Graphic Design is a creative profession, it has emerged historically from art, advertising, graphic arts (printing and typography) and photography. The name "graphic design" was coined after World War II to designate this distinctive field of professional activity from other areas of work. Graphic Design itself has many facets. A visual problem solver at the core, the graphic designer is concerned with achieving the highest level of informational and aesthetic quality in the work. Directing these qualities to the problem of the client, the graphic designer is responsible for planning, comprehensives, objectivity, function, communication, performance and permanence in both the process of design and the products themselves. In the field you will work with closely with others on project teams. Writers, photographers, production artist, printer and clients are the kinds of people that you must work with in order to get out the job. There are few businesses, companies, not-for-profit organizations or industries that do not in some way need the creative talents of the professional graphic designer. Career opportunities are diverse for a person in graphic design. Some fields that require graphic design are magazine and newspaper publishing, package design, corporate design, printing, public relations, television, advertising, architecture, government, industrial design, museums and other institutions. ----------------------------------------------------- The Graphic Design Process The Thumbnail Layout A thumbnail layout is a quickly-drawn illustration of the printed piece. It is small and shows only the major elements of the design. A designer searching for a satisfactory design may draw dozens of thumbnail sketches. They give the designer a range of possibilities from which to choose a design suitable to the copy and art for the piece under consideration. The Rough Layout Once a basic design has been selected, it may be further developed by using rough layouts. A rough layout shows the major elements of the design to size, including the placement of key pieces of art and major blocks of art. Rough layouts are drawn more carefully and precisely than thumbnails. They are about the size of the finished printed piece and often use similar paper and colors to suggest the appearance of the final printing. The rough layout is given to the printer as a guide in the actual printing. The Comprehensive Layout A printing job may involve ordering many expensive items such as type and artwork. Therefore, the designer or customer may want to see exactly how the finished piece is going to look. The comprehensive layout shows the customer this without the actual expense of printing. Comprehensive layouts are drawn carefully to size and have all major pieces of art drawn in place. Colored paper and art techniques are used to resemble the finished job (today many digital means are used in this process). Much time and care may go into preparing a comprehensive layout to make sure that it closely resembles the final job.