Graphic Design Basics

Course Notes — summarizing the free graphic design course by Laura Kung

Table of Contents
TOC \h \o "1-3"HYPERLINK "" \l "_Toc235134985"What Is Graphic Design?....... PAGEREF _Toc235134985 \h 1
A Brief History of Graphic Design......................................................................................................................... 3
Part 1: Design Theory & Principles....................................................................................................................... 3
The Basic Principles of Design........................................................................................................................... 3
Balance......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Unity............................................................................................................................................................. 3
Contrast........................................................................................................................................................ 4
Repetition..................................................................................................................................................... 4
Pattern.......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Rhythm......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Movement.................................................................................................................................................... 4
Emphasis....................................................................................................................................................... 4
Proportion..................................................................................................................................................... 4
Harmony....................................................................................................................................................... 4
Variety.......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Part 2: Color Theory.............................................................................................................................................. 4
The Color Wheel............................................................................................................................................... 4
Color Profiles: RGB vs. CMYK............................................................................................................................ 5
Color Qualities.................................................................................................................................................. 5
Color Harmonies............................................................................................................................................... 5
Color Psychology............................................................................................................................................... 5
Part 3: Typography............................................................................................................................................... 5
A Short History of Type..................................................................................................................................... 5
Type Anatomy................................................................................................................................................... 6
Type Classifications........................................................................................................................................... 6
Sans Serif...................................................................................................................................................... 6
Serif............................................................................................................................................................... 6
Script............................................................................................................................................................. 7
Monospace................................................................................................................................................... 7
Display.......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Variable Fonts............................................................................................................................................... 7
 Type Setting for Readability & Legibility........................................................................................................... 7
Part 4: Design Disciplines in Practice.................................................................................................................... 7
Print Design...................................................................................................................................................... 7
Poster Design................................................................................................................................................ 8
Book Design.................................................................................................................................................. 8
Magazine Design........................................................................................................................................... 8
Digital Product Design (UI/UX)......................................................................................................................... 8
Digital Design.................................................................................................................................................... 8
Brand Design..................................................................................................................................................... 8
A Sample Branding Process.......................................................................................................................... 8
Notable Brand Identity Examples................................................................................................................. 9
Part 5: Design Workflow & Tools.......................................................................................................................... 9
Related Design Disciplines................................................................................................................................ 9
A Typical Design Workflow............................................................................................................................... 9
Common Design Software................................................................................................................................ 9
Design Asset Resources.................................................................................................................................... 9
Part 6: Technology's Impact on Graphic Design................................................................................................. 10
Key Takeaway..................................................................................................................................................... 10
What Is Graphic Design?
Graphic design is the creation of visual content with a communication purpose — this intent is what
separates design from pure art. Designers combine images, type, photography, logos, and layouts to
communicate ideas. Beyond looking good, design organizes complex information so it can be understood as
clearly and easily as possible.

A Brief History of Graphic Design

• ~38,000 BCE – Cave paintings mark humanity's earliest drive toward visual communication.
• ~3,000 BCE – The Sumerians created the first written languages to record trade and inventories; early
writing was logographic (symbols representing whole words/concepts) rather than phonetic.
• ~200 CE – China used wood relief printing on silk and paper.
• ~1040 CE – Beijing invented the world's first movable type printing press in China, centuries before
Gutenberg.
• Middle Ages – Calligraphy and hand-lettering became central as scribes reproduced texts by hand;
uncial script was widely used by Latin and Greek scribes.
• 15th century – Johannes Gutenberg developed the movable-type printing press in Europe, enabling
mass reproduction, wider literacy, and the birth of design for commercial use.
• Industrial Revolution (1760–1840) – New printing technologies like lithography and chromolithography
(multi-color printing) emerged; typography grew bolder and more experimental for signs, posters, and
ads.
• Later decades – Major art and design movements shaped visual trends, including the Bauhaus, Swiss
Design, and Postmodernism.
• Post-1950s – The digital era began: computers, software like Photoshop, and the internet gave rise to
new disciplines like web design, UI/UX, and digital product design.
Two constants run through this history: graphic design exists to communicate, and it never stops evolving.

Part 1: Design Theory & Principles

A graphic designer's core job is applying design principles to communicate — through logos, brand systems,
layouts, and other design artifacts — helping a brand, book, or organization clarify information, tell a story,
and connect with people.

The Basic Principles of Design

These are guidelines designers follow to create visually organized, functional compositions.

Balance
Every element carries visual weight (based on size, color, texture, form). Balanced compositions feel stable
rather than heavy on one side.
• Symmetrical balance – equal elements mirrored on both sides
• Asymmetrical balance – different elements on each side, but equal in visual weight

Unity
The harmony created when elements share similar colors or styles so they feel like they belong together.
Without unity, a design feels cluttered and the message gets lost.

Contrast
The degree of difference between elements (color, texture, size, shape), used to build visual hierarchy and
draw the eye to a focal point. Without contrast, a design looks flat and key messages get overlooked.

Repetition
Repeating a single element (like a grid, logo, or tagline) throughout a design for consistency — for example,
using a folio (page number) placement to help readers navigate.

Pattern
Similar to repetition, but involves multiple elements repeated together (as in wallpaper or tile designs),
rather than just one repeated element.

Rhythm
The visual "tempo" created when elements repeat with variation, producing a sense of organized movement.
Rhythm tends to be subtle rather than obvious.

Movement
The path a viewer's eyes follow through a composition. Movement can be created through rhythm, or
through curved and diagonal lines that guide the eye toward a focal point.

Emphasis
A strategy for drawing attention to a specific element (a button, image, or headline). Color is a common and
effective way to create emphasis and urgency.

Proportion
The sense of unity created when elements relate well in scale to each other — not the size of one element
alone, but the relationship between elements (e.g., a headline should be visually larger than a caption to
reflect its importance).

Harmony
The sense of cohesiveness between elements that are related but not identical — often achieved through
coordinated color palettes or textures.

Variety
Adding visual interest (e.g., mixing organic and geometric shapes) to keep viewers engaged, while still
reinforcing the design's core message.

Part 2: Color Theory

Colors are organized on a color wheel, a tool created by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666, which helps designers build
color harmonies that are visually pleasing and emotionally evocative.

The Color Wheel

• Primary colors – red, yellow, blue
• Secondary colors – purple, green, orange (created by mixing primary colors)
 • Tertiary colors – blue-green, blue-violet, yellow-green (created by mixing primary and secondary
colors)
The wheel also splits into warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows — associated with sun, fire, energy) and cool
colors (blues, greens, purples — associated with calm and peace).

Color Profiles: RGB vs. CMYK

• RGB (Red, Green, Blue) – used for digital/screen output; an additive color model where combining all
colors produces white.
• CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) – used for print; a subtractive color model that starts from white
paper and subtracts color toward black.
Important: colors always appear slightly less vibrant when printed than they do on screen, so this should be
accounted for when designing for print.

Color Qualities
• Hue – the color itself, as found on the color wheel
• Saturation – the intensity or purity of a color (vibrant vs. dull)
• Value – how light or dark a color is
Value further breaks down into:
• Shade – a hue with black added (darker, richer)
• Tint – a hue with white added (lighter, less intense)
• Tone – a hue combined with gray (black + white)

Color Harmonies
• Complementary – two colors directly opposite on the wheel (e.g., red/green), creating strong contrast
• Split-complementary – a base color plus the two colors adjacent to its complement, used for accents
• Analogous – a main color combined with colors next to it on the wheel, producing a calm, low-contrast
palette
• Monochromatic – variations (shades, tones, tints) of a single color, for a simple, cohesive look
• Triadic – three colors evenly spaced around the wheel, forming a triangle
• Tetradic – two complementary pairs combined, usually with one dominant color and the rest as accents

Color Psychology
Color perception is shaped by culture, gender, age, and personal experience, but common associations
include:
• Red – power, passion, excitement (or negatively: anger, danger, aggression)
• Blue – trust, security, serenity (or negatively: coldness, unfriendliness)
• Green – health, hope, prosperity (or negatively: boredom, stagnation)

Part 3: Typography
Typography is the strategic arrangement of type to make written language readable, legible, and appealing.

A Short History of Type

 • Serif letterforms trace back to ancient Roman stone engravings, where chisel marks created small
"feet" at the ends of strokes.
• In the 15th century, Gutenberg's movable-type press enabled the first typeface, Blackletter — later
replaced by more readable Roman styles as printers sought efficient, affordable ways to produce books.
• The Industrial Revolution brought condensed, stretched, and bolder display types for posters and
newspapers, along with the rise of slab serif typefaces.
• By the early 1900s, modernist designers created humanist and geometric sans serif typefaces still used
today (e.g., Futura, Gill Sans, Helvetica), valued for their function and legibility.
• Digital tools later enabled sophisticated typeface design and, most recently, variable fonts — a single
font file containing multiple styles that vary in weight, width, and size.

Type Anatomy
• Serif – the small "feet" at the end of a letter stroke
• Ascender – the part of a lowercase letter extending above the x-height (e.g., b, d, h)
• Descender – the part of a lowercase letter extending below the baseline (e.g., g, j, p, q)
• Axis – the direction of a letter's stroke, often echoing pen movement
• Ear – a small finishing stroke, typically on a lowercase "g"
• Bowl – the curved part enclosing a letter's counter (as in b, d, o)
• Shoulder – the curved part of letters like r, m, n
• Stem – the main vertical stroke of a letter
• Spine – the main curving stroke of the letter S
• Ligature – a combined character for two letters that would otherwise visually collide
• Lowercase / Uppercase – small letterforms vs. capital letterforms (named for their position in old metal
type cases)
• Font style – variations like italics or small caps
• Weight – the thickness of a typeface's strokes (regular, bold, and everything between)

Type Classifications
Sans Serif
Typefaces without serifs; versatile for both display and body text. Sub-categories include:
• Grotesque – early sans styles with some stroke contrast and an open aperture
• Neo-grotesque – refined, more neutral and legible, with uniform strokes
• Humanist – based on Roman capital proportions, with calligraphic influence and higher stroke contrast
• Geometric – built from circular/rectangular forms with minimal stroke contrast

Serif
Typefaces with small "feet," generally easy to read as body copy. Sub-categories:
• Old style – 15th–18th century origins, slightly rounded and inclined serifs
• Transitional – 18th-century styles with sharper serifs, bridging old style and modern
• Modern – refined, straight, flat serifs; can look stylish but slightly less legible
• Slab serif – heavy, square, uniform serifs; originated for early 1800s advertising
Script
Based on cursive handwriting, divided into formal scripts (elegant, used for invitations) and casual scripts
(relaxed, brush-stroke inspired).

Monospace
Every character occupies the same horizontal width; associated with typewriters and code, useful for a
minimal, technical feel.

Display
A broad, experimental category (graffiti, tattoo, fantasy styles) meant for headlines rather than body copy.

Variable Fonts
Not a style but a file format — a single font file can contain thousands of style variants (weight, width, slant).
General rule of thumb: pairing one serif and one sans serif typeface works well; using more than about three
typefaces in one design tends to look distracting.

Type Setting for Readability & Legibility

Readability refers to how type is arranged on the page; legibility refers to how easily individual letters and
words can be distinguished.
• Size – smaller type is harder to read, especially for children or older readers
• Line length – aim for roughly 45–70 characters per line; too narrow causes excess hyphenation, too
wide makes it hard to track lines
• Leading (line spacing) – should be proportional to type size and x-height; too little causes lines to
visually collide
• Tracking – overall spacing between a group of letters, affecting readability and texture
• Kerning – spacing adjustments between two individual characters, especially important in logos and
headlines
• Alignment – left, right, or center; center alignment works best for short text only
• Rags – the uneven edge of unjustified text; can be smoothed with hyphenation or manual line breaks
• Rivers – unwanted gaps that appear to run through justified text blocks; fixed by unjustifying or
adjusting hyphenation
• Orphans and widows – a stray single line at the top (orphan) or bottom (widow) of a text block,
separated from its paragraph; fixed with manual line breaks or tracking adjustments
• Font case – uppercase (all caps), lowercase (no caps), sentence case (first letter capitalized), and title
case (first letter of each word capitalized)

Part 4: Design Disciplines in Practice

Every design decision should be guided by a brief: a problem to solve, a message to communicate, and a user
to design for.

Print Design
Any design meant to be physically printed — brochures, packaging, stickers, books, posters, business cards,
and magazines.
Poster Design
Priorities: exposing key information clearly and making it readable from a distance, using strong hierarchy,
contrast, and concise text.

Book Design
Focuses on comfortable, easy-to-read typesetting; consistent hierarchy (e.g., matching type styles for
headers) and quality photography help establish structure and contrast.

Magazine Design
Magazines allow more creative freedom than books since they're tied to current trends rather than needing
to be timeless; visual balance across spreads and consistent typographic choices give a cohesive,
contemporary feel.

Digital Product Design (UI/UX)

A digital product is a piece of software, website, or platform. UX design focuses on researching and shaping
the user's overall experience; UI design focuses more systematically on how things look and feel. Good UI/UX
design shows cohesiveness across screens — consistent color palettes, clear calls to action, and strong
typographic hierarchy, especially important when displaying complex information like data visualizations.

Digital Design
Overlaps with graphic design but is intended for on-screen display rather than print, and can involve
movement (animation, motion graphics, interactive pages). Framing — how elements are arranged within a
moving frame — becomes an added consideration. Common examples include YouTube thumbnails (which
need to be simple, legible, and attention-grabbing at small sizes) and digital banner ads (which need a
striking, easy-to-read design that works across multiple sizes).

Brand Design
Brand design covers the key elements that make a brand recognizable and distinct: logo, color scheme,
typography, and supporting visual elements. A strong brand communicates a company's history, purpose,
values, and personality through consistent design choices.

A Sample Branding Process

• 1. Client interview – understand the founder's inspiration, background, personality, and target market
• 2. Direction-setting presentation – define the brand's essence, audience, keywords, and differentiators
• 3. Mood boarding – gather visual inspiration (e.g., via Pinterest) to communicate brand traits to the
client
• 4. Color palette development – build a palette informed by the client's story and brand traits, often
offering both classic and edgier options
• 5. Concept development – present one to two distinct creative concepts (rather than many), explaining
the reasoning behind design choices
• 6. Refinement – incorporate client feedback into the chosen concept and test it across print/digital
applications
• 7. Brand guidelines – document rules for color values, logo usage and margins, and typography so the
client can apply the brand consistently going forward
• 8. Final deliverables – export logos in various file formats, finalized colors, graphic elements, print-
ready collateral, and fonts
Notable Brand Identity Examples
• American Airlines (1968) – designed by Massimo Vignelli; known for its clean use of Helvetica and a
simple logo split in red and blue, prioritizing function and logic over trend or emotion.
• Munich 1972 Olympic Games – designed by Otl Aicher; created a bold, precise visual identity (including
mascot and pictogram systems) that helped modernize Germany's post-war image while remaining
influential and timeless in design today.

Part 5: Design Workflow & Tools

Related Design Disciplines
Graphic design overlaps with several related fields: marketing/advertising design, packaging and visual
identity/branding, illustration, motion graphics, game design, UI/UX, and web design. A creative director or
art director typically coordinates the work of multiple specialists (designers, photographers, editors,
illustrators) on larger projects.

A Typical Design Workflow

• 1. Design brief – received from the client or creative director, outlining project details, purpose, and
goals
• 2. Brainstorming – researching and generating multiple possible solutions, ideally narrowing down to
one to three concepts
• 3. Rough sketches/layouts – early visual drafts to present internally or to the client
• 4. Concept presentation – clearly explaining each concept and the reasoning behind design decisions,
since clients often lack design vocabulary
• 5. Feedback & revision – incorporating client feedback (ideally more specific than "like/dislike") and
polishing the design
• 6. Final delivery – preparing print-ready PDFs or pushing a live website, depending on the project

Common Design Software

• Adobe InDesign – publishing, magazines, books, multi-page documents
• Adobe Photoshop – digital painting and photo editing
• Adobe Lightroom – specialized photography editing
• Adobe Illustrator – vector-based design, illustration, logos
• Adobe Premiere Pro – video editing
• Adobe After Effects – motion graphics
• Figma – collaborative UX/UI design and prototyping (not for building live apps/sites)
• Canva – beginner-friendly tool for marketing graphics, popular with non-designers
• Affinity Designer / Publisher – one-time-purchase alternatives to Illustrator/InDesign
• Sketch, CorelDRAW, Inkscape – other design software options (paid or free)
• FontLab / FontForge – professional (paid) and free tools for typeface design
• Trello / Milanote – project organization and visual mood-boarding tools

Design Asset Resources

• Fonts – [Link] and Google Fonts offer free typefaces for a wide range of projects
 • Color palettes – Coolors (palette generation, contrast checking) and Happy Hues (palette inspiration
and application examples)
• Stock assets – marketplaces like Envato Elements provide fonts, photos, video, and templates for
designers working with limited budgets

Part 6: Technology's Impact on Graphic Design

Technology has made it easier and faster to create and distribute visual communication. Digital tools have
replaced many manual processes (e.g., collage work is now often done in Photoshop or with AI-assisted
tools), and remote collaboration software has made it possible for designers to work from anywhere while
collaborating on shared files. Variable fonts have also reduced the need for multiple separate font files.
Perhaps most significantly, the internet gave rise to entirely new overlapping disciplines — UI and UX design
would not exist without it — expanding graphic design well beyond its traditional roots in print and
advertising.

Key Takeaway
At its core, graphic design is always about communication: every project starts from a brief and a problem to
solve. The designer's job is to balance visual impact with clear organization of information — technology and
tools will keep evolving, but that core purpose remains constant.

Notes summarized from the YouTube course "Graphic Design Basics | FREE COURSE" by Laura Kung.