What is Graphic Design?
Generally involving a client and a designer. This is a creative process, undertaken to convey a message (or messages) to a target audience. Graphic design is all about visual communications and presentation. A graphic designer uses typography, visual arts and page layout to produce a final result. Both the process of designing and the final produced result fall under the term graphic design.
Common uses
Identity (logos and branding), publications (magazines, newspapers and books), advertisements and product packaging as well as signage (billboards, store signs).
A brief history
Graphic design as a discipline has a relatively recent history, with the term "graphic design" first coined by William Addison Dwiggins in 1922. That being said, however, it's been around for much longer than that. An example of this is the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. In the 20th and 21st centuries, there was a significant explosion of visual communication. Graphic design, as we know it, had officially taken off. In graphic design, there are numerous overlapping practices, including advertising art, graphic design, and fine art.
Summary
If you want to communicate a message these days, chances are you will have to get involved with a graphic designer to get that message across in a professional manner. A designer will work with your message and a combination of drawn, painted, photographic, or computer-generated images, as well as typefaces, to form typography. Graphic design is a creative process that combines art and technology to communicate ideas.