The Role of Creativity in Graphic Design

Shalom Solomon 26th October, 2021

Being creative is one of the skills required for almost every career path in life. But, creativity does not only lie in making art or music.

The ability to manipulate numbers, to understand and interprete patterns and draw logical conclusions are all forms of creativity.

Now, some careers more than others require a higher percentage of creativity.

This is probably the reason why people who practice such professions are referred to as creatives. Graphic design is one of such professions.

Although, other skills such as critical thinking, logical reasoning, communication skills, problem solving skills and the likes are vital for Graphic design, a graphic designer cannot do without creativity.

Now, don't get me wrong, it is completely possible to create graphic designs without any creative skills.

Basically, a graphic designer can use logic to arrange graphics, add images and text but only creativity can bring life to your designs. Your designs will not be able to fully connect with your audience without creativity.

Photo Credit Dreamstime

Creativity in Graphic Design

Graphic design in itself is a both a science and an art.

That means a graphic designer requires an equal balance of both logic and creativity to produce a well-rounded graphic design that is able to connect with the viewers and effectively pass the message it was meant to pass.

So, as a graphic designer, if you base your designs solely on creativity, you might miss effective steps to develop a design that efficiently passes your message.

What is the use of a beautiful, inspiring graphic that fails to meet the communication need of the design project in the first place.

On the other hand, if you rely too much on logic, your design will lack the life needed to attract the attention of your target audience.

For instance, a flyer for a child's birthday party will require creative combination of colours to appeal to the attention of the target audience.

Logic will also be used to organize the graphical elements and texts on the flyer in a way that will effectively pass the message to the target audience.

As a graphic designer, don't think of yourself only as an artist. You are a communicator first then an artist.

The purpose of your work does not lie in designing creative pieces of art alone, your work extends or rather, revolves around using these creative pieces of art to effectively pass information from your designs to your target audience.

This is why there are graphic designers that do not know how to sketch beautiful pieces of art or paint on canvas.

Does this mean they do not know their work? Nope.

This is because the primary function of a graphic designer does not lie in drawing or creating beautiful art, rather it lies in effectively passing information to the target audience.

So, as a graphic designer, you should focus your strength on identifying and understanding your target audience.