Fun Facts about Graphic Design

At McCauley Marketing Services, we pride ourselves on being a comprehensive solution for our clients, from creating a general marketing strategy to implementing it professionally through print ads, social media, direct mail, event promotion, web design, and more, all while our team of designers, writers, and web experts work together toward a common goal. One group of experts who are involved in nearly every step of this process are graphic designers. Our design team ensures that everything we produce has visual appeal and furthers the unique brands that each of our individual clients want to portray. How much do you know about graphic design? We’ve compiled a few facts about the field—some educational, and others simply fun to know.

• Graphic designers create layout and visual appeal. Though they can work in a wide variety of fields, for our clients at McCauley Marketing Services, they design advertising, flyers, websites, logos, signs and displays, mailers, and even internal pieces like employee handbooks or training materials.
• According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 261,600 graphic designers nationwide in 2014. This number is expected to rise to over 265,000 by 2024.
• “Georgia” is a popular font for many types of graphic designs, but interestingly, it’s named after a tabloid headline which read, “Alien heads found in Georgia.”
• The Sony Vaio logo portrays a marriage of analog and digital electronics: the first two letters form an analog wave, while the last two letters signify a 1 and a 0—the two basic elements of a digital signal.
• Graphic design is generally considered to require a Bachelor’s degree, but in some cases, a portfolio and demonstration of skills are sufficient to show that a graphic designer can perform their job well.
• Serifs (the little lines that tend to make fonts look fancier—for example, look at the bottom of an “m” written in Times New Roman compared to the same letter written in Arial) are said to have originated in the Roman Empire because stone carvers wanted a neat and clean way to finish off each letter.
• According to a study by Stanford University and Consumer WebWatch, a website’s overall web design is the #1 aspect which influences how credible a reader perceives the site to be.
• Woody Allen uses the same font for the titles and credits in nearly all of his movies. Talk about a simple method of brand consistency!
• The Nike “swoosh” logo was designed by Carolyn Davidson, who was a college student at the time (1971). She was paid $35.

Graphic design often gets overlooked, despite the fact that it plays a role in nearly every element of public communication a company releases. If you’re a business owner who wants to bring a new level of professionalism and appeal to your website or marketing materials, schedule a meeting with McCauley Marketing Services. Or, for more fun facts and helpful tips about the world of medical marketing, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.