What does a graphic designer do?

A graphic designer puts a message into visual form. Everything from a logo to a book to a website requires choices to be made in typography, illustration, color, and size. This is part science, part art.

More specifically, a graphic designer . . .

• listens to your description of the project and your objectives
• presents ideas and proofs approximating the proposed solution
• illustrates charts and diagrams, selects or modifies existing art, produces original drawings, selects stock photography, or directs a professional photographer
• scans line art, photographs, and transparencies
• lays out the page(s) with attention to the finer points of professional layout and typography
• prepares computer files for commercial printing, or for the web
• acts as a liaison between you and the printer

Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else.

Donald Knuth, WIRED, November 1999