16 Different Types of Graphic Design (With Examples)

What can be the best way to communicate certain ideas or messages in the latest digital form? Undoubtedly, it’s a graphic design that is broadly used in almost every sphere of our regular activities. In other words, it’s also recognized as communication design in terms of the power of connecting elements to focus the message visually.

Well! It has several categories that require particular skills and techniques. That’s why we come up with the different types of graphic design along with their specializations to let you know in detail. As a designer, you can focus either on a single type or a set of multiple genres together. You can go through our post where we described different types of designers.

Table of Contents

Different Types of Graphic Design

• Advertising Graphic Design
• Corporate Design
• Art & Illustration for Graphic Design
• Visual Identity / Brand Identity Design
• Typography Design
• Environmental Graphic Design
• Packaging Design
• Publication Design
• Social Media Design
• UI Design
• Game Design
• Motion Graphic Design
• Website Graphic Design
• Infographic Design
• Stationery Design
• Book Cover or Mockup Design

To Conclude

Different Types of Graphic Design

No matter whether you are an ambitious designer or a potential client in search of taking services, you must be acknowledged of the types of graphics. Here, we come with various genres in the industry so that you may make the right decision in both ways.

1. Advertising Graphic Design

Advertising design is one of the most common and popular genres of the graphic design industry. It deals with creating visual artwork in postcards, flyers, magazines, newspapers, brochures, email templates, and other materials for promoting products or services. This is how the effort of great marketing reaches a new level to engage the target audience in terms of their needs.

Small to large, both sized companies contact graphic designers to create impressive designs to capture consumers' minds. New learners in the design industry love to start with this category to sharpen their skills. Here are some of its types-

1. Magazine & Newspaper Ads
2. Infographics
3. Display Ads
4. Direct Mail & Personal Ads
5. Social Media Ads
6. Email Templates
7. Websites & Blogs
8. Video Ads

Examples of Some Great Advertising Designs: Mohawk Airline, Starbucks, McDonald's, Volkswagen Beetle.

2. Corporate Design

Every business has a different story to tell and the way it explores is recognized as a corporate design. In general, it defines a brand through the artistic representation of logo, colors, and modern typography that differs from others. To do so, you may discover the vision, mission, and policy of your business first. Whether it becomes clear to the designer, then he/she might think of the designing part. The elements you should cover in this case are likely-

1. Logo
2. Typography
3. Colors
4. Quality
5. Branding
6. Corporate Culture.

In other words, corporate design is defined as the DNA of a company. The reason is it lets you express the vision and values as well. A future brand is born with just simple elements.

Examples of Some Great Corporate Designs: Adam & Eve Law Firm, Benevolent Society, Cooper & Ford, Konad Nails, The Jupiter Drawing Room.

3. Art & Illustration for Graphic Design

Although graphic design and art & illustration cannot be categorized into the same field, they have a strong relationship in creating amazing artwork together. That’s why we keep it as one of the vital genres in the design industry. The elements are mostly used in multiple sectors likely magazines, posters, games, motion graphics, t-shirt designs, websites, book covers, infographics, and many more. In a way, it’s a collaboration of artworks between graphic artists and illustrators. To be skilled in this category, you must be familiar with-

1. Unique Styles
2. Creativity
3. Communication
4. Drawing and IT Skills
5. Branding

Examples of Some Great Art & Illustration Designs: Dual Brush-Pen ABT, Glamora, Hello Buckwild, Smogj Crafts.

4. Visual Identity / Brand Identity Design

Visual identity design is one of the most popular and important types of graphic design in today's world. It is the process of building a complete visual look for a brand. This includes the logo, colors, fonts, and style guidelines that show people who a company is and what it believes in. Simply put, it creates the face of a brand that people can recognize wherever they see it.

Whether it is a new business just getting started or an older company that wants a fresh new look, businesses of all sizes need visual identity designers to shape how people see them. As a designer in this field, you need to understand the brand's goals, values, and the type of people it wants to reach before you start designing anything. The main things you will usually create include:

1. Logo Design & Logo Variations
2. Color Palette
3. Typography System
4. Brand Style Guide
5. Business Card & Stationery
6. Brand Patterns & Iconography

Unlike corporate design, which focuses on internal business materials, visual identity design is about crafting a consistent experience that works across print, digital, social media, and beyond. It is arguably the category that has the highest demand among clients today.

Examples of Some Great Visual Identity Designs: Airbnb, Spotify, Mailchimp, Glossier, Slack.

5. Typography Design

Typography is not just a tool used inside other design disciplines, it is a standalone art form in itself. Type design refers to the process of creating and crafting typefaces, fonts, and hand-lettered works that carry meaning through visual form.

From designing a brand-new font to creating expressive hand-lettered signage, this is one of the most technically demanding categories in the entire graphic design field.

Every piece of graphic design you see relies on type. That is why designers who specialize in typography are highly respected and sought after across branding, publishing, advertising, and editorial industries. If you are aiming to specialize in this area, there are several critical skills and concepts you must master:

1. Typeface Design & Font Creation
2. Kerning
3. Tracking & Leading
4. Hand-Lettering & Calligraphy
5. Typographic Hierarchy
6. Variable Fonts
7. Display & Script Type

Type design requires a strong understanding of readability, proportion, and visual rhythm. Even a small adjustment in letter spacing or stroke weight can completely change the personality of a design.

For anyone who has a deep interest in the structure and beauty of letters, this is a deeply rewarding path.

Examples of Some Great Typography Designs: Coca-Cola Script Logo, New York Times Masthead, FedEx Logo Wordmark, Vogue Magazine Typography, Google Fonts Collection.

6. Environmental Graphic Design

Environmental design is a broad type of design that connects people to places and explains a story through various elements like colors, patterns, typography, materials, and so on. It occupies a lot of professional disciplines, including landscape, interior, architecture, and industrial design. In other words, it’s known as Experimental Graphic Design as well.

As a result, it requires multi-skills to be experts in the category. You must be familiar with the architectural plans whether you are planning to design architectural views. On the other hand, you should have knowledge of interior design to beautify the inner parts.  As a designer, you’ll need to be skilled on-

1. Strong Visual Sense
2. Communications Skills
3. Signage Printing
4. Office Branding
5. Exhibition and Exhibit Design
6. Blueprints and Digital Files

Examples of Some Great Environmental Designs: Archigraphia Redux, Museum of the Bible, Little Jean café, Vancouver Community Library.

7. Packaging Design

Once again, packaging design is one of the most popular types of graphic design that is mostly used as a marketing tool on a regular basis to grab customers’ attention quickly. In other words, it works as a method of protecting the product as well as showcasing the brand story in an artistic way. As a designer, you must have knowledge of industrial design, branding, current trends, illustrations, and manufacturing. The elements it may use are likely-

1. Box and Paper
2. Bottle
3. Bag
4. Can/ Container
5. Plastic
6. Glass and Metals

Examples of Some Great Packaging Designs: Callaly, Just Laid, Manos de Cacao, Nyc Spaghetti.

8. Publication Design

In the field of digital publication, graphic design has great value to establish communication between the audience and editors, and publishers. This type is commonly known as publication design which deals with books, magazines, annual reports, directories, newspapers, journals, comics, and product catalogs. In this case, each element is important as they have different natures and purposes.  Also, there are some crucial skills that a good designer must be familiar with.

1. Typography
2. Design and Layout
3. Illustrations
4. Infographics
5. Color Management

Apart from these, he/she should have an understanding of publication types and messages. That’s how the design will express the theme.

Examples of Some Great Publication Designs: Azure Magazine, Gopher illustrated Navigator’s Council Journal, Wooden Toy Magazine.

9. Social Media Design

Social media design has become one of the most wanted types of graphic design in today's digital world. It is all about creating visual content made specifically for social media platforms. This includes things like Instagram posts, Facebook banners, YouTube thumbnails, LinkedIn carousels, and TikTok graphics. Every platform is different in terms of size, format, and what the audience expects, which makes this a very specialized skill.

For businesses and brands, social media is often the first place a potential customer comes across them. That is why having attractive and consistent social media visuals is no longer just a nice thing to have.

It is a must. As a designer in this field, you need to know not just how to design, but also how content works on different platforms and how people behave on them. The main things you will usually create in this category include:

1. Instagram Posts & Story Templates
2. Facebook & LinkedIn Banners
3. YouTube Thumbnails
4. Social Media Ad Creatives
5. Carousel Post Designs
6. Profile & Cover Images

Social media design moves fast, and trends change frequently. Designers in this space must stay current with platform updates, audience preferences, and visual trends to produce content that performs well both creatively and strategically.

Examples of Some Great Social Media Designs: Nike Instagram, National Geographic, Wendy's Twitter, Apple, Adobe.

10. Game Design

Game design is among the most exciting and fast-growing types of graphic design today. It sits at the intersection of creativity and technology, combining visual design, storytelling, character creation, and interface design into one discipline.

From the characters players control to the environments they explore and the menus they navigate, graphic designers play a vital role in shaping the entire visual experience of a game.

As the gaming industry continues to expand rapidly across mobile, console, and PC platforms the demand for skilled game designers is higher than ever. This is a category that rewards both artistic talent and technical knowledge in equal measure.

To build a career in game design, you will need to develop skills across:

1. Concept Art & Character Design-
2. Environment & Level Design
3. Game UI & HUD Design
4. Sprite & Texture Design
5. Storyboarding
6. 3D Modeling & Rendering

Game design often requires collaboration with developers, animators, and writers, making communication skills just as important as design ability. It is a field where passion for gaming genuinely gives you a creative advantage.

Examples of Some Great Game Designs: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Journey, Monument Valley, Cyberpunk 2077, Hollow Knight.

11. UI Design

User Interface (UI) is a widely used term in modern design for both web and graphic industries. UI design refers to the process of making all things easier and user-friendly to the users while they interact with an application or device. In short, it’s all about balancing the outlook along with the technical functionality. A UI designer ensures how an audience feels and reacts to the components of a digital product. He/ She must be familiar with the skills likely-

1. UI/ UX principles
2. Responsive Web Design
3. Minimalist Graphic Design
4. Interface Elements
5. HTML, CSS, JavaScript
6. Color, Brightness, & Contrast
7. Brand Consistency

 Examples of Some Great UI Designs: Boosted Boards, Dropbox, Frank and Oak, Virgin America.

12. Motion Graphic Design

To be precious, motion design is the process of designing elements like typography, imagery, audio, video, or animation that are in motion. This one is among the modern and widely used categories in online media, television, website, and many more sectors. It has the power to communicate with the viewer and express the depth of the story in a compelling way. Some of the examples are-

1. Advertisements
2. Animated logos/ Text
3. Film Title Design
4. Presentations
5. Websites & Banners
6. Video Games
7. GIFs

Because of the high demand and importance of motion graphics in different industries, designers have great opportunities to build their careers in this genre.

Examples of Some Great Motion Graphics: Game of Thrones- An Animated Journey, Vodalabs – Digital Alchemists, Kinetic Calendar, Journey Alpha.

13. Infographic Design

Infographic design is the art of transforming complex data, statistics, or processes into clear, visually engaging graphics that are easy to understand at a glance. While infographics are often used within advertising and publication work, the discipline has grown into its own specialized field and for good reason. In an age where attention spans are short and information is overwhelming, a well-designed infographic can communicate in seconds what a paragraph of text cannot.

From editorial data visualizations and instructional diagrams to statistical reports and process flowcharts, infographic designers work across industries including healthcare, education, finance, marketing, and journalism.

To create effective infographic designs, you must be comfortable with both data and design simultaneously. Key skills in this category include:

1. Data Visualization
2. Chart & Graph Design
3. Process & Timeline Diagrams
4. Icon Design
5. Color Coding & Visual Hierarchy
6. Editorial Layout

The best infographic designers know how to simplify without losing accuracy making the data visually compelling while keeping it honest and easy to follow. It is a category where both analytical thinking and creative skill must work hand in hand.

Examples of Some Great Infographic Designs: Information is Beautiful (David McCandless), The Economist Data Graphics, NASA Mission Infographics, Pew Research Center Reports.

14. Website Graphic Design

If you have the plan to build your website in the most unique and professional way, professional graphic design services can give you the right way to make it pleasing and user-friendly. An appealing design can bring you the ultimate result for your business with less effort. Web graphic design is among the categories of graphic design that deals with the web layout, images, colors, textual elements, and many more to achieve the best user experience.

Also, it’s a great element to get engagement with a targeted audience that helps to increase the sales of a business. In that case, you must have the skills to be a successful designer.

1. Visual Design
2. Print Design
3. HTML & CSS
4. Color Theory
5. Design Software

Examples of Some Great Website Designs: Annatwelve – Fragrances, Cartier Watchmaking Encounters, Edifian Digital, Mikiya Kobayashi.

Here are a few more graphic design portfolio examples to get you started.

15. Stationery Design

It is essential to have a whole pack stationery design if you want to have great branding throughout your organization. Almost every business owner understands the importance of having stationery design. It conveys a great deal of information about a business and that makes customers trust the brand. So, what exactly does this design imply? It's a broad term that includes office or business supplies, as well as other paper items. Here are a few examples of stationery design items.

1. Writing equipment
2. Envelope
3. Business card
4. Postcard
5. Letterhead

Examples of Some Stationery Designs: Due North, Ji & Chang, The Slanted Door, Matteo Belgeri, Mimosa.

16. Book Cover or Mockup Design

People will assess a book based on what the author says throughout his or her work. But, since the cover is the gateway to your book's soul, you'll see whether it's attractive or not, right? Generally, people focus on the content and design of a book before making a purchase. But you also need to circulate your asset fruitfully to grab their attention.

That's where you need proper marketing making use of a stellar mockup design along with the content. In a nutshell, this mockup design gives a finishing touch to your actual content. Here are some samples of book cover mockups in which you may incorporate your design.

1. Notebook
2. Open Book
3. Hardcover Open Book
4. Square Book
5. Landscape Book
6. Stacked Book

Examples of Some Book Cover/Mockup Designs: Galloway's Justice, The Godfather, The Fault in Our Stars, Make Way For Her.

To Conclude

Many people would like to say- Is graphic design a good career? Well! It depends on some particular facts and gaining the skills recommended by professionals. Like other creative works, it requires passion, creativity, and hard work to reach the destination. Before that, don’t forget to go through the main graphic design areas we mentioned above. Hopefully, it would be a great resource for you if you really intend to start your journey in this field.