With the world rapidly turning more digital, the demand for graphic designers across all industries continues to increase. Graphic designers are favoured for their talent to create visual concepts that communicate ideas to gain new customers or audiences.
There are many different types of graphic design. This article will cover the different types of graphic design, as well as discuss which of these formats are in the highest demand right now. So, if you’re considering a career in graphic design, you may want to start taking notes.
What is Graphic Design?
Graphic design is the creation of visual and appealing images for different purposes, usually advertisement. The graphics could be the design of logos, social media pages, brochures or even eBooks. In addition, graphic design commonly uses digital tools, such as design or editing software.
Everything to do with graphic design begins with an idea, and these ideas are brought to life in the real world as well as online. Therefore, graphic design comes in all different types and forms.
Is Graphic Design in High Demand in 2023?
The short answer is yes. Graphic design is an essential part of marketing for a brand to be successful. A well-designed logo or website will help the company to stand out from its competitors. With the world turning more digital, brands need an online presence, and with that comes the demand for talented graphic designers.
Graphic design is used in many different forms of media. From product packaging to TV advertisements, graphic designers are needed to create effective designs that will drive sales.
Being an extremely versatile skill, a good graphic designer should be able to create a range of designs using computers as well as paintbrushes to create their graphics for different media types.
Bureau of Labor Stastics have predicted a 12% increase in new graphic designer jobs from 2012 to 2022. This demonstrates that there is an increased demand in general for graphic design in 2023.
With that said, a decrease in print newspapers and magazines due to the world turning more digital may actually limit employment growth for graphic designers who create physical advertisements for companies and products such as brochures or leaflets.
Consequently, the employment of graphic designers is projected to grow only 3% from 2021 to 2031, which is much lower than the 12% from 2012-2022.
What are the Different Types of Graphic Design?
1. Visual Identity
Visual identity, other known as branding, is an essential part of all companies. A brand identity is how a company communicates its message. Visual identity is exactly that, the visual elements of a brand’s identity that communicate those intangible qualities.
Graphic designers who specialise in visual identity will create assets like logos, colour palettes and image libraries that represent a brand’s message. There will always be a need for visual identity and branding graphic designers because all new companies need their skillset when developing their brands.
Visual identity design is one of the most common types of graphic design. This type of graphic designer needs to possess general knowledge of all types of graphic design to create design elements that will suit all visual media.
2. Publication
Publication graphic design has traditionally been printing physical designs of typography that accompanies photography and illustrations. In recent years, this has turned more towards a digital publishing. Therefore, there is less demand for physical designs.
Types of publication graphic design include newsletters, magazines, books, newspapers and catalogues. Publications are long-form pieces of design, made to communicate with an audience through public distribution.
Graphic designers that specialise in publication designs create layouts with carefully selected typography and accompanying artwork.
3. Marketing
Marketing designers are the people behind the concept and execution of digital or print campaigns for advertisement purposes. Designers create strategic concepts that resonate with a target audience. As marketing demands become more needed, more companies are starting to invest in-house marketing teams.
Some examples of marketing designs are email templates, social media ads, billboards, PowerPoint presentations, images for websites or even signage.
Successful marketing will engage people based on their wants and needs, they have about a product, service or brand. Since visual content will always be found more engaging, marketing graphic design helps companies to promote and communicate their brand more effectively.
There will always be a high demand for marketing graphic designers because there are so many different ways to market brands, it will never go out of trend.
4. Motion
To put it simply, motion graphics are graphics that are in motion. Examples of motion graphic design include trailers, GIFs, animated logos or tutorial videos, which can be used on television, social media or online media.
This medium’s popularity has risen in recent years as technology has improved and video content become more popular with the likes of TikTok and other apps.
Motion graphics is one of the newest types of design, and therefore in higher demand because there are less motion designers around, which has created all sorts of new opportunities. Technological advances have reduced production time and costs, making the skillset more accessible and affordable.
5. User Interface
A user interface graphic design is how someone interacts with a device or application. User Interface design is the process of designing interfaces to provide a user-friendly experience. Examples of UI include app design, website design, or theme designs on Shopify or WordPress.
Focusing on a user’s visual experience, user interface designers make on-screen graphic elements like buttons, menus and micro-interactions. The UI designer’s job is to balance aesthetically appealing visuals with technical functionality.
UI graphic designers need knowledge of programming languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Therefore, it is a technological and specific skillset, which is in high demand.
6. Art and illustration
Art and illustration graphic designers create original artwork used for multiple purposes. Examples of art and illustration for graphic design include stock images, book covers, graphic patterns, t-shirt design, album art and concept art.
This designer’s art takes many forms, from storytelling to fine art. Although graphic art and illustration might not technically be a type of graphic design, so much art and illustration is created for advertisement purposes within the context of graphic design that it must be mentioned as a type of graphic design.
7. Packaging
Packaging graphic designers create and design concepts, develop mock-ups and create print-ready designs for a product’s packaging. The majority of products require some form of packaging to protect them for storage and sale.
Nevertheless, packaging design can communicate directly to a target demographic, which makes it an extremely useful marketing tool, making the demand for packaging designers high. Every container, box or bottle is an opportunity to tell the story of a brand.
Packaging designer’s work requires conceptual and problem-solving skills as well as working knowledge of print design.
8. Environmental
Environmental graphic design visually connects people to places by making spaces more memorable, informative or just easier to navigate. Environmental graphic designers generally carry out the design of public spaces.
Being quite a broad type of graphic design, some examples of environmental design are: office branding, museum exhibitions, retail store interiors, signage, conference spaces or wall murals. The environmental graphic design merges graphic, architectural, interior, landscape and industrial design.
The urban population is growing, therefore environmental design has increasingly become a popular profession which is growing in demand as our need to fit a higher population in a more comforting space increase.
Which Type of Graphic Design is in the Highest Demand?
Perhaps it is not the type of graphic design, which is necessarily in the highest demand from the industry. There should be more of a focus on the skillsets which a graphic designer should carry. With many graphic design jobs requiring a broad set of skills, the need for graphic designers to fit under more than one category is essential.
The most popular and needed skills for graphic designers are mastering Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. These are the most requested skill in a sample of graphic designer job postings. Depending on their skill set and experience, the salary of a graphic designer will vary.
Next, the most admired and wanted skills were Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office Suite, and HTML. Research shows that out 100 graphic designer jobs listed, 76 required Photoshop, 74 wanted Illustrator, and 74 needed InDesign. Most even wanted all three.
Final Thoughts
There is a place in the industry for designers who want to specialise in their area of expertise and there is also a place for designers who want to test out every type of design.
Arguably, the three types of graphic design which are in the highest demand in 2023 are Visual Identity, Motion and Packaging.
With this in mind, brand designers help companies to draw attention through various sources, and this will never die out.
Motion design is a new, demanded job because television, the internet, mobile apps, advertising, and games all hire motion graphic designers.
Since the modern market faces overproduction, packaging designers justly occupy their place at the top of most demanded jobs in graphic design.
Undoubtedly, graphic design is one of the most promising and beneficial industries to enter. It provides unique opportunities for creativity and a fair income.