphic design

Graphic design has a way of putting you out there in the faces of many people and also communicate your ideas to them. What then is graphic design, what are we really talking about?

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What is Graphic design

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Graphic design can be defined as a viable way of communicating one's idea or concept through colours, typography (text) imagery ,shapes and forms. The goal of graphic design is to come up with an appealing visual content that help communicate our ideas effectively

Now that it has been established that graphic design is a communicating design,you then need a profound knowledge of the elements that make your design come out well with nice aesthetics. Beauty they say lies in the eyes of the beholder. The element that make up your design are as highlighted below.

• Typography

• Texture

• Shape

• Space

• Colour

• Size

• Line

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The above mentioned element have key roles to play when working on a design. Understanding how to use them will give you an edge.

Typography borders on proper arrangements of type in a graphic work using type effects like bold, italics and the likes coupled with a well defined size and colour

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Colour has a way of attracting your viewers when used correctly, it can even determine the mood of your viewer. For example we have dull and sharp colours which have a way of influencing the mood of your viewers.

Texture tend to give us a visual feel of what the design would look like it is felt using our hands. Texture can be in form of the following; smooth, rough, coarse ,hard, soft, moist, glossy and the likes, all these can reflect in a design work.

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Shape is what we all are familiar with, it's a two dimensional object and we have them in different forms. They have a way of beautifying and spicing up our designs.

Space are those areas of design that are intentionally left unusued or unutilized for the beauty of the graphic work. Your design is not meant to be stuffy in the first place.

Line is also another graphic elements that can be leveraged on, it can assume any form; straight, curve, thick, thin, etc.

We will dwell more on this in subsequent class. I hope to share with us relevant terminologies in graphic design even as we move on in this class. Let's just take it step by step

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Types of Graphic Design.

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It will Interest you to know that graphic design has types. All designs are not the same, there are specialist in some area even though we refer to them all as graphic designers. Let's explore below the type we have.

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• Publication design

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This is the kind of design that really concerns us because we deal with publications and write ups of different kind. Originally These types of designs were meant to be done and printed but technology has made it possible for you to publish books,newsletters even magazine and not have it on paper or in printed format. We as authors on this platform also publish quality contents without having to print it on paper.What you also need to note here is that the design must must be catchy and very attractive for viewers to get attracted to it.

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• Advertising design.

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Just as the name implies, this types of design aims to ensure massive patronage. It focuses on winning the attention of people via good ad designs and product packaging. The effort of those doing outdoor or online advert won't yield much if the product being advertised is not looking attractive and appealing enough. Hence the need for this design

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• Environmental graphic design

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You will be amazed to know that graphic design also cut across this area as well. This type of graphics is used to ensure that people have the best experience when it comes to seeking locations, navigation and the likes. You must have seen different signage/ sign boards on the road which tend to point your present location and your destination coupled with the distance covered in kilometers when traveling on a major road. Those kind fall into this category

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• Corporate design

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This type of design can also be called brand identity design. These design are specifically done to foster relationship between a corporate body or a brand and it audience.The element and graphic property adopted such as colour, icon, text, shape ,image passes a message the audience have gotten use to over time. For example, When you see a bitten apple crested on a book or cloth, you don't need to be told that it belongs to Apple.inc.

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• Motion design

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Just as the name implies, it has to do with graphics with some form of animations. It's is becoming very common nowadays. Example are the GIFs, apps, video games, animated text and the likes. It creates some kind of illusion or rotations which of course are appealing to the eyes.

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• UI design

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UI design simple means users interface design. The goal of UI design is to come up with visuals that appeal to the five senses, in other word, it's a design that is user friendly. Have you used an app that got you pissed off while interacting with it? Well the design might just be the cause.A UI designer is saddled with the responsibility to ensure viewer or users get the best experience when interacting with their designs on app or website.

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• Web design

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This is another aspect of design that is very important. Every well meaning and serious organization should have a website. Steemit as a platform has hers, although a blockchain based web. Now there are designers who are specialist in this area such that they can give the website a very good outlook via proper page layout, nice typography, relevant colours and the likes.

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• Information design

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This type of design is also common. Its a design that contains a lot of information which is used to give directive,inform or educate viewer in a very comprehensive manner. The designs is always well structured in such a way that the whole body of information in the design does not end up looking overwhelming.

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I will love us to wrap it here for today as I wouldn't want to load us up with too many information so that the lessons can be effective. I hope you learnt something?...smiles

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Conclusion

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So in today's class we were able to look at the term graphic design, the element and the types we have. I want to believe we got value from it. Do feel free to drop suggestions, Ideas and all forms of feedback to make this lesson effective.

Thanks you so much for your time. See you in the next lesson.

Regards:
@lhorgic♥️