Every company has information that they need to communicate to other businesses or consumers and yet may not always have access to a professional graphic designer. Whether it’s due to time or money limitations often companies turn to a non-designer to step in and be the hero who saves the day by designing an effective flyer, brochure, webpage, or any number of promotional materials. The results however are typically sub-optimal.

Brian Rodgers Jr. is an award-winning Commercial Photographer, Digital Artist and founder of Digital Art That Rocks LLC. Brian's commercial work has been featured on the cover of Photoshop User Magazine and published in a variety of other national and international publications including Architect Magazine.

These are unprecedented times, and there is enough panic, worry, and uncertainty to go around. Business has slowed or, in some cases, ground to a halt. Don’t get me wrong, there is good reason to worry, but you can either spend this time watching sporting games from the early 2000s, overeating, and bird-watching, or you can use this time wisely to do some marketing housecleaning.

If you're reading this, you already realize the importance of using a professional graphic designer to convey your image or message. Now the question is how do you communicate your ideas and information to a graphic designer to get the best results?

Christmas is an enchanting time of year when we are all filled with fond holiday memories. We all remember the sights, smells, and feelings of this special time, especially from the magical time of our youth. It comes as no surprise that these memories also include the plethora of commercials and advertisements that are ever present during the holiday season.

Graphic designers and art students can (and will) bore people to death about industry pioneers such as Paula Scher, Paul Rand, Saul Bass (my personal favorite), and others whose work the average person is unaware of. However, there are famous graphic designers whom you may not know, yet you are exposed to their work every day.

The term graphic design usually conjures up images of cool logos, slick icons, beautiful illustrations, and killer page layouts. These are all good examples of graphic design, but there is an often-overlooked aspect to graphic design that is of equal, if not greater, importance: typography.

If you are a sales and marketing professional, you probably feel like you have a pretty good grip on what "graphic design" means. But that assumption might limit a complete and accurate understanding of something that has a profound impact on millions of people everyday. You see, graphic design is all around us. It is constantly being used to inform, entertain, and even manipulate us. As a matter of fact, the average person is so immersed in graphic design that they may not even notice it -- but it's there. Every logo, website, billboard, mobile app, magazine and food wrapper carries with it the evidence of graphic design. Even the blog that you are reading this on now was created with the help of a graphic designer.

We are surrounded by graphic design. It comes in a variety of manifestations, but regardless of it's specific nature, you can be sure the goal of graphic design is to inform, entertain and engage. Each type of design is created in a specific way for its specific use. Here are a couple of types of graphic design and how they are used.