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Graphic design is an exciting and innovative field that helps to shape the visual language of the world we live in. Many people who enter the graphic design field are primarily interested in the creative and artistic side of graphic design—and rightly so. Creating the visual look and feel of products, apps, advertisements, and more is exciting and stimulating. However, the old days when graphic design was primarily done with pen and paper are long past. Today’s graphic design world is digital, and as a result, computer coding plays a large and growing role in graphic design. While it is not strictly speaking essential, since there is off-the-shelf software for many design tasks, coding can help enhance designers’ capabilities and enhance their ability to create dynamic and interactive content.
In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the ways that coding is relevant to graphic design work and should be part of any graphic designer’s toolbox:
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In today’s business world, much of the graphic design work you will do will involve creating websites and web applications. Even if you only plan to offer logos and design concepts, it’s still a good idea to understand the tools that web designers use because your clients will be using them too. Web designers use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create web pages that are both visually appealing and subtly guide the reader to essential features. CSS is particularly important for creating the layout and the style of web pages, while JavaScript is the engine driving the interactivity and dynamism of the designs.
When you create web or multimedia projects, chances are you’ll want to include animated or interactive elements. These types of additions to a project are less likely to use “off-the-shelf” designs and benefit from custom coding solutions. You can create effective animations and interactive features with technologies like CSS animations, SVG animations, and JavaScript libraries (e.g., jQuery, GSAP), technologies that bring visuals to life.
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Graphic design isn’t just about creating a beautiful image. You also need to create scalable images that look good at different sizes and resolutions across a variety of devices. Responsive web design is a coding practice that helps ensure that the user experience is optimized across the full array of devices and screen sizes. As a graphic designer, understanding these coding principles will help ensure your design looks right wherever it appears.
A key task of graphic design is to be able to transform complex data sets into engaging and easily digested graphics. This process, called data visualization, can shape how audiences perceive data and how easily that data is understood. And, of course, data visualization is almost entirely done electronically now. Gone are the days of creating a graph with a pencil and graph paper! Coding languages like D3.js and Chart.js help to create dynamic and interactive data visualizations for a range of web applications.
The user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are essential for engaging users and ensuring that they have the intended experience. As a designer, you will use your coding skills to create interactive prototypes and mockups of both the UI and the UX in order to visualize how a website, app, or other product will look, feel, and function, helping the development team to better anticipate and understand the end user’s likely experience.
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While the use of artificial intelligence to create generative art has limited the utility of this skill, it’s still common for graphic designers to use creative coding to create original art via algorithm. By coding specific rules to generate art, you can create innovative and dynamic designs that can yield unexpected and pleasing results.
Coding skills can also help graphic designers to save time and effort by automating routine tasks. Some designers use languages like Python to automate their workflow in design software like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop through the use of custom scripts for repetitive tasks. Having the skills to create your own custom scripts can save you time and improve efficiency as you work on projects, ultimately letting you get more done faster.
As emerging technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) become more common, graphic designers will be needed to create these immersive virtual worlds and interactive experiences. As a graphic designer, you will be in greater demand if you can bring coding skills in languages like Unity (C#) to bear in developing AR and VR projects.
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As a graphic designer, you need to understand coding in order to assert greater control over your designs and how they function. This can open up new paths for creativity and collaboration. Because coding has so many benefits to graphic designers, it’s a good idea to build your coding skills. If you are in a coding class as part of a digital art program, you may find that you need help with your coding homework. An online service like AssignmentCore processes any “do my coding assignment for me” requests and allows students to get the help they need with their assignments by having coding experts on hand to show you the right way to approach any assignment.
Not every graphic designer needs to be an expert coder, but understanding the basics of coding can make you a more valuable member of the design team and more in-demand as a designer.
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If you found this post useful you might like to read these post about Graphic Design Inspiration.
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