Graphic Design Terminology Every Student Must Know

With E-Commerce taking over the market, graphic design has become a demanding career to improve marketing. Graphic designing means the creation of images which convey certain messages. Graphic designers use graphic design terminologies to express their ideas to the clients and other designers. Knowing graphic design terms can help the designer and clients to exchange ideas in a much more formal way.

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Here is a list of graphic terms every student must know. These graphic design terms will also be used for graphic design aspirants to understand their interests as well as for professionals to brush up their skills.

Graphic Design Terminology Glossary

Graphic design terms can be helpful while explaining the design and communicating with a designer. As graphic design doesn’t require a formal education this graphic design terminology glossary can help the aspirants to kickstart their career. A list of a few graphic design terms to know has been given below to explore.

Aspect Ratio: Aspect ratio refers to the width and height of the rectangle in which the design has to be done. Graphic designers commonly used three is to 4 16 is to 9 and 1:1 ratios to design various posters and posts for different media platforms.

Body Copy: Body copy is the main text used by the designer. It refers to the main content of a publication in print or digital.

Brand Identity: Brand identity is not necessarily a graphic design terminology but it is used by designers to denote the visual presence of a company that the designer has to create. From the logo, typeface, colour palette, website look and packaging of the product the designs must be coherent and must signify the vision and objectives of the company. The creation of a brand identity is necessary in this consumer world as it helps gain an audience/customers. Graphic designers create this identity in a visual aspect.

CMYK: CMYK's full form is Cyan, Magenta, yellow and key. These are the four colours which are majorly used in the printing realm. The graphic designers use a mixture of these four colours to create an infinite number of other colours.

Colour Palette: The colour palette refers to the colours that the designers have selected to showcase the brand. The colour palette is fixed for a brand and it is used in the packaging, website, social media posts, advertisement, and logo to create coherency and brand identity.

Font: Font is the various typefaces that the designers use and the styles incorporated in them. The designer usually bold or italic the details that they want to draw attention to. Designers play with the font size to create a balance between the design and the message.

Golden Ratio: Golden Ratio is a graphic design terminology often used in photography to denote an arrangement of two objects used in design. When the larger object is divided by the smaller the resulting number should be 1.6118. The designers and photographers use this ratio to create visually aesthetic pieces.

Grid: Grid is a graphic design term to know as it denotes the horizontal and vertical lines that are used to arrange the various design elements. These lines help in creating accuracy while designing and also help in a neat arrangement of the elements. The grid alignment shows that the text and images are properly spaced and of the same size.

Hue: Hue is a graphic design terminology used to represent the colour. The colours which are visible to us in the colour wheel represent the different hues.

Icon: Icons denote the images which are used to represent the functioning of a button. For example, using the pen icon could symbolise editing a document.

Kerning: Kerning is one of the graphic design terminologies associated with the space between the characters and typography. This is usually used in creating logos, large blocks of text or headlines in newspapers and magazines. Kerning is necessary to create a balance between the letters.

Leading: Leading is another important graphic design term to know which is associated with space between the two consecutive texts. Large leading indicates that there is more space between the lines of the text which makes it clearer.

Mockups: Mockup is a graphic term every student must know. It is an important term for the clients also as it refers to the draft of the design that the designers must present to the company before it is finalised.

Margin: Margin is the blank space which is left in between the page and the design area. The width of the margin is an important factor in giving the overall look to a design.

Mood Board: Mood board is one of the important graphic design terminologies used during the brainstorming of ideas. It is the compilation of all the ideas collected throughout the process of design and represents the thoughts of the designers.

Negative Space: The empty space which has been left consciously by the designer to create a balance for the viewers. This unoccupied area in the design helps to divert attention towards the more important things in the design.

Opacity: Opacity is a graphic design term to know as it refers to the transparency of the various elements in the design. It helps to create layered effects by the designers.

Pantone: It denotes the standard colour scheme which is used for printing. Each colour has a specific number and name to identify it. Many designers and industries across the world use the pan to scheme to maintain a standard recognition of colour.

Pixel: Pixel is one of the core graphic design terminologies used. The minuscule of a screen or the most basic unit of an image.

Resolution: Resolution is used to denote the number of units of DPI or PPI which occupy the linear inch of an image. It is easier to understand that the higher the resolution the better the quality of the image is.

Rule of Thirds: This graphic design term is similar to the golden ratio as it means the arrangement of objects in a design or photography. When the images are divided by two horizontal and vertical lines the intersecting lines are the focal points, where according to the rule, the most important object has to be placed.

Saturation: Saturation denotes the intensity of colour used in a design. More intense colours create a serious or poppy look for the design while the pastel shades have lighter colours in them to create a calming effect.

Stock Photo: Stock photos are one of the essential graphic design terminologies. They are images that the designers use freely. These licensed images can be used by the designers to not have the trouble of arranging a photoshoot.

Typography: Typography is one of those graphic terms every student must know. The arrangement of words by the designers is known as typography which is used in almost everything that has a written text in it. It is used on screens, billboards, newspapers, and magazines. Typography is used for alphabets and words and not for elements of design.

Vector: Vector is the final word in this graphic design terminology glossary. It is used to denote the images made out of curved lines and points. Vectors are useful in graphic designing as zooming in or out does not affect the picture quality.