How Graphic Design Has Developed Over the Last 10 Years
As we are all visual learners, visuals are important. Ever since the days of print design, graphic designers have been in high demand to produce eye-catching graphics. As the world turned to the web, graphic designers followed them. We are very much dependant on technology and as it advances, we advance with it.
Mobile Development
As smartphones have become more and more accessible, every bit of media with an online presence now needs to keep them in mind, and in most cases, think of them first. In my opinion, if you aren’t focusing on mobile design then you are designing for the past and not the future. At Blue Whale Media, Lewis (Senior Graphic Designer) and myself always design for mobile development and are well aware of the sizes required for mobile responsiveness.
Being a Diverse Designer is Important
The field of graphic design itself has diversified, and a successful modern graphic designer now has a broad range of related skills. For example, I am a motion graphic designer, which means I am more than capable of doing the graphic design side of thing, e.g. web graphics, leaflets, and roller banners. However, I am also capable of making videos from scratch or making videos using live action footage. This means that I am capable of doing pretty much anything we get asked to deal with on a regular basis.
Technology
The way that a designer produces their art has become more advanced and beautifully complex. Therefore, a designer has to be able to cope with the everchanging technology that they have to deal with. For example, when I first started editing, if I wanted to motion track a piece of text to a video I had to use the ‘Track Motion’ button in After Effects and go frame by frame doing it myself, with today’s technology, there is a camera that does everything for you using tracking points and can even be incorporated with a 3rd party programme (Cinema 4D) to make the text 3D. That is just one example of how technology has changed the field of design. The entire Adobe suite is constantly being updated and is a marvelous company to have on your side.
Design Trends
Some trends have become almost obsolete in the past 10 years. For example, websites used to have a Flash introduction, however, with the internet maturing and people wanting to gain information more easily. As a result of the more magazine style designs have been needed for websites as users prefer to have important information only one click away. Flash has since become obsolete itself as it is not supported by some smartphones and tablets.
Internet
With faster internet speeds being introduced, we are able to produce higher quality graphics without ruining the loading speed of a site, and we can even play videos on websites now without slowing down the site at even the slightest.