Graphic Design and Advertising: How Well Do They Function?
When we talk about advertising and graphic design, we see two different fields of expertise. Any business needs to call out their market segment’s attention to information but it is not as smooth as it seems. It is not as simple as shouting someone else’s name in hallways or flashing something amusing on your smartphone.
Advertising is an element that goes beyond the surface.
It takes part in the marketing mix as one of the key tools in building a proper marketing and business plan. Before, there were only 4Ps under the marketing mix but it has been developed into 7Ps, with names consecutively written, Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidence. Without a doubt, advertising falls under the promotion element, and from that, there are other concepts aside from advertising, such as public relations, direct marketing, personal selling, and sales.
Advertising by nature is a verb. It is only a fraction of marketing and it is any activity that calls out public attention to promote a product, a service, advocacy, and other things through paid channels with various types of mediums, either verbal, non-verbal, or written communication to connect with people and deliver a message. Its main purpose is to make people informed of a product or service, be persuaded by the product or service’s features, and be influenced to take a purchasing action. Advertising yields the effectiveness of brand communication to reach a wider grasp of the audience because talking to them on a one-on-one basis would be strenuous and unrealistic. Good comprehension of how advertising affects the frontal lobe of our brain; specifically, the Prefrontal Cortex or PFC and hippocampus, which are responsible for memory recollection and decision-making, will help your business develop lingering advertisements, deliver remarkable messages in their heads, persuade them to choose your brand and sales to be generated thereafter.
Any business would not survive without a good marketing strategy, which is where advertising also takes place. As one part of marketing strategy, it has its role to play in summing up the overall success of marketing plan implementation. Though business does not necessarily depend on advertising alone, it is still an important tactic to spread information about your business and its distinctive features.
Various types of advertising are going rampant in this digital age since businesses have become more innovative and adaptive to the modern technological changes we encounter every day. Different businesses rely on one type of advertising, some on the other, while there are instances where different types are equipped at the same time.
Types of Advertising
Traditional Advertising
Before the internet age, businesses needed to be efficient with their resources, which is why traditional advertising has been used to its optimal advantage. Most brick-and-mortar businesses are equipped with the following traditional advertising methods like newspapers, Print Ads, Posters, Radio and Television Broadcasting, magazines, and Direct Mail. It is a mix of tangible and intangible advertisement output.
Digital Marketing
On the other hand, digital marketing is a comprehensive term that focuses on various marketing channels and digital platforms, equal to digital billboards, radio ads, mobile devices, mobile applications, SMS texts, and social media sites. Digital marketing allows you to have two-way communication with the audience; where there will be a provision of information from the business and decoding together with feedback made by the segment of the audience you are targeting.
Internet Marketing
Internet marketing is a subsection of digital marketing. From the term itself, this solely functions with the help of the internet. This is considered to be an advanced way of advertising where web experts’ knowledge is most likely needed. Terms like website, search engine marketing, social media marketing, and e-mail marketing are some of the categories under it. It is broad, where the system often takes the expertise of information technology specialists, programmers, computer engineers, and other computer and internet-related professions, to fully understand its context.
In association, advertisements have been more effective with the help of graphic design, in two different mediums, which are called text or image representation. Graphic design is the practice of creating visual and textual elements to further strengthen a message of a brand and connect with its audiences. Graphic designers often equip themselves with software and tools like computers, sketching and graphic tablets, cameras, and digital pens or styles to work on their craft, a mix of technology and art to convey a message. Graphic designers analyze, conceptualize, plan, and create visual representations to resolve difficulties in communication and interpretation of the message behind a design. An effective graphic design must be eye-appealing and can be comprehended easily by the target audience to have information retention about its contents.
There are several types of the graphic design commonly practiced such as the following:
Advertising and Marketing Design
Marketing and advertising aim to precipitate potential clients to avail of a service or purchase a product. Your audiences would appeal more to a service or product offering when there is a visual representation of what your product or service looks like or a sense of anticipation about what they are going to get from your company. This type of design includes social media graphics, marketing emails, print and digital art, and flashy billboards.
Art and Illustration
Graphic designers who concentrate on art and illustration usually create their original artworks with their signature design which distinguishes them from other artists. More often than not, they create one specific theme and explore different items concerning that theme or concept. Original designs are commonly seen as t-shirt designs, patterns for textiles, book covers, album art, stock images, and other things.
Environmental Graphic Design
Environmental Graphic Design blends with architecture, industrial, interior, landscape, and graphic designs. It aims to make a specific place memorable and engaging for people who pass through that place. Examples of this design are museum exhibitions, road and murals, signage, and place-making identity for entities such as transportation and public utilities, which may be designed enormously or tiny in detail. One good example of environmental graphics is guerilla marketing.
Motion Graphic and Animation
Put simply, these are graphic designs in motion and animated. It appeals to be more entertaining and engaging in the eyes of the audience as the elements move and appear to be alive. Some examples of motion graphics and animations are video trailers, title sequences, end credits, tutorial clips, promotional videos, GIFs, video games, and animated banners. Nowadays, motion graphics and animation are usually seen on YouTube and other video-sharing platforms.
Print and Publication Design
Back before the rise of the internet, print design was what most graphic designers used to work on. They have to understand the elements of a print design such as typography, and color theory, and choose photographs that would be eye-appealing when the design is printed. Some photos look good on screens but do not appear to be as lively as it looks while being edited. Popular examples of print design are magazines, newspapers, album covers, brochures, and flyers.
Packaging Design
Packaging design is for tangible products that are to be categorized, distinguished, and branded according to the attributes of an item. Designs made for products often correlate with the brand’s overall theme and product offerings. For instance, food packaging is designed differently from its exterior and interior parts, compared to hygiene bottles which would also be designed differently according to its nature of use.
UI Design
The user interface design has expertise with mobile applications, web applications, desktop applications, and games. Graphic designers who focus on this area create an interface to fill up all empty screens which sums up the entire digital user interface for entertainment and other web purposes. UI designers make the entire application possible with the help of UX designers (User-Experience Designers) who work on how an application will run, and UI developers (User-Interface Developers) who work on codes to make an application actually operate.
Graphic design and advertising are primarily two different things from two different fields of expertise with different functions on their own. When these two are utilized well, it can make more impact and may produce better results.
Is Advertising Related to Graphic Design?
A lot of people would assume that graphic design is related to advertising, but the truth is, that it is not. The two could work together and could also function on their own. Advertising leans more on concepts, ideas, strategies, and plans for developing a good advertisement for businesses or people. They are in-charge in searching for the right staff who will give solutions to any advertisement dilemma that may occur. Rather than looking at one element, like design, professionals who work in the advertising industry create the action and the flow of any type of advertisement they develop.
Graphic design, as mentioned above, has a broad scope in arts and technology. It takes a creative mind and colorful ideas for them to work well. They conceptualize and visualize an idea proposal making it come to life and delivering its essential message to the audience.
How Well Do They Function Together?
There is no doubt that graphic design plays a crucial role in advertising. Without compelling visuals, many ads would simply fall flat. However, it’s important to remember that graphic design is just one piece of the puzzle. For an ad to be truly effective, it needs to have a strong concept behind it. The best ads are those that seamlessly blend great visuals with an equally great message. Graphic design in advertising is truly helpful in shaping a vision into reality. Advertising strategically comes up with campaigns and other promotional tactics to sell a product or service. Graphic design would help by providing designs to represent the idea or campaign. The clients would get a hold of how a product looks and what they should expect from it. Graphic designers make the visual element to support a business’ vision.
Advertising is truly vast yet certainly helpful to create a presence in the business world. It should not be misleading, lacking information, dull, and involved with puffery; otherwise, it is not a great advertisement at all. With a knowledgeable and skilled team in hand, your first step toward building brand awareness is possible. If you are set to dive in and take your first step in advertising, Prime Outsourcing can help.
Prime Outsourcing
Our company is composed of qualified and competent professionals to take on your business goals effectively; may it be in Graphic Designing or running Advertisements or Web Marketing activities on your website, we are here to extend our help in achieving your goals in business. Contact us or visit our social media pages to connect with Prime Outsourcing.
