What is “graphic design”?
Graphic design is the visual communication between the designer and the audience. Graphic design helps to explain complex concepts, convey images, and structure large amounts of information.

Graphic design includes signage, signage, presentations and infographics, print and web page layout, font and corporate identity development, outdoor advertising, and printing.

Why do you need graphic design?
Graphic design solves business problems. If the business is not presented on the Internet and not advertised, it will simply disappear. In order to present yourself and attract a client, you will have to turn to a designer at some point. If you focus on what’s important, that’s what graphic design is for:

• Brand building. Designers create the look of a brand – its logo, corporate colors and elements. They make it so that people can accurately find a store or institution, recognize it among a thousand others, and consider the brand’s character at a glance.
• Presentation of goods and services. A client should get the most complete information about the company’s offer and not miss anything. for this, too, you need an experienced designer who will properly collate marketing materials.
• Increase sales. Convenient and beautiful proposal with a catalog will help the customer to accept the proposal when choosing from a dozen of similar ones. A professional designer will make sure that the business proposition is really liked.
• Increased Recognition. A recognizable brand name, well-recognizable brand colors and character illustrations help the customer be remembered. And if the brand is remembered, it’s more trusted.
• Developing a more user-friendly product. This applies primarily to UX designers. They can analyze an app or other interface and tell you how to make it easier, more comfortable, and friendlier. A user-friendly app is always a competitive advantage.

What programs do graphic designers work in?
Just 10-15 years ago all graphic designers worked in Photoshop. It was used to assemble any design: websites, booklets, and mobile app interfaces. Now for each area try to use a specialized program.

These are the main tools of a graphic designer:

• Figma – the main tool of web and UX designers. This program is free and allows you to assemble a design from modules: rectangles, buttons, text blocks, etc.
• Adobe Illustrator is a tool for vector graphics. Allows you to create complex elements for printing, such as logos and corporate styles.
• Adobe InDesign is a program for making up paper materials: presentations, booklets, brochures, books, and so on.
• Corel Painter – a program for drawing with a graphics tablet. Allows you to pick up different tools (brushes, soft and hard pencils) and draw in layers.
• Adobe Lightroom is a program for retouching photos. Supports all possible formats for photos, allows you to buy someone else’s presets – a set of filters and effects collected by another person.

What is the responsibility of a graphic designer
A graphic designer must have technical skills and soft-skills – these are flexible skills that help set up communication with colleagues, communicate with customers, and work as part of a team.

Here are the basic steps of a graphic designer’s job:

• Gather information from the client. Don’t expect the client to provide you with a brief that makes everything clear. The more thoroughly you gather information and interview the customer, the easier it will be to work with.
• Analyze your competitors. Design does not exist in a vacuum – you will always have competitors and references. The client may not know about each and every one, you will have to do the research yourself.
• Split the work into presenting the concept and finalizing it.
• You can do all the work and at the end find out from the client that it’s a little different than what they wanted. Or you can first present an outline, collect the wishes and do it right the first time. And work on the second scenario is faster and more profitable.
• Present your work to the client. It is not enough to make a quality work – you need to convince the customer that your version of the design is more effective than all he could get. Learn to “sell” your work to get great feedback and save time on edits.
• Adequately work out the customer’s edits and wishes. You don’t have to agree with all the edits and run to make them. First understand where they came from and what is really better to do with the design to make the business achieve its goals.
• Prepare the result of the work for other professionals. Printers prepare guides for printers. Web designers “clean up” the design so that front-end developers can move it competently into code.
• Get feedback and feedback. If you don’t ask for feedback, you won’t get it. Collect it – it will help you get more orders.

To summarize
Graphic design is a big industry with demand, competition and lots of interesting directions. If you feel you have an eye for cool websites and other marketing materials, and your soul is for giving the world beauty, join a strong design community.