Graphic design is the art of communication, stylizing, and problem-solving through the use of type, space, and image. While Graphic Design as a discipline has a relatively recent history, graphic design-like activities span the history of humankind: from the caves of Lascaux, to Rome's Trajan's Column to the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, to the dazzling neons of Ginza. In both this lengthy history and in the relatively recent explosion of visual communication in the 20th and 21st centuries, there is sometimes a blurring distinction and over-lapping of advertising art, graphic design and fine art. After all, they share many of the same elements, theories, principles, practices and languages, and sometimes the same benefactor or client. In advertising art the ultimate objective is the sale of goods and services. In graphic design, "the essence is to give order to information, form to ideas, expression and feeling to artifacts that document human experience.

Times Square Ravensburger Puzzle

Graphic designers use various methods to create and combine words, symbols, and images to create a visual representation of ideas and messages. A graphic designer may use a combination of typography, visual arts and page layout techniques to produce a final result. Graphic design often refers to both the process by which the communication is created and the products which are generated.

Branding is the "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one group's product distinct from those of other's." Initially, branding was adopted to differentiate one person's cattle from another's by means of a distinctive symbol burned into the animal's skin with a hot iron stamp and was subsequently used in business, marketing, and advertising. A modern example of a brand is Jeep which belongs to the Chrysler Company.

Layout deals with the arrangement and style or treatment of elements  on a page. Page layout is a higher-level concept involving intelligence, sentience, and creativity.  Beginning from early illuminated pages in hand-copied books of the Middle Ages and proceeding down to intricate modern magazine and catalog layouts, proper page design has long been a consideration in printed material. With print media, elements usually consist of type, images, and occasionally place-holder graphics for elements that are not printed with ink such as die/laser cutting, foil stamping or blind embossing. Since the advent of personal computing, page layout skills have expanded to electronic media as well as print media. The electronic page can include animated or interactive elements. Page layout for interactive media overlaps with interface design. This usually includes interactive elements and multimedia in addition to text and still images. Interactivity takes page layout skills from planning attraction and eye flow to the next level of planning user experience in collaboration with software engineers and creative directors.

Aleksandr Rodchenko was a leader of the Russian design movement known as Constructivism. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social progress. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th century, influencing major trends such as Bauhaus and De Stijl movement.