Design
that’s to be experienced in an instant is the easiest to recognize. Designers
arrange type, form, and image on posters, advertisements, packages, and other printed
matter, as well as information
visualizations and graphics for
newspapers and magazines.
This
kind of design is often confused with illustration, but while an illustrator
creates or draws an image in response to an idea, a designer combines
illustrations, photographs, and type in order to communicate an idea. One way
to understand this is to consider the difference between a furniture maker and
an interior designer. One makes a specific object for a specific purpose, while
the other thinks about how all of the objects and surfaces of a room create an
environment for the person moving through it. Good illustrators are often
capable designers and vice versa, making it harder to distinguish between the
two practices.
Motion graphics are
equally predetermined and crafted but are meant to be experienced over a fixed
time span, like the opening credits of a movie or an online video that explains
part of a newspaper article. They usually go beyond the visual, curating and
cueing sound to moving vector graphics, photographs, and video. The difference
between motion graphics and videography or animation is the same as the
difference between two-dimensional graphics and illustration. Motion graphics
combine animation,
videography, and typography for a communicative purpose, and this combination
over time and the space of the screen constitutes the design.
Whether
physical or digital, books and magazines are
meant to be enjoyed over time, during which the reader has control over the
pace and sequence of the experience. In books, the content usually comes before
the design, while in magazines, the design is a structure that anticipates
written and visual content that hasn’t yet been created. Some commercial
websites or exhibition catalogues also fit in this category, as do digital or
physical museum displays that show information that doesn’t change. All have content
in a suggested order that has been thought about ahead of time, but the user or
reader finds his or her own path through the material.
Many
designers also produce systems that are meant to be experienced over time but
aren’t confined to the making of objects. Wayfinding, a form of environmental
graphics, refers to branding and signage applied throughout and on
buildings or outdoor areas like parks or highways. While each sign or symbol in
wayfinding is a work of design, together they form a larger system that helps
people navigate while maintaining a sense of the character of where they are.
The design of the system—the relationships among all of those parts—is where
the designer brings greatest value.
The
larger category of environmental graphics includes any design that connects a
person to a place, extending to and overlapping with dynamic displays,
didactic type and imagery, and creative placemaking. A wall of terminals that show
arriving and departing flights, a digital display on the facade of a building
that shows stock prices, an inspirational quote in a building lobby, and a
placard explaining a historical place or landmark are all examples of
environmental graphics.
Similar
to wayfinding, branding pulls
together all of the artifacts of a commercial or institutional brand, like a
business card, a sign, a logo, or an advertisement, into a visual system. How those are
experienced over time is the design work. No part is created without
considering the other parts or without thinking about how the target customer
will first encounter the brand and then develop a relationship with that brand
over time. In the twentieth century, a consumer often had just a few touchpoints for
a brand. For example, if you were to fly somewhere, you would see expressions
of the airline on your ticket, at the gate, on the plane, on the uniforms of
the flight attendants, and on various printed items on the plane, like the
blankets, napkins, or in-flight magazines. Perhaps you would have seen a print
or television ad. Today, your experience still includes all of these items, but
now it begins well before you arrive at the airport, when you buy your ticket
on the airline’s website and receive an email confirmation, and carries through
to a safety video and interactive options on board. Once you’ve arrived at your
destination, you may also receive follow-ups by email asking about your
experience on the trip or inviting you to further interact with the brand. This
expansion of touchpoints overlaps with almost every medium and considers a much
longer span of engagement with the customer.*
Designers
are also responsible for interactive designs where
the content changes as it gets updated, as well as screen interfaces that help
people navigate through a lot of information. Interaction design differentiates
itself from other kinds of design by adding another consideration: responding
to the actions of the viewer or user. Editorial design for web and mobile is
the most tangible example, including websites and mobile apps for publication.
Some digital design involves the presentation of rapidly changing streaming
information, also known as data visualization,
creating both interactive and non-interactive interfaces. Product design refers
to the design of digital products, which are digital services, tools, or
platforms that can be brought to market. The term is confusing because for
several decades “product design” has referred only to industrially produced
physical items like radios, benches, and bicycles and has been used
interchangeably with “industrial design.” Related to software design,
product design requires knowledge both about how computers process, sort, and
display information as well as how humans interface with computers. Many
companies and the designers who work for them aim for their products to be used
by large numbers of people around the world, so they often rely on widely
accepted design patterns and
metaphors and prioritize usability and functionality over aesthetic expression.
For large or complex projects, different designers may work on the user interface (UI), which
refers to the affect and layout of what the user sees in the moment, and the user experience (UX), or the
total experience of users over time as they move through websites or mobile
apps.
Depending
on the scale of the context in which a designer works, the work may include
one, some, or all of these things in the course of a year. Larger companies,
agencies, teams, or studios may employ a number of specialists, while smaller
studios and groups may need to have each individual capable, if not an expert,
in multiple areas. Higher-level creative direction or managerial positions
usually require expertise in at least two additional areas beyond basic
competence in design: domain expertise (knowing
what is happening in a particular business sector) and further knowledge and
experience in team management or client relations. While having a job in design
requires knowledge in only one area, having a career in design requires
expertise in more than one medium and more than one area of the design process.
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