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The Graphic Designer Career

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Published: Jun 13, 2024

Words: 617 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, body paragraphs, essential skills and education, career paths and specializations, industry demands and job outlook, impact of technological advancements.

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What is graphic design? With examples for beginners

What is graphic design? This beginner’s guide walks you through the definition of graphic design and shares examples of different types.

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Graphic design is the art of creating and arranging visual elements to communicate a message effectively.

While the term “ graphic design ” was coined in the 1920s, the art form itself has long been an essential part of visual communication. Early examples of graphic design can be seen in ancient manuscripts and even prehistoric cave paintings.

Today, the graphic design industry spans many different disciplines and specializations. It's an exciting field that’s constantly evolving. Yet, its adaptive nature can make it hard to understand exactly what graphic design is and what types of work graphic designers do.

In this article, we’ll cover what graphic design is, examples of different types, and how each design job differs.

What is graphic design?

Graphic design is the art of composing visual elements — such as typography , images, colors, and shapes — to communicate information or convey a message effectively. Designing the layout of a magazine, creating a poster for a theatre performance, and designing packaging for a product are all examples of graphic design.

In fact, almost everyone today practices some form of graphic design in their daily life — whether it’s adding text to an image for social media or color-coding a spreadsheet for work. Basically, if you’re creating visual content, you’re practicing some form of graphic design.

What is the main purpose of graphic design?

The objective of graphic design is to convey or enhance a message.

Good graphic art streamlines communication. Picture a spreadsheet with data analytics. A graphic designer might use different colors to highlight which metrics are rising and which are dropping, making it easier for the viewer to quickly understand what’s going well and what they need to adjust.

Well-executed graphic design can also elicit an emotional response from the viewer or even motivate them to take action. The “sign up” page on a website, for example, typically entices visitors to join an email list or start a free trial. Meanwhile, food packaging design aims to make the food inside seem more appealing to eat. 

What does a graphic designer do?

As visual communicators of ideas, information, and messages, graphic designers use their artistic skills and technical expertise to undertake a variety of tasks and responsibilities, depending on the specific role or project they’re working on. 

A graphic designer’s responsibilities range from brand and visual identity design to marketing design and advertising, web design, illustration, type design, infographic design, textile and surface design, packaging design, editorial or publication design, motion graphic design, and user interface design. Each of these aspects requires visual communication and team collaboration from graphic designers. 

Visual communication is the foundation of graphic design, and it's the first step for each project you’ll take on. Graphic designers start this step by working alongside their client, department, or team to understand the project, its background, audience, goals, and other items provided by the client and/or brief. What follows is a collaborative brainstorm of ideas and visual concepts until it’s time to start the design, layout, and composition. 

11 types of graphic design

Here are 11 of the most common types of graphic design with examples to help you get your creative juices flowing.

1. Brand and visual identity design

Brand and visual identity design are closely related aspects of graphic design; visual identity design is a subset of brand design. 

Brand design is the practice of setting guidelines and best practices for a company to use across all branded materials to ensure a consistent brand identity. It encompasses a broad scope — a brand, its audience, and its strategy — whereas visual identity design focuses on specific visual elements or components within a brand’s design.

Brand designers help brands or companies strategically communicate and appeal to an audience. 

This process involves defining a brand's identity, mission, messaging, and values and translating them into personality with a specific voice and tonality, as well as visual identity. 

Once a brand or company determines their brand design, a brand designer can hone in on the visual components and elements that will represent the brand — its visual identity design. This design includes anything from determining color schemes and palettes to logo design, typography, iconography, graphics and imagery, graphics and imagery styles, applications (where to apply these visual designs; think business cards, websites, packaging, and other touchpoints), and lastly, brand guidelines. 

Brand design work includes but is not limited to:

• Designing logos and setting clear guidelines for how to use them
• Designing letterhead, icons, and various illustrations
• Selecting brand colors and setting clear guidelines for their use
• Creating or selecting fonts and typography guidelines
• Creating templates that follow the brand guidelines and that marketing, growth, and other teams can use
• Packaging design and graphics for product design

Good brand designers understand marketing design, web design, logo design, and many other aspects of graphic design because their decisions will affect all subsequent design projects for that brand. 

If you’ve never worked with brand design guidelines before, check out Starbucks’ creative expression website . This example shows how to include various initiatives in brand design and the type of guidelines a brand designer should create to maintain a consistent visual identity.

Other brand graphic design examples include Aráceas by Walter Mattos, Fernanda Galindo, and Bruno Krazler and PureBud by Motaleb Hossain.

Brand design is evolving at a particularly fast pace. As technology develops, brands are always looking for new ways to engage with their target audience — which means their brand design needs to support new and shifting channels. So, if you enjoy taking on new challenges and keeping up with the latest trends, brand design might be a great fit for you.

2. Marketing design

Marketing design is graphic design for marketing initiatives. Marketing designers may work on smaller, one-off projects such as promotional emails, as well as larger multi-faceted projects such as ad campaigns, seasonal campaigns, or designing booths, handouts, and other print materials for conventions and tradeshows.

Marketing design can include:

• Social media campaigns 
• Email marketing campaigns 
• Newsletters
• Billboards and other signage
• Trade show booths and other materials
• Physical mailers
• Web and mobile assets

Marketing design uses the guidelines and messaging set by brand designers to communicate a specific message for a single campaign, asset, or platform. Let's take a look at a few campaign and asset examples. 

3. Web design

While many graphic artists design visual elements for a brand's websites, it’s important to note that web design is not the same as graphic design.

Designing a great website is a multidisciplinary undertaking as websites are interactive rather than fixed assets like brochures or magazines. You need graphic design skills as well as experience with user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design , which is why teams of multiple professionals with complementary skill sets typically design websites. 

Web designers may work on projects including:

• Creating icons and buttons
• Designing web page layouts
• Creating various interactive design elements on a website
• Optimizing visual elements for all devices (desktop, mobile, etc.)
• Working with web development, UX, UI, and marketing design teams to improve the overall experience for site visitors

Plenty of graphic designers are also web designers with knowledge of UX design and create beautiful websites and mobile apps without the support of a large team. With the help of platforms like Webflow, designers can create stunning interactive websites without needing extensive knowledge of coding. 

4. Illustration design

Illustrations are often part of web, marketing, and brand design, but they’re also useful in other ways. Some designers focus solely on offering illustrations and work with larger design teams, contributing individual assets for various projects.

Illustrators may design visual assets for:

• Children’s books
• T-shirts and other wearables
• Cards and stationery
• Social media 
• Video and interactive media
• Marketing campaigns

Illustration style and design process can vary drastically from designer to designer. Some artists work almost exclusively in digital formats using graphic design tools such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or Procreate, and others blend digital media with physical media, preferring to start with a pencil and paper.

Get inspired by these three incredibly talented illustration graphic designers:

• Ren Kyles  
• Rafael Nobre Studio
• Daniela Volpari

5. Type design

Some graphic designers specialize in creating or selecting typography , typeface, or fonts.

Type design can include:

• Creating custom lettering and numerals
• Writing or digitally creating typography assets
• Selecting fonts and creating typography guidelines for a brand 

Humans rely heavily on words to communicate messaging, so type designers collaborate on a wide array of projects. Type designers contribute to brand design by creating, selecting, or pairing fonts . It’s also common for type designers to create assets for web, marketing, product, or package design.

Here are four type design examples from: 

• Mao Maozi  
• Harbor Bickmore  
• Felix Summ  
• The Type Type, LLC  

6. Infographic design

At their core, infographics are simply representations of data or information that can be consumed visually. They can take the form of 2D illustrations, interactive elements on a website, or even videos. The common thread is that they help the viewer more easily understand a large amount of information or complex concepts.

Check out this infographic by bby Pororo . Not only is it beautiful, but it is packed with everything a curious onlooker needs to know about peaches and their nutritional value.  

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7. Textile and surface design

Textile graphic designers may create designs for fabrics, wallpaper, carpets, and furniture. Many textile designers have experience not only designing graphics but also printing or creating textiles. To be a great textile designer, you need to understand design principles, such as color theory and hierarchy, as well as what’s possible when using different dyes and fabrics because the material itself will affect the final look of a design.

8. Packaging design

From food to gadgets to designer jewelry, the packaging that items are transported in is often just as important as the items themselves. Product packaging designers aim to show off or complement the items inside the packages. 

9. Editorial or publication design

Editorial or publication design is a form of graphic design concerning print and digital publications. 

Print publication graphic designers consider not only visual elements such as color, typography, whitespace , and imagery but also tactile features such as texture and quality of the print medium’s paper and cover and other print specifications .   

Further, in today’s digital age, a digital publication graphic designer would consider the same elements, apart from the tactical features. Instead, a digital publication designer would consider aspects such as functionality, interactivity, animations, web and mobile formats, and other specifications for the digital print medium. 

Print and digital publication design spans:

• Newsletters 
• Emails and other digital publications

Publication design sets the tone for a publication and can amplify the written word. Just picture a well-placed pull quote in a printed interview or a beautifully laid-out recipe book.

10. Motion design

Have you ever looked at a graphic design and imagined what it would look like if it were moving, had life, or a bit of motion? A motion graphic designer’s job is to do just that: breathe life into graphic designs by turning static graphics into captivating and engaging motion graphics. 

Motion graphic design, or motion design , combines the principles of design with animation and film techniques to create dynamic visual content. 

Common motion graphic design includes: 

• Title sequences, which are the opening sequence of motion graphics traditionally used to introduce a film, TV show, and nowadays commercials, video games, YouTube videos, and even streams
• Explainer videos, anything from social media shorts to full-fledge productions
• Marketing materials for social media, commercials, or web ads
• Animations and microinteractions used in user interface design, web design, software, game design, and video game development 

There’s also an element of storytelling in motion design. A good motion designer is also a good storyteller, using visual elements to guide the viewer through the design’s story, concept, or narrative. 

Check out “ This is Fine ” by creative director Baron Maxime, graphic designer Angèle Bappel, creative front-end developer Risser Axel, and creative web developer Pierre Martinière. They do a wonderful job of creating a narrative and carrying it throughout the promotional graphics and the game itself, incorporating filmmaking techniques — an example of fabulous motion graphic design.  

11. User interface design

Not to be confused with a user experience (UX) designer, a user interface (UI) graphic designer focuses on graphic designing user interfaces for digital products and applications. 

This type of design incorporates elements of both UX and graphic design. From color-swatching buttons, icons, and menu bars to designing responsive layouts and microinteractions, user interface graphic designers facilitate smooth and intuitive interactions between users and digital products (or applications) via aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly designs. 

Some user interface graphic design examples include: 

• Web and mobile app interfaces
• Software interfaces 
• Gaming interfaces
• Smartwatch interfaces
• Smart appliance interfaces (i.e., smart refrigerators, smart TVs, and so on)
• In-car interfaces
• Interactive Kiosks and ATMs

Get started in graphic design

If you’re thinking of pursuing a career in graphic design, there’s no better way to get a feel for which disciplines interest you most than to play around with graphic design software and tools . Don’t forget to explore physical mediums, too. Many great digital designers begin projects with a piece of paper and a pencil or paintbrush.

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• Lifewire - An Introduction to the Basics of Graphic Design
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• Table Of Contents

graphic design , the art and profession of selecting and arranging visual elements—such as typography, images, symbols, and colours—to convey a message to an audience. Sometimes graphic design is called “visual communications,” a term that emphasizes its function of giving form—e.g., the design of a book, advertisement , logo, or Web site—to information. An important part of the designer’s task is to combine visual and verbal elements into an ordered and effective whole. Graphic design is therefore a collaborative discipline: writers produce words and photographers and illustrators create images that the designer incorporates into a complete visual communication .

The evolution of graphic design as a practice and profession has been closely bound to technological innovations , societal needs, and the visual imagination of practitioners. Graphic design has been practiced in various forms throughout history; indeed, strong examples of graphic design date back to manuscripts in ancient China , Egypt , and Greece . As printing and book production developed in the 15th century, advances in graphic design developed alongside it over subsequent centuries, with compositors or typesetters often designing pages as they set the type.

In the late 19th century, graphic design emerged as a distinct profession in the West, in part because of the job specialization process that occurred there, and in part because of the new technologies and commercial possibilities brought about by the Industrial Revolution . New production methods led to the separation of the design of a communication medium (e.g., a poster) from its actual production. Increasingly, over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, advertising agencies, book publishers, and magazines hired art directors who organized all visual elements of the communication and brought them into a harmonious whole, creating an expression appropriate to the content. In 1922 typographer William A. Dwiggins coined the term graphic design to identify the emerging field.

Throughout the 20th century, the technology available to designers continued to advance rapidly, as did the artistic and commercial possibilities for design. The profession expanded enormously, and graphic designers created, among other things, magazine pages, book jackets, posters, compact-disc covers, postage stamps, packaging, trademarks, signs, advertisements, kinetic titles for television programs and motion pictures, and Web sites. By the turn of the 21st century, graphic design had become a global profession, as advanced technology and industry spread throughout the world.

Typography is discussed in this essay as an element of the overall design of a visual communication; for a complete history, see typography . Similarly, the evolution of the printing process is discussed in this essay as it relates to developments in graphic design; for a complete history, see printing .

Historical foundations

Although its advent as a profession is fairly recent, graphic design has roots that reach deep into antiquity . Illustrated manuscripts were made in ancient China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. While early manuscript designers were not consciously creating “graphic designs,” scribes and illustrators worked to create a blend of text and image that was at once harmonious and effective at conveying the idea of the manuscript. The ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead , which contained texts intended to aid the deceased in the afterlife, is a superb example of early graphic design. Hieroglyphic narratives penned by scribes are illustrated with colourful illustrations on rolls of papyrus . Words and pictures are unified into a cohesive whole: both elements are compressed into a horizontal band, the repetitive vertical structure of the writing is echoed in both the columns and the figures, and a consistent style of brushwork is used for the writing and drawing . Flat areas of colour are bound by firm brush contours that contrast vibrantly with the rich texture of the hieroglyphic writing .

During the Middle Ages, manuscript books preserved and propagated sacred writings. These early books were written and illustrated on sheets of treated animal skin called parchment , or vellum, and sewn together into a codex format with pages that turned like the pages of contemporary books. In Europe, monastic writing rooms had a clear division of labour that led to the design of books. A scholar versed in Greek and Latin headed the writing room and was responsible for the editorial content, design, and production of books. Scribes trained in lettering styles spent their days bent over writing tables, penning page after page of text. They indicated the place on page layouts where illustrations were to be added after the text was written, using a light sketch or a descriptive note jotted in the margin. Illuminators, or illustrators, rendered pictures and decorations in support of the text. In designing these works, monks were mindful of the educational value of pictures and the capacity of colour and ornament to create spiritual overtones.

Manuscript production in Europe during the Middle Ages generated a vast variety of page designs, illustration and lettering styles, and production techniques. Isolation and poor travel conditions allowed identifiable regional design styles to emerge. Some of the more distinctive medieval art and design approaches, including the Hiberno-Saxon style of Ireland and England and the International Gothic style prevalent in Europe in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, were used in manuscript books that achieved major graphic-design innovations. The Book of Kells ( c. 800 ce ), an illuminated Gospel book believed to have been completed in the early 9th century at the Irish monastery of Kells, is renowned as one of the most beautiful Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts. Its page depicting the appearance of Jesus Christ’s name in Matthew 1:18 is called the “ Chi-Rho page .” The design presents the monogram XPI—which was used to signify Christ in many manuscripts—as an intricately designed pattern of shimmering colour and spiraling forms blossoming over a whole page. The Book of Kells’s Chi-Rho page is a paradigm of how graphical form can become a metaphorical expression of spiritual experience: it clearly conveys the sacred nature of the religious content.

From the 10th through the 15th centuries, handmade manuscript books in Islamic lands also achieved a masterful level of artistic and technical achievement, especially within the tradition of Persian miniature painting . The pinnacle of the Shiraz school of Persian manuscript design and illustration is evident in a page illustrating the great 12th-century poet Neẓāmī ’s Khamseh (“The Quintuplet”). This page depicts the Persian king Khosrow II in front of the palace of his beloved, Shīrīn. Human figures, animals, buildings, and the landscape are presented as refined shapes that are defined by concise outlines. These two-dimensional planes are filled with vibrant colour and decorative patterns in a tightly interlocking composition . The calligraphic text is contained in a geometric shape places near the bottom of the page.

Graphic Design

William Drenttel , Jessica Helfand | Essays

October 11, 2010

An Introduction to Graphic Design

In addition to their role in the visual engineering of most printed matter, graphic designers today lend their expertise to a host of related disciplines including, but not limited to, strategy and consulting, information and experience design, branding and broadcast design, and signage and wayfinding systems. They are groomed to acquire a certain classic set of skills (which today demand a facility with software) including drawing, photography, composition and typography — the design and structural characteristics of letterforms, arguably graphic design’s lingua franca .

Graphic Design Done Right: A good identity is simple, but never boring; flexible, but never chaotic; playful and iterative — and always supremely recognizable. Good examples of graphic design done right are Saks Fifth Avenue and The New York Times online.

Graphic Design: A New History by Stephen J. Eskilson A substantial new history of graphic design, now being widely taught. Critically reviewed on Design Observer by Alice Twemlow and Lorraine Wild.

Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide by Johanna Drucker and Emily McVarish Another new history of graphic design, now being widely taught. Critically reviewed on Design Observer by Denise Gonzales Crisp and Rick Poynor.  

Merz to Emigre and Beyond: Avant-Garde Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century by Steven Heller

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What is Graphic Design? (& Types, History & Examples)

Written by: Chloe West

When you think of graphic design, what crosses your mind? It could be a logo, a digital marketing graphic, illustration, a magazine cover or something else entirely. And you know what? You would be right!

Graphic design comes in many different shapes and sizes. What they all have in common is that they’re designed to communicate visually, and are typically done on a computer or tablet.

We’ve put together this comprehensive guide to help you learn more about graphic design and how it’s morphed into what it is today.

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

What is graphic design, why is graphic design important, a brief history of graphic design (infographic), 9 graphic design types you need to know.

Graphic design is the process of creating visual content that helps to communicate messages with an audience. The art of visual communication is essential, especially for brands looking to connect with their target audience, and graphic design is the perfect solution.

Brands take advantage of graphic design in their logos, marketing materials, ads, website graphics, and even internal documents and email communications.

To further understand how graphic design works, you need to understand the different elements that make up a design. These graphic design elements include:

There are also a number of principles that graphic designers need to follow in order for their designs to be effective and grab attention. You may have heard these called Gestalt design principles .

Some of these principles include:

Putting together all of the different elements and principles can turn a design into a professional-looking graphic. 

While graphic designers by trade have often been trained on these principles, having a basic understanding can help anyone with little to no design skills create an eye-catching visual design.

Now that we’ve covered some graphic design basics, let’s dive into why graphic design is such an important skill.

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Graphic design is important for a lot of reasons. First, it’s the basis of every logo design you’ve ever seen. Second, think about all of the social media content and advertisements you see every day. Yep, all graphic design.

In addition, graphic design is a part of book cover design, magazine page layouts, product design, apparel design and more.

Here are a few statistics that help further our point of just how essential the graphic arts are.

Graphic design isn’t just a new age thing. In fact, graphic design has been around for thousands of years — of course, it’s looked pretty different throughout the years.

We’ve put together an infographic detailing the history of graphic design, and how it’s turned into what we know today.

You should have a pretty good grasp on the basis of graphic design and where it came from. Now let’s talk a little bit about the types of graphic design that you know today. Some of these, you may not have even realized are graphic design.

Let’s dig in.

Type #1: Brand Identity Design

The first type of graphic design is brand identity design. This alone is the most important type for you, as a business professional, to know.

While your company will likely use a variety of these different types, no company can succeed without a brand identity .

A brand identity consists of:

• Color palette
• Fonts/typography
• Imagery style
• Patterns/shapes
• Brand guidelines

You can see an example of brand guidelines holding all of these brand identity elements below.

Graphic designers tend to specialize in just a couple of different types of design. Brand identity designers have to be well-versed in graphic design trends, what types of designs resonate with customers and more.

Type #2: Marketing & Advertising Design

The next type of graphic design we’re going to cover is marketing and advertising design. This specialization focuses on the graphics we see on social media, websites and advertisements, both online and offline.

All of the billboards you pass by while driving down the interstate, all of the brochures you see at the coffee shop counter and all of the business social media graphics you see while scrolling through your feeds are all part of marketing & advertising graphic design.

Here’s a sample template of a marketing graphic you might see teasing an online course.

There is an endless number of marketing materials that can be created to promote a brand, and many designers specialize in this type of graphic design.

Type #3: User Interface Design

User interface (UI) design focuses more on designing actual websites, apps, software and other online programs. 

This specialization needs the designer to understand how to design a visually appealing program while also ensuring that it’s easy for the user to navigate and understand how to use.

Our UI team has worked hard to create an easy-to-use interface for Visme’s design tool so that both new and veteran users are able to get the most out of their experience.

Type #4: Product Design

Product design involves creating the overall design of products and how they’re presented to the audience. This can be anything from t-shirt prints and bottles to the actual design of a watering can or coffee mug.

Take these products from Frank Body for example. The bottle shapes are all designed to fit each type of skin care, but a designer also had to create the designs that are on each of the bottles or packages.

Product designers have to make sure that the products they create work well for the end user. Sometimes this involves reinventing the wheel on products that people already use and love while other times it can be helping to design something completely new.

Type #5: Publication Design

The next type of graphic design we’ll cover is publication design. Publication design encompasses the design of things like magazines, ebooks, white papers, reports, books, newsletters, brochures and more.

Publication designers must be able to create a visually appealing design that is still readable and ensures the information on each page flows well.

In this regard, it’s not all about the design. The actual words and content must come first, with the design only accentuating it.

Here’s an example of an easy-to-read and well-designed publication. The cover spotlights an illustration and headlines of what readers will find inside, while the inner pages do a great job of visualizing the content and calling out main points while still ensuring the copy is the star of the show.

To try your hand at publication design, you can customize this ebook template and share your own information with your audience in a visually appealing way.

Type #6: Packaging Design

Another important type of graphic design is packaging. When you’re selling something that many other companies sell, you need to find some way to stand out — a lot of times your packaging can help you do just that.

Whether you appeal to a certain audience with minimalistic packaging designs or you get creative, having packaging that pops is key.

Take a look at this toilet paper roll packaging . Getting creative with it can make people want to choose your product over others, simply because it’s cute or it’s different.

Packaging designers are faced with the challenge of finding unique ways to present their products so consumers choose them over a competitor.

Type #7: Typeface Design

Think of all the fonts you see on a daily basis. Look at the fonts that are used just within this blog post. Someone had to design all of these.

Every single font, even the most basic ones like Arial and Times New Roman, were created by a typeface designer. 

Both fonts in this font pair below were also designed by someone who specializes in creating typefaces.

In this day and age, we typically see typeface design used when brands want to create their own font. For example, Netflix’s logo is in their branded Netflix Sans font, and Samsung has their own SamsungOne font.

Type #8: Motion Graphic Design

Motion graphic or animation design is another type of design that you often see in videos and GIFs.

For example, take a look at this YouTube video where we unveiled our new brand mascot .

Designing animations or motion graphics requires special tools and the ability to create something that moves.

However, if you want to start small, you can use Visme’s video maker to create a motion video by customizing the template below.

Type #9: Illustration Design

The last type of graphic design we’re going to cover is illustrative design. 

This type of graphic design typically is done in professional programs like Adobe using a stylus and touchscreen to draw out the elements and turn them into a digital design. However, every designer has their own style and process.

You’ve seen this style a lot in our blog graphics. We incorporate illustrative design into many of our blog headers to help them stand out.

Illustration is a popular design trend that likely won’t be going anywhere for awhile, especially given how unique and different illustrations can become.

Over to You

Ready to try your hand at graphic design? You don’t have to be a designer to create something great. With a template and an easy-to-use design tool like Visme , you can easily design beautiful visual content no matter what level of design skills you’ve mastered.

Design beautiful graphics you can be proud of with Visme.

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About the Author

Chloe West is the content marketing manager at Visme. Her experience in digital marketing includes everything from social media, blogging, email marketing to graphic design, strategy creation and implementation, and more. During her spare time, she enjoys exploring her home city of Charleston with her son.

Graphic Essays and Comics

Overview   |   Recommended Software   |   Student-Made Examples   |   Other Examples   |   Instructional Video

A graphic essay (sometimes called a visual essay) uses a combination of text and images to explore a specific topic. Graphic essays can look like comics, graphic novels, magazines, collages, artist books, textbooks, or even websites. Graphic essays often first take the form of written essays and then have graphic elements added to enrich the reader experience. Unlike infographics, which also combine text and images, graphic essays are often more text-based and usually have a narrative arc or specific reading order.

Comics are a genre used to express ideas through images combined with text or other visual information. Comics can take the form of a single panel or a series of juxtaposed panels of images, sometimes called a strip. Text is conveyed via captions below the panel(s), or speech bubbles and onomatopoeias within the panel(s), to indicate dialogue, narration, sound effects, or other information. Graphic novels are often considered to be a longer form of comics, typically in book form.

A web-based graphic essay can take the form of a blog or a single page website, such as a Microsoft Sway page or an interactive Prezi. For Microsoft Sway and Prezi graphic essays, see the examples below. If you are creating a blog we recommend visiting the Web-Based Projects page .

Graphic Essay Design Tip: Graphic essays can take many forms, so we recommend being creative within the scope of your project! Get some help from DesignLab to brainstorm options and talk through the various tools available!

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Recommended Software

There are many different software programs that can be used to create graphic essays. Below is a list of the software that we recommend for making a graphic essay. We organized the software by category and put the software from top to bottom from best to worst. We recommend using a software you know well or learning the software well enough to establish an easy workflow, so you can spend less time troubleshooting and spend more time on your project. Check out our Software Support page for links to tutorials for all of these programs.

General Graphic Essay Software

Web-Based Graphic Essay Software

Comic-Specific Graphic Essay Software

Student-Made Examples

Print style graphic essay.

Becoming a Witness by Jessica Posnock

Creative Graphic Essay

Virtual Communication by Max Hautala   *Award Winning*

Curb Magazine (2012) by Journalism 417

Web-Based (Magazine) Graphic Essay

Curb Magazine (Current) by Journalism 417

Web-Based (Sway) Graphic Essay

Language Influences Culture, Thoughts, and Identity by Kristen Luckow   *Award Winning*

Dyslexia by Maria Swanke *Award Winning*

Other Examples

Web-based (blog) graphic essay.

Switch It Up: Graphic Essay by Amanda Zieba

Graphic Novel

Graphic Novels in the Classroom by Gene Yang

Instructional Video