Combining text, images and symbols to assist with the communication of an idea to an audience in one way to think of graphic design. Another way to think of it is that it is the art of visualizing concepts. Graphic design is often associated with company branding and advertising.
Often the job of the graphic designer will be will be to take ideas and images from a client and arrange them in a way that is pleasing to the eye. The process of conveying ideas through images has been around since prehistoric times. Scribes, printers and artists where trying to store knowledge and convey messages through visual demonstration thousands of years ago. We are doing the very same thing today the difference being that we have the massive advantage of technology at our fingertips. Like the scribes we are using tools to create visual depictions of our ideas, we call it graphic design. Usually a graphic designer would work a company/individual to decide exactly what they want to achieve and put a plan in place to get there.
The process of graphic design requires a skillful combination of text and imagery to create the best result. Some would say the arrangement of text to imagery was an art form in itself. Deciding things such as color scheme and ratio of text to image would have a massive impact on whether the whole venture was a success or not. This is often why a company who want to make an impression will approach a graphic designer with a wealth of knowledge to best understand their needs. The successful graphical design venture could mean sales increasing and good reputation building.
Graphic designers can assist with many different mediums used within a company. A design could be put together and used on an assortment of mediums such as posters, adverts to appear in magazines/newspapers or even DVD/CD covers. If it were the launch of a big campaign it is likely there would be many mediums used with the design featuring on them. The results of graphic design can be two or three dimensional; this further emphasizes the ability to use the designs on many mediums.
