Visual Branding (Logos), Publications (Brochures / Corporate Annual Reports), Websites for NYC Startups

The design process is typically linear, whether it’s a logo design, magazine, brochure, corporate annual report, or startup website. Steps include the initial brief, research, roughs, and so on. Throughout the process, designers must consider fundamental elements that shape every distinctive solution.

Elements of a Successful Design Solution:

Time/Budget: This is what makes graphic design an applied art.

Content: The actual material, information, or topic contained within a communication.

Form: The shape a design takes.

Function: The basic determination of a project’s goals. For example, a promotion’s main objective for an event is to convince people to attend. Function defines the direction a design will take.

Structure: A hierarchy directs what the audience sees and reads first, second, third, and so on. Every design benefits from some kind of structure or planned order to convey information.

Usefulness: A practical consideration to make a design useful for its audience. For example, typography with an “edgy” aesthetic might be appropriate for a music magazine, but not for a medicine bottle’s instructions.

Aesthetics: A viewer tends to be drawn into a graphic design piece by the way it looks.

Distinction: How a design can be different from all that is around it is key. We are bombarded with all sorts of messages and images—a design must somehow stand out. Imagine a wall of posters that are all shouting versus one that whispers.

Brand and Identity Design

For any company to succeed, it must establish its own, unique brand (an identifying personality) that is burned into the mind of its audience. A logo (a graphic or symbolic representation) can accomplish this function by presenting a face for the viewer to see—a visual identity. A logo also differentiates one company from another, becoming quite valuable if used consistently in advertising, print collateral, websites, and broadcast media.

Graphic designers who work at corporations create a wide array of materials. Style manuals help coordinate how a corporate identity is applied to various communications from the annual report and website to business cards, advertising layouts, and environmental signage. The goal is to create a comfort zone for the general public by consistently presenting a familiar, instantly recognizable face.

Package Design

Package design must function three-dimensionally and often utilizes texture as well as text and image. Industrial packaging is a major field, but it’s the consumer category that holds the most presence in the industry, including food and beverages, cosmetics, household products, pharmaceuticals, and smaller groups. Decisions about size and shape are often impacted by government regulations, and decisions about the overall personality and approach are often determined based on focus groups and consumer feedback.

Publication Design

Magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and other periodicals all fall under publication design. Thousands are published annually in the United States across categories like news, business, travel, retail, entertainment, and fashion, with distribution ranging from weekly to yearly. Each aims for a distinctive identity, achieved through a blend of photography, typography, and consistent page-to-page design. Newspapers and newsletters often prioritize readability, while magazines emphasize creative interpretation of each story.

With most publications now having both print and online presences, designers must consider how their work will function across platforms. A font that works beautifully in print may not translate well online, and a sequence of images may not read the same on a screen. Should designers create for print first and then adapt for the web—or design with both formats in mind from the start? These decisions challenge publication designers daily. As online technology evolves, making the right choice becomes not only more complex but also increasingly critical to a publication’s success.

Book Design

Book publishers provide designers with the final, edited text for layout, making it essential that designers understand the content when choosing fonts, headers, and other design elements. Style decisions must align with the subject matter, while illustrated books introduce an additional layer of design challenges.

Book Jacket Design

A book’s success—or a series’—often hinges on its cover design, which conveys nonverbal cues about the content. The ultimate test is the bookshelf, whether physical or online, where the book acts as a mini-poster. The designer’s role is to attract attention and provide an inviting entry point.

Signage Design

Helping people find their way through stores, airports, highways, and buildings is the main goal of signage design. A strong understanding of typography is essential in this area of design, as is an understanding of building plans, floor plans, construction, and exit procedures. Signage designers work with interior and landscape designers as well as architects to create signage—a sign, or system of signs, that will be highly visible but also will integrate with the space for which they are planned.

Information Design

The presentation of information and data is both an art and a science. The designer must make data understandable and easy to use in a way that is effective, efficient, and attractive. Typical examples might include instructions for product use, signs, public information systems, computer interfaces, websites, forms, educational materials, maps, charts, graphs, and diagrams.

Collateral Design

Promotion that supports or reinforces an identity, service, or event is considered collateral material. This type of material includes brochures, mailers, catalogs, announcements, and so on. These materials usually require copywriting (composing the words), photography, and illustration (stylized drawing/painting). While advertising agencies handle major campaigns for promoting a brand’s product or service, they will often commission designers to produce collateral pieces.

Advertising Design

Graphic designers working within advertising media fuse their understanding of visual identity with campaign marketing strategies. Magazine advertising and direct mail are two potential directions for designers to take in this category. Designers can bring a graphic sensibility to traditional campaigns and help integrate type and image to strengthen advertising concepts. Advertising designers usually have a strong background in marketing.