Stephanie has taught studio art and art history classes to audiences of all ages. She holds a master's degree in Art History.
When was the last time you leafed through a magazine? Did you notice the advertisements? They might have included drawn or painted illustrations or computer graphics, but more than likely, they included photographs. In today's world, we see applications of photography everywhere, including in graphic design.
Graphic design is the art of combining pictures and words to convey ideas. It's used in fields like advertising and marketing. Unlike fine art, in which the image comes from the artist's imagination, in graphic design, artists work for clients who want to convey specific messages. The client might be selling products or services or trying to raise awareness about an issue, and the artist has to create a design that meets their needs. All graphic designs have a purpose and a message. Nothing in them is simply decorative or incidental.
In graphic design, images are often the best way to get ideas across. People respond to images and process them regardless of what language they speak. Photographs are very effective images that can convey stories very quickly. Think how less effective advertisements would be if they used only words. And while graphic designers can use many computer art and design software programs to create images, if they know how to do photography, they have more skills in their arsenal.
But why is that?
Even if you're already a working graphic designer, it's a good idea to develop photography skills. And today, that probably means using a digital camera that takes photos with a digital sensor rather than film.
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Using a camera is a creative outlet that can strengthen your abilities in ways applicable to the design process. Photography is also a process. Every step requires making decisions about the placement of objects, framing the shot, appropriate settings, and looking at intricacies of light and color. All these elements are also important to graphic design.
Learning photography can help you develop a better eye for composition. Composition is the combination of formal underlying elements like line, balance, and shape in an image. When these elements are used well together, the result is a cohesive and effective image. When photographing subjects, you're forced to understand how they relate to each other in space, and you're constantly honing your skills in composition.
Photography can strengthen your eye in understanding the impact of light and color. Graphic design includes a formal understanding of elements like warm and cool colors and contrasts of dark and light. But photography makes you apply these ideas in real-world settings. Think about trying to take an image of a stark winter landscape, and adding a person with a red scarf to make the image pop. Now use that same idea in a design where you want to create a focal point that reinforces the main idea with a splash of bright color. The mediums are different, but the skill set is the same.
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Photography can also help you hone in on the importance of textures. Graphic design often uses texture treatments for backgrounds and to create areas of emphasis. Photographing textures like rough weathered barn wood or soft green moss give you a better understanding of how differences in textures, whether dramatic or subtle, can have an impact.
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There's another practical way that photography can enhance graphic design. If you shoot your own images and develop a good photographic collection, you can use your own unique images in projects rather than relying on other peoples' work or resorting to stock photography, those readily available generic images of subjects that everyone else is using. Plus, your photographs reflect your unique eye and vision, which can also make your graphic design work stand out.
So, skills learned and increased through pursuing photography can directly impact graphic design. The result can be stronger, more effective and dynamic work.
Graphic design is the art of combining pictures and words to convey ideas. It's used in fields like advertising and every image created has a specific purpose. Photographs are some of the most effective images used in graphic design. If you're a graphic designer, building your photography skills can also lead to better design. Photography strengthens your ability to consider composition, or the formal relation of elements in an image. Photography also enables you to better understand the impact of light and color, and importance of texture. In a practical sense, it can also help you develop your own library of photographic images to use in projects, which makes you stand out from designers using other peoples' work or those who resort to stock photography.
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