Client and Project

FarmSense is a USA-based innovative tech product that helps growers reduce losses from insect pests and lower dependence on pesticides to take the uncertainty out of pest management for better farming and a brighter future.

Why is it important, and how does it help? The agricultural industry loses more than $220 billion in crop damage each year because of insects. For decades, farmers have been stuck with few options for pest management. Most use sticky traps – a time-consuming and inaccurate method, followed by a broadcast spray of selected pesticides and insecticides. Still, sadly, these traps can also affect beneficial bugs that pollinate more than 70% of the global crop supply.

So, the FarmSense team formed by scientists and innovators developed a better way. Using computational entomological models, they created a real-time sensor that can help farmers make better decisions for pest management, saving time and potentially boosting crop yield. The team believes that leveraging the power of machine learning and computational modeling can help save lives, reduce hunger, and help developing countries achieve food independence.

The target audience they aim at is diverse, from big agricultural corporations to small family farms, from innovators and advisors with high tech-literacy levels to farmers that spend most time right in the fields and have no broad experience or tight connections to different software and applications. So, the team worked on the affordability and accessibility of the technology and strived to reflect that in the branding approach and website, helping them communicate with their clients and uncover the product’s benefits. Let’s check how the designers from tubik achieved that goal.

Identity Design

The branding design process started with extensive research covering the agriculture and ag-tech current state in the USA, the existing presence of the sector on the web, the pain points of the target audience, and the touchpoints of the brand communication.

Based on everything mentioned above, the key advantages of the product that branding had to transfer were defined as:

• sustainability
• affordability
• accuracy of real-time data
• rich information

As well, the team aimed at making a visual branding design system that would have a range from more strict and business-like to more illustrative and emotional.

One of the core tools supporting both emotionality and usability in brand design for FarmSense is color. The palette features bright contrast shades of natural colors employing the psychology of color and giving instant visual connection to the topic of agriculture, summer, soil, fields, insects, and plants: green, orange, yellow, and blue. The latter is also traditionally associated with tech-related and digital products.

Having agreed upon colors, the team started working on the logo. The initial logo design approach was based on data as a core of the problem-solving power of the product. The creative search based on that resulted in a set of brand sign options reflecting that idea via lines and dots forming abstract shapes and building association with digital data processing and statistics visualization as well as fields seen from the bird-watch perspective. The basic shape chosen for the brand symbol was a circle.

Here’s a glance at the logo design process, from sketches through variations to the polished sign. The first version of the symbol developed in this direction was an abstract round sign consisting of vertical lines.

First sketches to think over the idea and find the composition

Digital symbol development

Testing the symbol with the brand name typographic part

Monochrome version of the combination mark

The version of the symbol with soft edges

Icons designed to test how the symbol can be further developed into other types of graphics

Another idea for the symbol at this stage of the creative search was to transfer the visual metaphor of the insect or the sun rising above the field, shaped by the lines. The latter was taken into deeper consideration.

Logo symbol sketching stage

Digital logo symbol development

Combination mark for the brand identity

Monochromatic version of the combination mark

The set of branded items was also presented to show how this version of the logo and color palette could work for various marketing goals: banners, printed advertisements, social media posting, business cards, etc.

Although the general idea looked effective, after discussions with clients and deeper testing, we together made the decision to move to another iteration, as this version of the symbol, even looking different, could bring up associations with some political campaigns that took place earlier in the USA. So, the second approach was also based on aerial views on the fields of crops, but this time irregular and asymmetric, cut by roads in various directions.

For this version, the color palette excluded blue, and the basic shape was square. The creative search was done on the sign composition and detailing.

The idea development resulted in the bright three-color symbol with a moderate level of detail and a bold, readable typographic part.

And here’s how it could be developed into the design system for branded items.

Posters design

Truck livery design

However, the deeper the team dived into the visual concept for the FarmSense brand, the more the client’s team got certain that they would like to combine the discussed approach and palette to their existing logo and reconsider it to make its design bright, up-to-date, and recognizable as well as flexible for various communication objectives.

The previous FarmSense logo

So, the final iteration started at the intersection of the existing logo and the ideas considered in the previous versions. The logo had to become simpler and less detailed to stay clear and informative in various sizes and get packed into a new color palette giving a quick connection to both agriculture and digital technology. Again, it started from basic sketching to think over the idea and moved to the polished logo.

Finally, the option with strict thin lines and a thin, elegant sans-serif typographic part was chosen as an approved brand sign.

So, based on that solution, the consistent set of branded items was designed for indoor and outdoor advertising and brand communication.

Billboards and banners designed for outdoor advertising

Business card design

Rollup design

Exhibition stand design

Truck livery design

With the brand graphics above, it’s also easy to see that another important aspect of identity design for FarmSense was creating custom illustrations. They covered four major goals:

• pictures set the atmosphere and apparent association with the agricultural theme
• specially created graphics helped to visualize the flow and benefits of highly-technological processes which are hard or even impossible to show via photos or videos
• custom graphics helped the brand to stand out of the crowd among the players in the agricultural sector, mostly using photo content which is often quite generic and just setting the theme
• the hero illustrations featuring people added a powerful human element and made brand communication more friendly and emotional

The creative process for the illustration also moved from rough sketches to present the idea and discuss it with the clients to the transformation of the approved ideas into bright digital artworks. Here’s a glance at the process for hero illustrations which had to become one of the first visual touchpoints of the product introduction on the website as a channel of communication.

And here’s the process for creating custom graphics reflecting the main benefits of the FarmSense technology.

Web Design

The next stage of customer experience design, extending the efficiency of the product presentation and amplifying brand communication online, was redesigning a website. At the initial stage, the team worked on developing a structure that would be effective and straightforward for the diverse target audience of the product.

Overview of the UX wireframing stage to consider the solid and straightforward website structure and navigation

At the UI design stage, the bright branded colors were used not only for illustrations and other graphics but also as background colors for different website sections, supporting usability, scannability, and readability of web pages.

Here’s a glance at the home page of the website, catchy, friendly, and informative, amplifying the message with a hero illustration sharing the peaceful, sunny, and positive atmosphere and giving instant connection to the topic of farming that employs modern technology.

The set of original illustrations used across the website pages proves itself as a powerful tool for visual communication and storytelling. It supports the text content, sets the mood, and helps establish consistency and integrity in the website’s performance.

Also, an infographic with custom illustrations was created to visualize how the technology works and make its benefits more accessible.

Here’s a closer glance at the set of artistic color icons supporting different text messages and creating visual triggers for essential functions or benefits to make them more noticeable and well-organized for website visitors.

To make the website work effectively and look attractive on any device, the tablet and mobile versions were also well-thought-out. They were arranged to provide a smooth and integral user experience at any stage of interaction.

For our team, the FarmSense project was a great chance to collaborate with the representatives of the modern ag-tech industry developing with a rocketing speed now and utilizing innovations to improve farming experience and outcome, which is crucial for the whole world.

New design case studies from our team are coming soon. Stay tuned!

More Design Case Studies

Here’s a set of more case studies sharing the design solutions and approaches for some of the design projects done by the Tubik team.

Nibble Health. Identity and UX Design for Healthcare Fintech Service

ProAgenda. Identity and Website Design for Golf Management Service

BlockStock. Brand Identity and Website for Minecraft Models Resource

Kaiten. Identity and Product Design for Food Marketplace

THT. Website Design for Electrical Engineering Service

Komuso. Website Design for Wellness Tool

Nonconventional Show. Website Design for Podcast

Fulfill. Illustrations and Web Design for 3PLs Marketplace

Glup. Delivery App Branding and UX Design

BEGG. Brand Packaging and Web Design for Food Product Ecommerce

Crezco. Brand Identity and UI/UX Design for Fintech Service

Carricare. Identity and UX Design for Safe Delivery Service

Originally written for Tubik Blog, graphic and video content by tubik

Сообщение Case Study: FarmSense. Brand Identity and Website Design for Agricultural Technology появились сначала на Design4Users.

Check more projects by Andrey Prokopenko on Dribbble

For more inspiration, check the video tutorials on Procreate illustrations and 3D art in Blender, examples of awesome 3D illustrations, black and white illustrations, geometric people illustrations, 3D portraits of famous people, dog illustrations, love illustrations, and other posts from D4U Gallery in which we gather impressive creatives to share their art with you.

Сообщение Illustration Art: Visual Story Circles by Andrey Prokopenko появились сначала на Design4Users.

• What is graphic design?
• What are the creative directions of graphic design?
• Is graphic design art?
• Why is graphic design important?
• What skills are needed to reach success in graphic design?
• Can you be a graphic designer without drawing skills?

Let’s get started with theory, practice, and a big set of examples from studio designers.

Logo design

Business cards

Truck livery design for Andre Landscape

Interface illustration for a Colony landing page

Storyboard: illustrations for Binned promo video

Title illustration for blog article

Stickers design

Badges for Pukapal app

Illustration for Opera promo video

Character design for Toonie Alarm

Book cover design

Theme poster-style illustration

Is Graphic Design Art?

In short, no, most professionals in this sphere do not position or call themselves artists.

Defining art, Merriam-Webster dictionary describes it as “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects”. The objects of art are appreciated mostly for their beauty, aesthetic value and emotional appeal. And all that is not the primary goal set for design.

Graphic designer’s job could be described as building a bridge between the art and the functional goal-centered design. They mix the power of art and functionality within the limits of particular goals and a definite audience. “Good design is a lot like clear thinking made visual,” said Edward Tufte and that is a cool definition showing what graphic designers strive to achieve.

It’s easy to see that graphic design covers various aspects of human life dealing with visual communication, from books and posters to complex mobile apps or 3D animation. Supported by research, analysis, and testing, graphics enhance usability, strengthen branding and provide a positive user experience. That is the point where art and functionality merge and meld for the sake of making people happier by solving problems and satisfying wishes.

Theme illustration for a dating app landing page

Why Is Graphic Design Important?

This question is often asked and not so easy to answer. One of the reasons why this professional field has such a broad presence in our lives lies in the fact that people are mostly visual creatures. We tend to perceive images faster than words. We are influenced by colors and shapes. We respond to characters and symbols. We need prompts and visual hierarchy. We are dependent on emotions and feelings. The list may be prolonged – and graphic design is what makes the difference.

It rarely occurs that the object of graphic design serves only one objective. Let’s look into the core goals set for graphic assets.

Identification

This aspect deals primarily with branding, first of all, logos which set the foundation for a brand strategy. Designers have to consider multiple factors regarding the target audience, laws and rules of artistic harmony, the psychology of color and shape, impact on human perception and emotions, the current conditions on the market as well as business goals of the brand or company. Moreover, visual images are memorable which enhances brand awareness.

Whizzly logo design

Beauty

Beauty means much as it works like a hook for the users or viewers dealing with visual stuff from advertising to book covers, cartoons, user interfaces of all kinds, packaging, photos and loads of other things. We tend to be emotionally and aesthetically engaged. Although content and functionality are crucial for problem-solving, people still live by the unwritten rule that a good dress is a card of invitation. Attractive appearance is highly important to engage users in trying a product, watching a video, especially regarding the modern intense competition. Graphic design also becomes a powerful tool for UI beautification from small details like icons to significant elements like illustrations and mascots.

Travel app landing page

Event branding for Behance Portfolio Reviews Dnipro

Theme and mood

Visual elements, as well as copy, not only transfer the message but also set the tone and voice of communication. It may be reached with a background, typography, composition, color palette, shapes and sizes, stylistic approaches that inform the user about the product from the first seconds of contact. Visual perception plays a big role in decision-making, especially in cases of introduction: short minutes or even seconds are vital to get the user interested. As well, following popular trends, graphic designers give the object up-to-date look which is an essential factor of trust for many users.

Illustration for a blog article on UI navigation

Explanation, information, and guiding

This aspect is presented both in print assets and digital interfaces in various tutorials, manuals, tool-tips, guides, etc. A picture is really worth a thousand words: it saves precious time and helps to avoid big copy blocks. Even more, graphics based on a thorough analysis of the target audience turn on the mechanism of empathy and emotional appeal.

Style guide for Binned

Navigation improvement

Custom graphic elements are a great way to improve navigation and boost usability. Practice shows it has a great impact on conversions and retaining readers, providing an easy flow of journey through the website or app, map or city navigation. In addition, all this positive influence is supported by aesthetic pleasure if visual performance is consistent and keeps a harmonic composition.

Custom artistic icons for categories of Cuteen app

Characters boosting communication

Personification applied appropriately is a factor of positive user experience, it strengthens the brand image and brand awareness. That is why mascots and characters often become a part of a design concept and content strategy. And here graphic designers can show their best. Efficient mascots corresponding to expectations of the target audience provide originality and flow of communication which is closer to natural.

Toonie mascot and stickers design

Stylish copy

This is all about typography, the important branch of graphic design dealing with letters as a design object. Copy applied to various products should be not only legible and readable but also nice, attractive and emotional. In cases of lettering for branding, it also adds such vital features as originality and recognizability.

Creative lettering for theme illustration

What Skills Are Needed to Reach Success in Graphic Design?

Requirements to the specialists in graphic design often include the following:

• technical artistic skills and preferably qualification in some sort of visual art
• artistic talent and creative nature
• good artistic eye and feeling of harmony
• ability to draw well
• good skills in composition and visual analysis
• ability to work on the analysis of the target audience and possible options of communication with it
• ability to apply different techniques of drawing and painting, preferably both with manual and digital tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate, etc.)
• ability to learn and self-improve all the time as the sphere is extremely dynamic and diverse, etc.

So, if you want to build your career in this sphere, it could be helpful to think about which of the mentioned positions you feel strong in and which ones need to be improved. As well, nowadays it’s vital to be quite flexible in applying diverse design tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. So, practice and training are needed all the time to get prepared for modern design tasks.

Coming from the side of knowledge, it would be very useful to get some knowledge about color theory, psychology, strategies and design flow for branding and marketing, negotiation skills, basics of business and sales, and other stuff that gets designer closer to clients and final users. In addition, it gives a broader outlook and makes the process of sharing creative ideas more natural and productive.

You may also be interested to check the article in which the Udemy instructor explains what you need to become a graphic designer.

The creative process for App Shack logo design

Can You Be a Graphic Designer Without Drawing Skills?

Well, in short: if we are talking about graphic design without high goals for success, yes, it may happen that you can earn their living in the sphere without great skills in drawing. Still, on the ground of practice, in the cases when a graphic designer aims at professional growth, a cool career, and really interesting projects, drawing skills and knowledge of academic drawing theory are a vital condition of success.

To get a bit deeper, it’s worth mentioning that in some other spheres of design it happens that you can be a high-level professional without being skillful in drawing (still, graphic design definitely doesn’t belong to them). For example, in the current conditions of the UI design field, with a variety of tools and hundreds of stocks with graphic assets like icons, illustrations, and photos, these resources may be enough for creating some kinds of interfaces. However, those who strive for originality, functional and unique graphics for their projects will create them from scratch or delegate these tasks to graphic designers. And the great high-quality graphic assets are basically grounded in great knowledge and skills of drawing and painting. Unlike other spheres, in graphic design, it is the core to be able to draw if you aim at success.

Art school and lessons of academic drawing in its classic form give a broad and solid artistic basis of composition, coloristic, drawing and painting techniques, history of arts. Adding to them the hours of elaborate training in which you practice hand-drawing, painting, sketching, ocular estimation, ability to see and transfer the lightest shades and shadows and the like, you get much stronger, more skillful and diverse as an artist. This is actually the best basis for creating nice, stylish and high-quality graphics with the complexity of any level required.

As for real examples, graphic designers at Tubik Studio do have the remarkable basis of professional training and academic qualification starting from several years of intensive studying in art schools and then moving up with majors in architecture, visual arts, and design. With all that stuff, mastering design software like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Procreate and combining it with the knowledge of modern trends in digital design and art, they have worked out their personal artistic style and have developed it more and more in actual design projects accomplished by the studio as well as design concepts.

Creating illustrations and icons for real UI/UX designs and testing them in combination with other elements, working on logos and other branding elements, practicing hand-sketching and drawing as well as digital illustrations just for developing better and faster use of software, they get to the solutions which are original, beautiful and functional. Sure, this is a personal opinion based on long-term design research and day-by-day work with a team of designers.

Sketching for Winter Olympics illustration

Today’s brief FAQ review is over, but new answers are coming soon, stay tuned!

Useful Reading

Flat Design. History and Modern Practices

Design Glossary: Basic Color Terminology

Functional Art: 10 Big Reasons to Apply Illustrations in UI Design

State of the Art: 15 Creative Graphic Design Concepts

Illustration Case Study: Winter Olympics Illustration Step-by-Step

How to Create Catchy Flat Illustrations: Designer’s Tips

Small Item, Big Impact: Types of UI Icons

6 Creative Stages of Design for Branding

Creative Stages of Logo Design

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение Creative Jobs: What Graphic Designers Do появились сначала на Design4Users.

These product images are great to post and share throughout online shops and social media! These are also perfect to make your product catalog and it makes it so much easier for you to keep updating regularly and here is why.

They Make It Easier to Update Your Product Images

Instead of having to hire a professional photographer every time you make new designs or want to renew your products in-store or on your website, you can simply update your images with mockups that you can make in a few seconds. No need to spend a fortune on photoshoots.

What’s the great thing about mockups? You can also use the exact same image if you want to keep a style through your website, but you can also upload different angles from the same product, different colors, and anything else you need to really show you design!

What Kind of Mockups Can You Use?

There are tons of mockups styles you can use to make your images. Let’s go over some of your options.

Studio Mockups

Studio mockups are great to point all focus on your products. Lighting is very flattering, backgrounds are neat and clear. It’s the perfect image for a product to show its features with a very close look!

Context Mockups

Context mockups are great to show your products being used in real-life situations and events to show your designs’ style. You can use for example an urban setting, you can show you products in the wild, in the city, how they look on a house, and basically any surrounding you may need to give context to your products.

Mockups with Models

Again, a great mockup style to show products being used by real-life consumers! You can choose all kinds of models depending on who your product is for. There are kids, adults and seniors, all races, shapes, colors, and sizes! Plus, you can choose your model activity if you are making a sport’s product for example, if it’s for a bridesmaids party, even for dog products! There is surely a perfect mockup for your needs.

Garment Only Mockups

These are literally “garment only mockups” which means no models, just product but they can vary from studio shots to context backgrounds. The focus is completely on your product but it may also have a few other elements to accent it’s own style or usability.

Mockup Type According to Its Use

Depending on what kind of products your designs are for, you can choose a different type of mockups, for example, apparel mockups for any apparel product. Print mockups show branding material like flyers, posters, business cards and more. Devices mockups are great to show apps or websites and how they look on different technological devices like phones, tablets, computers, kindles, smartwatches and more.

Making a Mockup Is Easy

This is certainly a task for everyone, designer or not, the time you can save on your work by using mockups is precious. Making a mockup takes only a few seconds. Basically, you start by choosing the right mockup for your design (this might be the most difficult part since there are so many options). Depending on which site you are using to make your mockups, you will be finding different filter options or even tags. Use your filtering options to get to the right mockup for you and consider all the styles we have mentioned before.

1. On Placeit, for example, to choose the right template, and you may use tons of different tags, filters, and even a search bar to find exactly what you are looking for.

2. After, you simply have to drag and drop your design or upload it from your computer. You can adjust your design as many times as you need to get a perfect product mockup.

3. When you are done you simply have to click on the download button. Now, your downloading options on Placeit are the following: you may get a PNG file with great quality to post and share anywhere or you may choose a high format image for large scale printing purposes.

To Wrap It Up

So to recap, mockups are a great tool for any kind of designer due to how versatile they can be. You can find tons of different mockup styles that can perfectly suit your designs work to showcase them in the best way. They look professional and because it is so easy to make a mockup, you can update your content constantly with new images and with new designs as often as you need.

Save tons of hours on photoshoots and editing with pre-made templates that allow you to show your designs using fantastic looking mockups. Get as many images as you want all under a budget, this may vary greatly depending on which website you decide to use, but most places will give you mockups for a very fair price.

Placeit, for instance, gives you unlimited downloads with your subscription, yes that’s right, unlimited downloads. You can find product mockups categories like tote bag mockup, hoodie mockup, mug mockup, bag mockup, coaster mockup, apron mockup and so much more!

About the author: that’s the guest post by Valeria Santalla is a multi-disciplinary graphic designer and writer that loves to create branding images for local business, collaborating at Placeit.net one of the largest logo maker and design template library website.

Check 17 trends in graphic design and illustration, get inspired with collections of creative logos and packaging, and review 6 stages of branding design

Сообщение Product Mockup Styles That Are Time Savers for Designers появились сначала на Design4Users.

Christmas and New Year Illustrations

By Tubik Arts

By Daria Semenova

By Diana Stoyanova

By Ilya Shapko

By Pascal Campion

From Clip pack in the Ouch vector library

By Glenn Thomas

By Lana Marandina

By Tubik Arts

By Diana Stoyanova

By Berin Holy

From Icons8 Christmas Freebie

By Lilla Bardenova

By DarkCube Studio

By Diana Stoyanova

By Tubik Arts

Winter Illustrations

By Pascal Campion

By Matt Carlson

By Martina Crepulja

By Tubik Arts

By Kit8

By Pascal Campion

By Martina Crepulja

By Ewa Geruzel

By Eight Hour Day

By DKNG

By Folio Illustration Agency

By Tubik Arts

By Kit8

By Martina Crepuja

By Romain Trystram

By Pascal Campion

Christmas and Winter Characters

By Tubik Arts

By Patswerk

By Inkration

By Tubik Arts

By Tubik Arts

By Uran

By Yum Yum

By MUTI

Check another pack of 50 festive Christmas illustrations and greeting cards

For more digital art, check our earlier collections of autumn illustrations, summer illustrations, winter holidays illustrations, love illustrations, and other D4U Inspiration posts

Сообщение Winter Wonderland: New 40+ Illustrations of Christmas and Winter появились сначала на Design4Users.

Artificial Intelligence

There is no denying that artificial intelligence or AI has become one of the fastest-growing technologies of today’s generation. However, most people believe that it’s going to influence only those tasks and jobs that are mechanical or repetitive in nature viz. accounting, supply chain management, etc. That is not exactly true, as AI is also venturing into creative domains like graphic design. In fact, it’s now possible to create a logo with AI as there are many online tools and apps that come packed with massive repositories of fonts, icons, and colors and use advanced algorithms that can create the perfect combinations of these assets to design unique logos.

The idea of AI in graphic design can be scary for professionals and remote designers who are making a living by creating designs in the traditional way. However, they have nothing to be afraid of as these tools won’t replace them altogether but only support them in their jobs and facilitate the design processes.

Futuristic Patterns

Futuristic visuals and designs are becoming more and more common in the marketing and branding industry today. You can check out any 10 popular advertisements today, and you will see that at least a few of them will demonstrate a product or idea with visuals that are too advanced for our generation. But that’s the whole point, and it’s intentional- to attract the users with the promise of tomorrow’s technology.

An excellent example to make a case for futuristic designs is BBC Two. You can look at the new design to see how beautiful and modern it looks. The previous design that was used by the company is shared below.

It doesn’t take long for one to decide which design is more trendy. Although at this point it can’t be said how long this new trend about ultra-modern designs will last, it’s for sure not going anywhere soon. So, it doesn’t matter whether you are creating designs that use negative space or gradients, you want to consider the “futuristic elements” when you get to work.

Shiny Textures

For years, graphics designers have been using shiny or metallic textures for different kinds of products to showcase a “high-end” attribute and character. The key is focusing on the metallic effect in a way that the overall design is minimalistic, and only brand fundamentals are highlighted.

One of the most common materials that’s used by designers in their products is gold, probably because it looks luxurious and prevents the product from looking tacky. Another great way to incorporate metallic textures in designs is to put them as engravings over other base products, preferably those that are non-metallic.

Sensory Designs

If you have been paying attention to the advancements in the design industry, then you must have realized that design has started to venture into the sensory domain. In other words, you can find it interfering with our interactions with smell or taste.

A good example of human senses merging with design and advertisement is the digital smell technology that allows dating app users to potentially evoke 10 kinds of virtual smells, including minty, woody, and fruity. The technology of odor transmission was discussed with newsgroup NBC News, and it shed light on how it could offer a complete package, i.e., an integrated virtual reality or augmented reality.

Experiments on “electric smell” were conducted in Malaysia in which the researchers inserted electrodes in the nostrils to delivery weak electric currents where neurons that send odor signals to the brain were triggered. They were able to evoke 10 kinds of virtual odors. Although the technology is far from seeing commercial applications, industry stakeholders see massive potential in it and think it can be used in modern advertisements and entertainment areas like movies, dating apps, video games, etc.

Final Words

It’s not easy to come up with accurate predictions for graphic design’s future. However, one can certainly take comfort in the fact that changes are coming, and most of these changes are good. What’s important for the professionals, though, is that they learn about these changes and trends so that they can adapt accordingly.

About the author: that’s the guest post by Prashant Sharma

You may also like to review 19 hot UI design trends in 2019, a color glossary for designers, and a pack of case studies showing how shape and color work in logo design

Сообщение Brief Insights to Graphic Design Technology Trends 2019 появились сначала на Design4Users.

Here in Tubik, we have felt all the variety of stones in that way. Today we invite our readers to review the diverse purposes for which graphic design can be highly beneficial as we have checked in design practice.

Graphic design as a creative field

As we mentioned in one of our previous articles about the issue, graphic design can be described as the sphere of human activity that lies on the crossroads of several directions, first of all, visual arts, communication, and psychology. Basically, graphic designers do the job of communication to others by means of graphic (visual) elements such as images of different styles and complexity, types and fonts, pictograms, shapes and sizes, colors and shades, lines, and curves, etc. Graphic designer makes all those elements of visual perception transfer the message, so he makes them functional. Therefore, we could say that graphic designers are artists applying their talents mostly not in pure art, but communicating and purposeful art.

Modern graphic design broadly covers all spheres of human life which deal with visual communication, from books and posters to sophisticated mobile applications or 3D animation. Let’s look into directions in which graphic designers can express their creativity for the sake of solving problems and satisfying needs.

Graphic design directions

Nowadays, graphic design is an incredibly broad sphere for the application of artistic talents. In particular, it includes:

• editorial design
• illustration
• identity (logo and branding) design
• icons and pictograms
• typography
• interface graphics and elements
• print advertisements
• big print items such as posters and billboards
• signs
• packaging, etc.

Thus, it’s easily seen that modern designers in this sphere have multiple options to apply their talents. In all the mentioned directions, the basic purpose of graphic design is to serve a particular purpose or even a set of them by means and techniques of art.

Graphic design in modern life full of digital devices is getting more and more technological.  Famous Italian designer Massimo Vignelli said “The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design.” Remembering the words we have to say that the purposes of modern graphic design are pushed further and further. Not only does it beautify the physical or digital object, but also helps its users, navigates them, guides their way via which they can get both aesthetic pleasure and problem-solving benefits.

Graphic design purposes

Today, graphic design can set diverse purposes. It rarely happens that the object of graphic design serves only one objective. Looking over the most essential of them, we would mention the following.

Identifying

This purpose, first of all, serves for branding reasons. It is primarily concerned with creating logos which usually lies the foundation for the whole branding strategy. This is the task at which designers work with multiple factors combining specific features of the target audience, laws, and rules of artistic harmony, the psychology of color and shape impact on human perception and emotions, current situation on the market, business goals of the brand or company.

Numerous logos accomplished by studio designers have proved that this symbolic image plays the crucial role in all the next stages of brand strategy, including print work (like posters, business cards, corporate documentation templates, etc.), interface design (when brand or company uses digital sources and channels of reaching their clients like blogs, websites, apps, widgets, etc.), branded items (like stationery, cups, notebooks, etc.) and other directions. The efficient logo is usually based on deep analysis supported by the designer’s talent and skills and presents a balanced mixture of art and functionality. Thinking over all the details, the designer selects the type and image of a logo that will correspond to the objectives of the company or brand strategy.

Andre logo 

Lion browser logo icon

Toonie logo design

fOxygenic logo

Design4Users logo tested in print stickers

PassFold logo

Read more about types of logos and creative stages of logo design

Beautifying

This is the broadly used function of graphic design items that have found its comprehensive realization in all the spheres of users’ interaction with visual stuff, from advertising to book covers and cartoons, to user interfaces of all kinds, packaging, photos, and tons of other things. It’s not a secret that people are not only rational but also emotional creatures, and most of us are visually driven and aesthetically engaged. Although the content and functions are the most important factors of making a product problem-solving, the old classic trend hasn’t changed: people still believe that a good dress is a card of invitation. An attractive and stylish look is traditionally highly important to make your user think about trying the product, especially in conditions of modern intense competition.

Muscles Magazine

Tales of the Jazz Age Book Cover

Graphic design in all its variety becomes a powerful tool of interface beautification. It can be applied in the slightest details like icons and up to significant elements like illustrations and mascots.

Singify App Tutorial

Cafe Coupon App

Moneywise App

Timeline App

Toonie Stickers

Setting the theme

A broad variety of graphic design techniques and diversity of approaches establish a steady foundation for setting the theme of the offered product via visual elements. Like the copy is able to not only transfer the message but also set the tone and voice of communication, the visual elements, including background, typography, composition, color palette, shapes and sizes, stylistic approaches can immediately inform the user about the features and market segment of the app or website and also appeal to emotions of the target audience. Visual perception plays an incredible role in decision-making, especially in cases of the first interaction when only several short minutes and sometimes even seconds are vital to get the user interested. This funсtion also works when the graphics highlight specific trends or events.

Lowrider

Underwater explorer

Pikachu Poster

Apple Event Animated Graphics

Californication Bus

San Francisco Painted Ladies

Explaining and guiding

This function of graphic design elements is widely used both in print and in all the types of interfaces, first of all in various tutorials, manuals, tool-tips, guides, etc. No need to say that here a picture is really worth a thousand words: it saves precious time and helps to avoid big copy blocks. Moreover, graphics based on a thorough analysis of the target audience turn on the mechanism of empathy and emotional appeal which also enhances user experience and supports business goals.

Travel App Tutorial

Shauts App Tutorial

Saily App Tutorial

Ryiadh Tour Guide

Toonie Alarm Tutorial

Enhancing navigation

Custom graphic elements are a great tool enhancing the navigation and therefore boosting usability. Based on user research and testing, it can have a great impact on conversions and retaining readers, providing an easy flow of journey through the website or app. In addition, all this positive influence is supported by the aesthetic pleasure that users get from sophisticated visual elements and harmonic composition.

Weather App

Passfold App

Veggie App

Boosting communication with a character

The element of personification thoughtfully applied in the product can boost positive user experience, enhance brand image and brand awareness. That is one of the reasons why creating mascots is often a part of a general design concept and content strategy. And that is the job where graphic designers can show their best. Efficient mascots should be based on a thorough analysis of needs, wishes, and expectations of the target audience, and also an attentive study of the market environment to support the appropriate level of originality as the basis for effective design solutions.

Mascots are also very helpful in interfaces: they liven up the general process, catch up user’s attention, become the memorable element, create important support for a stylistic concept and make the illusion of direct communication with the user.

Monster Stickers and their animated versions

Spring Girl

Saily App Mascot

Toonie Alarm Mascot

Read more about the advantages of efficient mascots here

Making the copy stylish

One more important perspective of graphic design is typography. Designers are usually keen to make the copy applied in the products not only legible and readable but also nice, attractive, and emotional. In cases of lettering for branding, it also adds such vital features as originality and recognizability.

Lettering for Saily logo

Lettering for Genius Bar

Lettering for Tubik logo

Lettering for Ribbet logo

Custom decorative lettering

As we can see, there are multiple purposes that can be set as well as multiple goals that can be achieved through graphic design. Diversity of approaches enables to the creation of original and unique design solutions and with support of user research, analysis and thoughtful testing graphic design elements can efficiently enhance usability, strengthen branding and provide a positive user experience. That is the point where art and functionality merge and meld for the sake of solving problems and making people happier.

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение User-Friendly Goals Hit with Graphic Design появились сначала на Design4Users.

To support this idea, here at Design4Users, we launched a new section called “D4U Expertise“. It will collect diverse ideas, talks, cases, and tips from expert designers presenting various directions of design to help users. Ultimately, we are going to have here the set of materials that will be helpful and inspiring both for experienced professionals and for those who only start their path in any of the design directions.

This post aims to draw your attention to a worldwide known and recognized graphic designer, Chip Kidd, a person of great talent and amazing humor.

Biography

According to his personal website presenting the incredible variety of his works, Chip Kidd is an award-winning graphic designer and writer in New York. His groundbreaking book jacket designs for Alfred A. Knopf have elevated the form for close to three decades. He’s worked with hundreds of writers, including John Updike, Katharine Hepburn, Cormac McCarthy, Henry Louis Gates Jr., James Ellroy, Karen Russell, Michael Crichton, David Sedaris, Sharon Olds, Orhan Pamuk, Paul Simon, Neil Gaiman, and Haruki Murakami. His first novel, The Cheese Monkeys, was a national bestseller. His most recent book, Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design, is the first book to teach graphic design to children and has over 60,000 copies in print.

As an editor and art director for Pantheon Graphic novels, he’s worked with and published some of the very best cartoonists in the world, including Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Dan Clowes, David Mazzucchelli, Charles Burns, Michael Cho, and Alex Ross. He is the recipient of the National Design Award for Communications, and his TED Talk has been viewed over 1.3 million times.

He has produced so many recognizable graphic design ideas for book covers that plenty of people worldwide know those images, although they have never heard the name of their creator. he deeply believes that the cover is a piece of functional art, the chance to attract readers with a memorable first impression given to the book by the designer. Even more, the book cover should give a mental and emotional message from the very first seconds of its meeting with a reader via its title and cover.

Let’s take a look at some of these famous covers that have become a great blend of art traditions, careful analysis of the book itself, and creative experiments that brought the world new “Kidd’s philosophy” of book cover design.

Book covers by Chip Kidd

The designs, featuring some of the huge collections accomplished by the designer over the years, are presented in random, non-chronological order.

Ted-talks

Ted-talks by Chip Kidd inspire a huge number of artists transferring precious practical tips and personal experience. They definitely differ from usual lectures or public speeches by means of his humor and non-standard performance. However, with him this trick works and the jokes create a good contrast to highly serious messages he transfers to the audience.

This is one of the funniest talks from TED2012, where he shows the art and deep thought of his cover designs and also makes you smile and laugh all the time.

The stories can be anything, and some of them are actually true. But they all have one thing in common: They all need to look like something. They all need a face. Why? To give you a first impression of what you are about to get into. A book designer gives form to content but also manages a very careful balance between the two. (Chip Kidd)

So even though we love publishing as an art, we very much know it’s a business too, and that if we do our jobs right and get a little lucky, that great art can be great business. (Chip Kidd)

In this hilarious, fast-paced talk, he explains the two techniques designers use to communicate instantly — clarity and mystery — and when, why and how they work. He celebrates beautiful, useful pieces of design, skewers less successful work, and shares the thinking behind some of his own iconic book covers.

Clarity or mystery? I’m balancing these two things in my daily work as a graphic designer, as well as my daily life as a New Yorker every day, and there are two elements that absolutely fascinate me. (Chip Kidd)

Lectures and interviews

Here we have also collected several videos giving more insights of Chip Kidds life and professional path and containing a great deal of useful tips for designers based on extensive practice. Enjoy!

Lecture at Hammer Museum

Chip Kidd interview: What the Stories Look Like – Conversations from Penn State

Chip Kidd Insights Lecture

Chip Kidd’s speech at OFFSET 2009

Shelf Life 2: Chip Kidd

Image Credit: Hammer Museum

Get inspired, stay tuned, don’t miss new stories about inspiring experts!

Recommended links:

Chip Kidd’s official website
Chip Kidd: Go Ahead and “Judge This” (interview)
Chip Kidd on Twitter

Сообщение D4U Expertise: Book Cover Design by Chip Kidd появились сначала на Design4Users.

So, today’s issue of our FAQ Design Platform in Tubik Blog will concentrate on some popular questions along with the nature and differences of some positions in such a diverse sphere as design. The answers are based on the thoughts we have provided for those popular questions on Quora which you are always very welcome to read and where we are always happy to share our ideas, knowledge and experience.

Can you be a UX/UI/Web designer without knowing programming at all?

On the basis of work experience for Tubik Studio and communication with designers from other companies and studios, it is possible to give absolutely positive answer. Yes, you definitely CAN be a UI/UX designer for app and web with no background or theoretical knowledge of programming.

Actually, it should be mentioned that the question if UI/UX designers should know how to code or not is the one of  “eternal” discussions in the design sphere. There are, basically, two camps of extreme positions. One of them claims that programming/coding is absolutely vital thing to know and you cannot provide really efficient UI/UX without knowing how to code. The other side believes that knowledge of programming kills creativity in design as in this case designer is limited with the rules, standards, and restrictions of development. Both positions are supported with numerous articles and discussions and both somehow make sense if you think about the issue from the perspective of real design projects.

Basically, the task of UI/UX designer is to analyze the target audience and their needs, to make research, to create an efficient layout and well-thought-out system of transitions, to wrap it in an attractive but highly usable and clear visual design, and to test the solutions. UI/UX designer is not a developer: they work on the same product but from different sides, as well as for example a writer, an editor, and a publisher work differently on the same book. However, it is obviously pleasant for developers if a UI/UX designer is able to produce designs that consider at least the basic limitations and points of programming and coding.

There is a great bunch of successful experts in app and web design who have never had anything in common with the sphere of coding and development and provided great design solutions with a very high level of usability. Nevertheless,  it cannot be said that they are totally out of the issue. Designers, who are keen to create viable product designs, usually tend to get acknowledged with a general understanding of development basics. That really supports the designer in providing as effective design as possible, considering all the stages of its creation and implementation. However, it doesn’t mean that without this sort of knowledge it’s impossible to create good designs. Moreover, if designers work in a team with developers, they can create designs without knowing to code even easier as they are supported by developers who control the process from the perspective of coding.

Ideally, the happy medium should be found in this issue without any extreme positions. If designers tear themselves too far away from development reality, they risk losing the viability of their designs and could end up having a great deal of amazing and terrific concepts none of which will be implemented in real products. On the other hand, if designers concentrate too much on the limitations of coding, they risk becoming unable to think out of the box and provide original design ideas. Keeping the wise balance provides the harmony.

So, to sum up, a person can become a successful UI/UX designer not knowing programming and development; however, this kind of knowledge can be supportive if used wisely.

What is the relationship between UI design and icon design?

Answering the question in general, it should be said that icon design is an essential and integral part of UI design. Seeing the definition of UI design as the stage of the design process which provides a visual representation of all the concept, icons are the vital element of the user interface of the product enabling successful and effective interaction with it.

Working with loads of projects on UI/UX design, we see icon design as the significant stage in the general design process. Since this topic is now actual and popular, we have previously published the article called Iconic Simplicity. The Vital Role of Icons considering the part of icons in creating an efficient design.

Basically, an app or desktop icon is an image that having a kind of symbolic and metaphoric potential that becomes the element of navigation in the process of interaction. In a deeper explanation, the icon is the visual symbol representing some real or virtual action, thing, person, etc. In many cases, icons are able to stand up for the text, and this ability makes them so popular in the world of modern web and app design. If you replace the stretch of copy with an icon, it saves the place for other elements of interaction on the app screen or webpage, therefore, making it more functional without being overloaded. Also, it makes the interaction faster as in most cases people need less time to see and understand the icon than to read and understand the piece of text.

Moreover, the icons efficiently move the limits as they enable people who have the problems with copy perception and recognition, such as those who suffer from dyslexia or the like, to interact with the product. And finally, icons can successfully combine the functions of navigation and explanation with being the aesthetic element of the visual representation of the product, supporting the general style, and having their own character.

Here is an example of the icons set by one of the Tubik designers. It can be used in different apps keeping the style consistent and harmonious.

Multimedia Icons Set

So, the role of icons design as the part of general UI design is very important that makes designers put considerable time and effort into the creation and adaptation of clear, meaningful, and recognizable icons, which at the same time will become nice graphic elements of the layout in general stylistic concept.

Is it worth learning icon design as a UI designer?

On the basis of ideas in the previous answer, we tend to give the answer “Yes” to the question. Icons are the vital element of the user interface of the product enabling successful and effective interaction with it. Therefore, it is worth learning how to deal with them in case the designer wants to work effectively and create high-quality interfaces.

Concentrating on the aspect if it’s necessary to learn the icon design, actually, now with numerous sets of diverse icons created by professional graphic designers it is possible not to create handcrafted icons but use ready-made icons corresponding to the style of the app. So, to some extent, it is possible to create UI design not getting dip into all the secrets and peculiarities of icon design. However, there can be a bit of a trap, as nowadays with growing functionality and inventing new features the bulk of ready-made icons can appear not to satisfy all the needs of the particular interface. Using icons that do not perfectly fit the general style of the app or website, a designer can risk losing the feeling of harmony.

Understanding the vital role of icons, our designers in the studio not only create original icon packs but also present concepts to demonstrate how well-thought-out icons can support general UI solutions. Here is an example of such a presentation based on the set of icons you could see in the previous answer.

Multimedia Icons Presentation 

We deeply believe that it’s really essential to study and practice icon design for designers who set high aims in their career ladder and want to be ready for complex design tasks and creating efficient and original interfaces. The experience of work on various UI/UX design projects, dealing with customers, and research of existing design products show the precious nature of the ability to create meaningful and symbolic icons which would correspond with general stylistic solutions of the product and would become the harmonic tool of successful interaction.

To become successful in such a dynamic sphere, you need to be strong and competitive in your field. Practice shows, that skill of icon design inevitably makes a UI designer stronger and more flexible in the accomplishment of different design tasks.

Can anyone be a graphic designer?

Physically any person, with hands and eyes working properly, is able to try himself or herself in the sphere of graphic design. As well as anyone who is able to write can try writing and anyone able to communicate can try, let’s say, management or teaching. In any sphere, there always is a chance to become successful (or not) if you have the necessary basic physical abilities. However, it can often be not enough to become professional and efficient in this field.

Being based on the diverse experience of communication with graphic designers, it is easy to see that to become a professional and bring home the bacon with the efforts in the sphere of graphic design, the person needs to have a number of characteristics. And first of them, as for any creative job, are passion, talent, ability to work hard, and readiness for constant learning and self-improvement. Having all these traits, the person will be able to practice necessary skills, master needed software, gain a solid basis of theoretical knowledge, and so on. Behind the passion, we mean sheer and sincere interest in the field of design and feeling it as the source of inspiration and ambition. Without it, designers are able to solve the tasks and provide the results, but they will be technical, without any soul and heart. A book without a soul is just a set of words. Image without a soul is a set for shapes and colors. Communication without a soul is just a set of sentences. Design without a soul is just a set of features. To breathe in life into all of them, the passion of the creator is a key factor.

However, with my words above you can get caught in a trap. The passion which is being talked about is not something that just strikes you one day and tells you “Stand up and go to design”. In most cases passion is like appetite: it comes when the process starts when you try and feel that THIS is something you would like to do and grow in. Even more, there are many professionals who got into a deep and sincere passion for their craft in the process of improving their skills or accomplishing the projects.

No doubt, it’s possible to become a graphic designer only through hard work: the person will get the technical ability and will be able to accomplish the tasks requiring, perhaps, a lower level of creativity. And in this process, people sometimes open great interest and particular talents needed to achieve high results and appreciation in the sphere of graphic design.

One more thing to mention is that the job of a graphic designer (again, as any other creative work) sometimes looks so romantic, inspirational, bright, and deeply creative that people do not see hard and thorough work with developing some small details over and over again, with tons of iterations and great effort of creating not only good-looking but also effective and meaningful design. This job is not just the firework of bright emotions, creativity, inspiration, self-realization, and happiness. It is also hours of search, sketching, polishing, staring at the computer screen with non-seeing eyes, communicating with clients, keeping the deadlines and guidelines. The ability to combine all those sides of design reality is one more vital skill to make a successful professional.

So, summing up, we tend to answer: no, not anyone can be a graphic designer. But everyone can try if he or she wishes. This attempt, in any case, will be the gain as for someone it will open the door to the diverse world of graphic design, while for the others it will close that door opening the others at the same time and giving an experience which is anyway useful.

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение Insights into the Diversity of Design Jobs появились сначала на Design4Users.