Graphic design and illustration

Graphic design takes a message and decides how it should look so that the right reader notices the right thing first. The Interaction Design Foundation puts hierarchy, layout, typography and colour at the core, with balance, repetition and awareness of the audience's culture close behind, and SFIA describes the skill as applying visual concepts across print and digital media alike. It is the oldest craft in this silo, and its principles pass straight into UI and visual design. What differs is the output, which here is a finished image, page or object instead of a working screen.

What graphic designers produce

• Identity work: logos, palettes, type choices and the guidelines that keep them consistent, usually for a brand team.
• Editorial and print: magazines, annual reports, books, posters and packaging, laid out on a grid and prepared for the printer.
• Marketing graphics: social posts, banners, adverts and email headers, made in large numbers and many sizes.
• Illustration: drawn images from icons and diagrams to editorial pictures and children's books, by hand or on a tablet.
• Information graphics: charts, maps and diagrams where clarity counts for more than style.

Type, stock and the rights behind them

Much of a graphic designer's material is licensed, not made. A typeface is software sold for particular contexts, so making artwork on the desktop, serving the font to web browsers and embedding it in an app can each need their own grant, as the font licensing entry sets out. Photographs and illustrations arrive under a stock licence, and royalty-free means a single payment covers repeated use while the terms still limit what that use may be. Licence types are set against each other in the design assets pillar, and marketplaces we have reviewed sit on the digital assets page.

The beginner's mistake is reaching for effects before fundamentals: drop shadows, gradients and five typefaces on one poster, where two weights of one family and a clear grid would have said more. Template tools such as Canva have put layout within everyone's reach, which raises the value of a designer able to say why a layout works.

Where the craft leads

Experienced graphic designers move towards brand design, art direction, publishing and packaging, or across into interface work, where the same eye for hierarchy meets the added question of what happens when someone clicks. Illustrators more often build a recognisable personal style and work on commission. Slide decks as an everyday office task are covered under presentations, which is where most non-designers first meet these principles.