The Complex Process of Graphic Design

If you think a graphic designer simply sits down, draws up an image on his computer, and emails it right out to whoever they’re working for, there’s a lot more for you to learn. Logos are simple, right? Most of them are very basic, easy to understand designs. How long could they possibly take to make?

If the logo design is good, it might have taken that designer hours of brainstorming followed by a lot of sketching before he or she came to their final design. The simple nature of a logo can lead someone to believe it is not as difficult to create, as it would seem.

Most companies who have any form of advertising are going to be working with designers of some kind. You have to really understand the nature of what a graphic designer does if you are going to hire one out.

So what is there to know?

The final product that you will receive is often the result of long hours of work. Whether the job was to design a simple company logo or a more complicated image for a brochure, figuring out how to create that perfect design for the company can be a very lengthy progress. Nevertheless, this is only part of what a company needs to understand.

Once they have the design and they are ready to begin with the process of their commercial color printing, there are a lot of important facts to be aware of.

From computer screen to computer screen an image may appear to be different. The brightness or contrast settings on your monitor are going to have an impact on what you are looking at. Try to look at the graphic from multiple monitors in order to get a better feel for what the colors are actually going to look like. The image may look perfect to you on your computer only to be different on someone else’s.

How the image looks on your computer screen is not always a good indication of what it will look like when printed, too.

While designing press releases one of the first things I was told was to print out a copy of it before sending the file to anyone else. The tone of the colors, the look of them together, could be quite a bit different on paper from on the screen. What sometimes looked faded or off on the screen can just be perfect on paper.

Of course, even the paper stock can have a serious impact on the look of the image. Be aware of what paper will best serve your color printing before you commit yourself to anything. Ask the commercial color printing designer what paper it will look best on.

If you are going to be dealing with graphic design, make sure you have a good working knowledge of what goes into it. It is a lot easier to work with a designer when you know what to ask for and what to be careful of.

Kaye Z. Marks is an avid writer and follower of developments in commercial color printing industry and how these improvements can benefit small to medium-scale business.