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Getting Started: Understanding the Basics of the Graphic Design Business
I love the graphic design business. It’s been a playground of endless stimulation for my overly active (and often distracted) mind for more than 20 years. It’s always full of variety and the challenge of new and different work. One day I am designing a package for an electronics product, the next day I am creating a complete brand and identity for a large corporation.
The graphic design industry is a great place to apply your creative talents and get paid for doing what you love to do. I have never ever thought of what I do as work. In fact, I’m still nervous that somebody will discover how much fun I’ve been having for the past 20-plus years!
Owning your own graphic design firm is one of those dreams that can come true. If you are a person who enjoys solving problems creatively by applying your talents, you’re in the right business. If you like to do it your way, and get highly rewarded for it, then you’re reading the right book!
1. What Is Graphic Design?
Graphic design as a profession is often misunderstood. People are unaware of the impact it has on both business and society, because it’s so diverse and ubiquitous. Graphic design can incorporate many things; from T-shirt design to annual reports; from movie posters and book design to street signs and beer coasters. Still, many people are unsure of what it is. Is it the ability to draw a picture? Is it creating a caricature of someone at an amusement park? Is it creating poster graphics, or is it graffiti on a wall? The short answer to all those questions is, yes, it’s all of these things and more.
The simplest way to understand graphic design is to think of it as art applied to commerce. Graphic design is most often applied to marketing, advertising, and commercial communications. Graphic design is a creative process that involves developing ideas, creating visuals, and organizing content for the purpose of selling, marketing, or advertising.
The art and business combination is what makes graphic design so unique. You may be a very creative person. Maybe you’re someone who is able to paint, draw, design, and conceptualize all sorts of fantastic images and ideas on the computer, but if you aren’t able to apply it so that others can use it to their advantage in their businesses — it probably isn’t graphic design.
Design is valuable because of what it does for the businesses it serves. Companies use it to help draw attention to their products and services by making them stand apart from their competitors. In a nutshell, graphic design helps them sell their stuff quicker and more easily than their competitors.
Graphic design includes print ads, websites, logos, stationery, sell sheets, TV graphics, multimedia presentations, billboards, trade show displays, packaging, Point-of-Purchase (POP) displays, direct mail, and so much more. In fact, the list is almost endless. If you can see it, then graphic design most likely played some part in it. The big point of differentiation between art and graphic design is its purpose: Graphic design is used to promote somebody’s business, product, or service.
Graphic design has some big uses in the business world:
• To communicate important messages: Graphic design is commonly used to make information easier to understand and digest. It’s often used to bring clarity to complex or convoluted content, or to help communicate important messages.
• To make something more appealing or more valuable: This is commonly used on items such as books, magazines, and product packaging. In fact, sometimes the only real difference between products or services is the way they are packaged or presented! Graphic design can make one service or product seem more valuable simply by the way it looks on the outside. Manufacturers know that products can experience new growth by receiving a graphic design overhaul without any real modification of the product. This means graphic design can help increase sales.
• To sell something: This can be in the form of attracting attention or helping someone through a sales message as he or she reads a brochure. It can be used in an advertisement or billboard, or it can help someone navigate information on a website more effectively.
• To get attention: Design is a key tool for attracting attention. Having an important message is worthless today if no one takes notice of it and reads it! Businesses know this. They spend millions of dollars annually just to get their message out to an overly stimulated market. They need communication that cuts through the clutter, and diverts attention from their competitors to their own products.
2. Understanding the Three Forms of Media
Graphic design uses media to promote, inform, persuade, or sell to prospects and customers. Media is simply the device or vehicle that is used to deliver the message to the person reading it. Generally, you can group media into three basic categories that designers most commonly use.
• Print media: This category includes brochures, flyers, books, and booklets — basically anything that requires traditional printing. Often print media has other speciality subset categories that make these media even more complex such as outdoor media, advertising media, and magazines.
• Digital media: Surf the Internet for 30 seconds and you are bombarded with graphic imagery. It’s everywhere on the Internet and the demand is only getting higher. In fact, the Internet is one of the biggest consumers of graphic design. Businesses and people use design to get and keep a person’s attention. Digital media applies to any type of presentation that appears on your computer. It could be a PowerPoint presentation, a slide show, or some other computer-related imagery.
• Film media: The use of traditional film has changed dramatically, and actual “film” is not used as it once was. Film media covers both traditional film and digital film, including video. This could include graphics for television advertising, sports, titles for movies, or short video spots.
3. Who Buys Graphic Design Services?
Graphic design services can be targeted to a wide variety of clients such as marketing managers, business owners, CEOs, PR departments, and just about anyone who uses visual media to communicate, persuade, or sell to others.
Some of the largest buyers of design services are big corporations with marketing departments who create many programs and have substantial budgets. In these types of companies you often deal with a marketing professional of some sort; for example, the VP of marketing or a marketing manager. In fact, many large companies may have more than one division with more than one marketing manager. It’s like having many clients in one location. These businesses can represent a one-stop shop for your business. As a result, some designers never have to market or advertise to individuals outside of one company.
Many midsized businesses also have marketing managers who use design services. These individuals often don’t have the internal staff to help support their departments so they regularly use the services of outside designers. They are constantly on the lookout for new talent and fresh thinking.
Another big market for design services is the entrepreneur. Depending on the size and structure of the company you service, you may never deal with a marketing person. Instead, you might deal with the actual owner, a business partner, or even the VP of sales. It all depends on the type of company it is and the business structure they have. Most often you will be dealing with someone who is directly responsible for business development (i.e., growing the business).
This only covers those who use design to advertise and market. There are many other buyers of design services who use graphic design as part of their final product; for example, book publishing companies, magazine publishers, and manufacturers of products are also great potential customers for your graphic design business.