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Commercial artists work closely with sales and marketing teams in a corporate environment. As a rule, ad agencies and design studios offer the best salaries because clients are demanding and the work is intense. The biggest educational requirement for a commercial artist is keeping up-to-date on emerging softwares. 

Three sub­sidiary propo­si­tions flow from this:

1. Good ty­pog­ra­phy is mea­sured by how well it re­in­forces the mean­ing of the text, not by some ab­stract scale of merit. Ty­po­graphic choices that work for one text won’t nec­es­sar­ily work for an­other. (Corol­lary: good ty­pog­ra­phers don’t rely on rote so­lu­tions. One size never fits all.)

2. For a given text, there are many ty­po­graphic so­lu­tions that would be equally good. Ty­pog­ra­phy is not a math prob­lem with one cor­rect answer.

3. Your abil­ity to pro­duce good ty­pog­ra­phy de­pends on how well you un­der­stand the goals of your text, not on taste or vi­sual train­ing. (Corol­lary: if you mis­un­der­stand the mean­ing of your text, good ty­pog­ra­phy be­comes purely a mat­ter of luck.)

Pause to ab­sorb the ram­i­fi­ca­tions of propo­si­tion #3. Ty­pog­ra­phy is vi­sual, so it’s easy to con­clude that it’s pri­mar­ily an artis­tic or aes­thetic pur­suit. Not so. Ty­pog­ra­phy is pri­mar­ily utilitarian.

Typography is, quite simply, the art and technique of arranging type. It's central to the skills of a designer and is about much more than making the words legible. Your choice of typeface and how you make it work with your layout, grid, colour scheme, design theme and so on will make the difference between a good, bad and great design.

There are lots of typography tutorials around to help you master the discipline. But good typography is often down to creative intuition. Once you're comfortable with the basics, visit some typography resources to investigate font families and discover some font pairings that are made for each other.

Interactive font map

Often before you've decided what you'll say in your commercial art (or more precisely HOW you'll say it) you want to see how a line or block of text fits into a design. To that end, here's some placeholder text ipsum lorem. Ipsum approximates the flow of the english language and is used by designers when considering different ways to design their art.

- If you need stock pictures for this assignment make sure they are from royalty free sites like Pexels, Pixabay or RGBStock to name a few.

The Makings of a Great Logo

Six questions to ask yourself when designing your brand

1. What emotions does the logo evoke?

Above all design guidelines, the most important criterion is whether the logo reflects the character of the company. The emotions that the logo evoke should be appropriate to the company values. For example, the Disney logo evokes a sense of happiness and optimism. The curvy and fun typeface is appropriate for a company that has been making cartoons and animated pictures for kids. However, a similar logo style on a sales platform would not be appropriate.

Sans Serif fonts like Helvetica are clean and modern, and are well suited for high tech businesses such as computer or media companies. Casual script fonts like Comic Sans are probably best left for fun and animated companies such as toy companies. A good understanding of the psychology of colors, typefaces, and shapes is an important part of making a great logo. The fun styling of the Disney logo is appropriate for a design that aims to be fun, but such a style would not be appropriate for a sales platform company. 

2. What's the meaning behind the logo?

Behind every great logo is a story.

A great logo is not about slapping your business name on a generic shape, which is why choosing from ready-made logos is a poor idea. An excellent way to make sure that a logo is not generic is when the logo has a meaningful story behind it. A good designer first understands the culture of the company, the tone of the product, and the vision of the business, much before embarking on ideas for the logo. The end result of a quality logo is reflective of the philosophy and values of the company. The arrow in the Amazon logo represents that Amazon sells everything from a to z and the smile on the customer's face when they buy a product.

3. Will the logo stand the test of time?

How will the logo look in 2, 10, 20 years' time? Designers should avoid getting sucked into flavor-of the-month trends. Trends like ultra-thin fonts and flat shadows are design styles that will probably not stand the test of time. Simple is far better than complex. A simple yet memorable logo can be used in 20 years' time without being outdated.

A good way to test the logo is to let it 'sit' with you for a while before releasing it. Some logos grow with you - the more you look at it, the more you like it. Some logos start to feel nauseating after a while - the more you look at it, the more you hate it. If after a couple of weeks with the logo you find it boring, the logo is probably not strong or timeless enough.

The simplistic outline and shape of the Apple Inc. logo allows it to endure the test of time. The first prototype of the logo would definitely not be suitable today.

4. Is it unique? Can it be instantly recognizable?

A great logo is distinctive, memorable, and recognizable. Even if you have only seen it once, you should still be able to remember what it looks like after a period of time. A good way to test this is to show your logo to a friend, then cover it up and have your friend describe the logo in a week's time. A fresh pair of eyes can be very effective in figuring out the most memorable components of a logo.

In addition, if the logo reminds you of others you have seen, it is not distinct enough and probably a sign to make the logo more recognizable.

The logos of Path and Pinterest are very similar.

5. How does it look in black and white?

When I begin designing a logo, I always start in black and white. Designing with this limitation first forces you to make sure that the logo is recognizable purely by its shape and outline, and not by its color. A strong logo is one that is still memorable just by its contours.

A one color logo also provides the benefit of using your brand easily in multiple mediums with different backgrounds and textures.

It is much harder to recognize the National Geography symbol once we remove its signature yellow color.

6. Is it clear and distinct in small dimensions?

Another way to make sure logos are simple and recognizable is to scale it down dramatically. Even at tiny resolutions, a strong logo should still be recognizable at a glance. This is also a good test to make sure that the logo is not overtly complicated with unnecessary design flourishes.

Summary of the CRAP Principles 

1. Don't be afraid to create your Design with plenty of blank space. Also make sure you have plenty of white space between elements and visual units. 

2. Don't be afraid to make words very large or very small. Don't be afraid to speak loudly or to whisper. Contrast is an essential element of good design. 

3. Don't be afraid to be asymmetrical, to un-center your format--it often makes the effect stronger. It's okay to do the unexpected. Try to break out of the box. 

4. Don't be afraid to make your graphics very bold or very minimal, as long as the result complements and reinforces your design. 

5. Vary the space between the elements on a page to indicate the closeness or importance of the relationship between elements. Proximity is a central tool in design. 

6. To keep an entire page unified, align every object with an edge of some other object. 

7. Avoid using all Capitals in your titles, heads, and subheads. Also avoid using italics, which are harder to read on the web. 

8. Remember the Computer is not a Typewriter. Don't use two spaces after periods, or underline a lot of text, or just use open quotation marks. Use both open and closed quotation marks to look professional. 

9. Remember that horizontal alignment is as important as vertical alignment. So make sure your text and images are both horizontally and vertically aligned. 

10. It takes a very self-assured designer to recognize and act on the power of simplicity. Many great websites are created simply, quietly, and with grace. 

11. Good design doesn't have to shout. Beware of getting too fancy and colorful. Try for restraint and simplicity in your designs. 

12. Any good design must have a strong focal point. You can create focal points using contrast and visual hierarchy. 

13. Make your message as easy to understand as possible. Organize and chunk your information into segments and sections introduced with catchy headings and subheadings. 

14. Try to develop a consistent, unified design that has a focal point and creates visual interest

But why are these BAD?

• Proximity—The horrible designs of the business cards force the eye to move all around looking for relevant data. In the card at bottom, at least the related information is grouped together so the reader can more quickly understand the organization of the layout, but as a photographer don't you think he would include something about his profession like one of his shots as a background, or one of his tools of the trade like the fellow below?