Graphic design is a type of art focusing on combining different visual elements (images, videos, text, etc.) to convey a certain message. Think of websites, advertisements, infographics, and 3D designs — these are all graphic designs, used for commercial, educational, or artistic purposes.
In our guide, our experts explain the main elements, principles, benefits, stages, and types of graphic design. Additionally, we’ll also share the top 5 graphic design tools of 2025.
Table of Contents
A Brief History of Graphic Design
The beginnings of graphic design intertwine with the history of art. Here’s a short timeline to give you an overview:
- The first evidence of graphic design dates back to 15,000 BC in the caves of southern France, where archeologists found traces of drawings in stone.
- Between 3100 and 2700 BC, the Blau Monument was created in Mesopotamia. This monument is the first known artifact to combine words and images. Although it differs in many ways from today's graphic design, this cultural legacy is a forerunner of visual art.
- The invention of paper in AD 105 in China contributed to the development of printing. The Chinese discovered a movable type of printing almost a thousand years later, in AD 1045, and it reached Europe by AD 1276. The art of printing was perfected in 1450, and the first images appeared in printed books by 1460.
- The Industrial Revolution (1760–1800) was a time of significant change. The invention of the typewriter in 1800 led to a more efficient and effective spread of the written word, along with lithography and other techniques that enhanced printing.
- The use of graphic design exploded in the 1900s. The printing of visual information to attract customers' interest and the creation of logos to help corporations establish their brands fueled the growth of the advertising sector.
- In the late 1900s, computer technology also advanced, transforming the graphic design industry with applications like Photoshop.
- Today, graphic design prioritizes the use of digital technologies to convey visual messages. However, in some cases, designers still use drawings and paintings to create logos, covers, layouts, and much more.
Graphic Design Elements
Visual elements are fundamental components of this type of art and encompass the main elements of graphic design. They include the following:
- Color attracts the consumer's attention to specific design elements and evokes appropriate moods or emotions — that's why designers use them strategically and selectively.
- Line is one of the basic elements that assist artists in clarifying their intended focal points — what is expected to be noticed or taken in — to guide the audience’s attention.
- Shape makes images recognizable and strong. They have a significant role in interpreting symbols in the world around us.
- Size adds dynamics to the design, highlighting the dominating features that draw users’ attention.
- Space inspires imagination and establishes a visual hierarchy among the elements, making it easier for users to understand information.
- Texture creates tactile experiences, drawing viewers’ attention to your visuals. It can also help convey specific messages and emotions.
Graphic Design Benefits
The importance of graphic design extends beyond impacting customers’ first impressions of a brand. Its benefits are numerous, and here are some of the most important ones:
- Builds a Brand’s Visual Identity
- Sets the Brand Apart From the Competition
- Builds Trust and Credibility
- Facilitates Communication With Your Target Audience
- Attracts Customers
- Increases Sales
1. Builds a Brand’s Visual Identity
Graphic design shapes a brand's visual identity. In both the digital and physical worlds, elements like color, typography, and imagery create a distinctive visual representation of the brand.
Its visual components should be consistent throughout all brand materials, including the website, logo, and products, to establish a memorable and recognizable brand identity.
2. Sets the Brand Apart From the Competition
An attractive and memorable visual identity sets your brand apart from its rivals. A unique logo representing your brand and its values, a consistent color scheme, and distinctive typography will create a lasting impression. When customers see these elements, they will recall your brand and associate them with your products or services.
3. Builds Trust and Credibility
Graphic design significantly impacts credibility and trust, shaping people's perceptions of a brand or message. A well-designed visual identity can convey a sense of professionalism, attention to detail, and reliability, while a clear and consistent design can increase brand recognition and memorability. On the other hand, a poor design can suggest the opposite.
4. Facilitates Communication With Your Target Audience
Studies show that the human brain processes visual content 60,000 times faster than textual. This means that using visual elements and graphic design makes it easier to communicate with your desired audience.
It simplifies materials that could be challenging for most of your audience to understand. For example, infographics can present data in a more engaging and easily comprehensible way than a wall of text. Similarly, a well-designed website can help users find what they're looking for through a clear navigation structure.
5. Attracts Customers
By creating visually appealing materials that effectively communicate a brand's message, graphic design attracts new customers while engaging existing ones. It evokes feelings and clearly and convincingly conveys the value of a product or service.
Customers are more likely to believe that a product or service is high-quality and worth their time and money when presented with well-designed marketing materials.
6. Increases Sales
Clients and prospects who contact your brand will be intrigued by its design first. If the design catches their attention, they will stick around to read your message.
Graphic design can increase sales by improving the visual appeal and usability of digital and material products. It attracts attention, communicates the brand message, and creates a positive impression of the product or service.
Additionally, graphic design significantly contributes to establishing brand recognition, differentiating a brand from competitors, and leading to increased sales and customer loyalty.
6 Types of Graphic Designs
Although the areas of their application overlap, we can roughly distinguish six types of graphic design:
Web Design
Also known as digital design, this type of graphic design combines and arranges elements to create a website’s visual identity. An appealing and functional website design provides a satisfying user experience and communicates the brand’s messages to its target group.
Web design encompasses a plethora of disciplines: web building, web graphic design, UX design, SEO elements, etc. Combining them and knowing what your customers want and need from your website will help you create the best communication channel and storefront. Don’t forget to stay updated on graphic design trends so you’re always on top of the market’s demand.
Product Design
Product design is the process of imagining and creating material and digital products that solve users' problems and meet specific needs. The key to creating a successful product design is knowing what your customers really want.
In this process, designers use visual aids to create marketing and advertising designs and communicate with their target audience. They basically identify the problem, devise a solution, build a prototype, and test it to ensure a broader audience will benefit from it. Ideally, customers won’t even notice the whole process.
For example, consider the Coca-Cola bottle. Its distinct shape was created in 1915 to provide buyers with an easily attainable drink, distributed everywhere — one that they won’t be able to miss even in the dark or when broken on the ground. With one simple product design, Coca-Cola hit two birds with one stone: solved a problem and made a splendid marketing ad.
Branding Design
This type of graphic design refers to creating the visual brand identity of a business. It includes essential components, like the logo design, color scheme, and typography, which distinguish the brand from the competition and make it recognizable to customers.
For instance, everyone knows what Coca-Cola is, what the logo looks like, and even the typography it uses (we all recognize the curved “C”). The company has put a big effort into branding, designing everything to convey its values to customers without even saying a word.
Print Design
Pamphlets, magazines, posters — These are all examples of print design. A type of graphic design, print design involves visual communication that revolves around printing attractive designs on paper and serving them to the desired audience, rather than offering them in digital form.
Although businesses today focus more on digital designs, prints are not to be dismissed. In fact, 51% of consumers enjoy reading printed magazines, while 33% prefer to check out printed product catalogs.
Animation Design
This type of graphic design includes animation and special effects to create multimedia content for video games, movies, TV, or social media platforms. It utilizes different programs like Adobe Animation to create 2D or 3D animations, edit effects, add music, and more.
Environmental Design
Environmental graphic design refers to designs made to improve the look and function of public spaces. The goal of these graphics is to not only make the space look better but also to foster a sense of belonging in the community.
As a relatively new field, many businesses use it today to bring a different feel to their offices or brick-and-mortar stores. Some examples include murals or street art painted on buildings in public spaces.
Graphic Design Principles
Graphic design principles help align the abovementioned elements in an aesthetically pleasing design. They include:
- Balance fits the visual weight of details on both sides of the design to provide the feeling of coherence, completeness, and satisfaction to the viewer.
- Contrast adds visual interest to your design and draws users' attention to emphasize important parts.
- Movement guides viewers through graphic design composition and controls how they interact with the piece.
- Repetition is an element that repeats numerous times, helping to create depth or texture in a design.
- Proportion communicates the importance of design elements — larger shapes are more important, while smaller ones are secondary.
- Emphasis draws viewers' attention to the focal point of the design, where the most important message of your graphic artwork is presented.
- Rhythm improves design aesthetics, highlighting certain elements and conveying desired messages. Rhythm also affects how viewers' eyes move through a page and absorb information.
Stages of Graphic Design Process
Although every design agency is different and every designer has their own working routine, generally, the graphic design process involves the following steps:
- Creating a project brief: This is the foundation of the graphic design project. The designer asks the client about the problem the design aims to solve, their requests, and expectations, and creates a project brief based on that information.
- Researching the project: During this phase, the graphic designer identifies the competition, their strengths and weaknesses, spots potential problems, and decides how to enhance the design.
- Brainstorming ideas and creating a wireframe: The graphic designers brainstorm possible project solutions and begin constructing the basic structure for the finished product, known as a wireframe or mockup. The wireframe is simple and serves as a preview of the finished design.
- Creating the actual design: After the wireframe is approved, the designer produces the actual design. They begin incorporating elements into the sketch or prototype and provide multiple iterations of the final product.
- Getting the client’s feedback: Gathering feedback is crucial because it confirms (or denies) that the design aligns with the client’s expectations. The client might request design adjustments.
- Project delivery: Once the client approves the modified design, the designer delivers the finished product.
If you want to learn more about this process in detail, check out our separate article on the graphic design process!
Top 5 Graphic Design Tools in 2025
Now that you’re familiar with graphic elements and principles, it’s time to introduce tools that bring the best graphic design trends to life.
Here are some commonly used graphic design software:
- Photoshop is the most famous graphic design tool of all. It is irreplaceable for editing photos, but also offers 2D and 3D image management, composting, image analysis, and video editing.
- Illustrator allows the creation of all types of graphic design content — from vectors and logos to complex graphics and fonts. Although many consider it an alternative to Photoshop, the main difference is that Adobe Illustrator is a vector-oriented tool, allowing you to edit images without compromising quality.
- Sketch is a vector-based tool valuable for designing icons, advertising banners, social media graphics, and presentation materials. It also features a wide range of UI and UX applications, including icon design, prototyping, and user flow creation.
- InDesign is another top graphic design tool that’s part of Adobe’s suite. It’s ideal for publishers as it facilitates the creation of layouts for newspapers and magazines. Designers can efficiently organize text, design layout formats, add picture placeholders, and save documents in a print-ready format.
- After Effects is intended for motion design and visual effects. This Adobe tool allows designers to produce animations, movie titles, transitions, and 3D formats.
Graphic Design Final Thoughts
Whether you present material or digital products to today’s market, their attractive design is more important than you might assume. Beyond making your brand visually appealing, good design can also improve how you communicate with your audience and your overall business functioning.
Now that you have a better understanding of graphic design and its importance to businesses of all kinds, it’s time to level up your business game — either on your own or with the help of a professional graphic design agency.
