Designing is an art. It is also a profession that requires creativity and precision. With the advancement of technology, the design industry has undergone drastic changes. Design automation is one of the most apparent changes in this industry. It is essential to know the current state of the design industry these days.
Design automation is an umbrella term for the software used to automate design processes. It eliminates tasks that are repetitive and laborious to human designers. They help create designs at scale, saving time and effort for designers working on many projects. Designers can either use a general-purpose design automation tool or a specialized one for their specific needs.
For example, Adobe XD allows designers to create interactive prototypes. For using this tool, no coding knowledge is required. In contrast, tools like Framer need developers’ skill sets for using them.
The current state of the design industry:
The current state of the design industry is not too bad. Technology has helped designers increase their efficiency. Designers can now do more design work in less time while also improving the quality of their work.
Designers are no longer making things look good. They can create functional and interactive designs, helping companies grow their customer base.
Industrial designers tend to be part of a creative team. They create products with better performance than competitors. Product design is a broad term, including service, software, and physical product design. The role of product designers is to combine art, science, and technology to create new products for people’s usage.
Types of designers:
1. Web designers:
The designers plan the website, create different web pages for it, and design the layout, visual appearance, and website usability with the help of advanced Technology and non-technical skills. They can do it if they are familiar with various coding and techniques. They can use free vector icons for designing the web page.
2. Front-end designers:
Front-end designers combine the essential aspects of both jobs and live in the worlds of pixels and engineering. The designers, also known as front-end developers, are in charge of coding a website’s front end.
Web designing and coding languages ranging from HTML to C++ are used to create user-friendly web designs. The main work of front-end designers is website navigation, internal links, buttons, audio/video files, multimedia tools, and the functionality of websites and creating fixes for problems and bugs.
3. User Interface (UI):
They design the visual content of the web as well as mobile applications. Some tools to enhance their work like wireframes, Sketch, Adobe XD, Photoshop, Illustrator, HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript are used. A blueprint of the interface based on the research of various aspects is prepared. The process consists of elements like wireframing, prototyping, and testing in the company with visual elements that consist of color, images, menus, etc.
4. User experience (UX) designer:
UX designers are responsible for the physical aspects of the device in addition to the user experience in the website and mobile applications. The tools used are similar to UI ones; the only difference is that they focus on the experience of these designs.
5. Graphic designer:
They are accountable for creating illustrations, logos, and layouts, with the help of computer software. Some of the tools used to create visually appealing designs are CorelDraw, Adobe products like Photoshop, and Illustrator. Their designs are used for websites, logos, magazines, infographics, marketing brochures, manuals, books, and more. The applications they have designed can have all free vector icons for making the logos and other designs more attractive and appealing.
6. Animation designers:
These are the designers behind all the creations like 2D and 3D images, video games, websites, and mobile application effects. Taking a turn the tools commonly used are Cinema 4D, Adobe InDesign, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, and so on.
7. Art and illustration designers:
These people convey the written text in visual elements. To do so, specific tools needed are pencil sketches, ink drawings, or digital tools like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, Vectornator (for illustrators using Apple products), etc. These artworks are available on book covers, infographics, and other materials.
8. Industrial designer:
It is a combined art of engineering and business that develops concepts for manufactured devices and objects. Tools used are Key shots, Solid Works, Autodesk ideation, and communicating design intent and aesthetics.
9. Brand and product designer:
They combine product design and marketing skills that focus on product function and user experience. This leads to an impact that helps make the connection between the brand and the target audience.
Trends followed:
To keep pace with the changing trends, a designer needs updating as per the market to grow your business. Some of the design trends followed are:
1. Color Trends:
Color has a distinct impact on the viewer. It has a different effect mentally on a person. More attractive and soothing colors used in designing better the visual presence of the product and hence can give the user an eye-pleasing experience. From grey, black, or white, the trend is shifting to warm or natural colors.
2. Outsized typography:
The latest trend is to enhance the simple graphic design by simply making the disruptive images like cutting the image or making unclear parts of the text giving it an eye-catchy glare. The product designers have used it to grab the user’s attention.
3. Symbol Revival:
Graphic design provides vital tools to connect with the universal and uniquely human elements within us all in an environment where so much is routinely challenged or called into question. A symbol traditionally associated with exclusion or ill-fittingness is repurposed as a visual metaphor for inclusion and acceptance. It’s socially conscious, reflective, and calls the viewer to a better future and you can expect more designs like this in coming years.
Wrap up:
With the advancement of Technology, the current state of design has undergone drastic changes. Design automation is one of the most apparent changes in this industry. They help create variations of designs at scale, saving time and effort for designers working on many projects. For example, tools like Adobe XD allow designers to create interactive prototypes without any coding knowledge required while tools like Framer need a developer’s skillsets to be used Technology has helped designers increase their efficiency. They can create functional and interactive designs, which have helped companies grow their customer base.
