A graphic element in design (not to be confused with a “graphic element” in literature and writing) can be one of the most important components in your brand, and it is a great way to add clarity and awareness to your concept. In fact, it is one of the most fundamental staples in design, and it is often one of the key focal points behind a visual concept, product, artwork, or brand. Keep reading to learn more about graphic elements!

Graphic elements can be highly useful tools to create many end products, tweak current designs, even to build your brand from scratch!

What is a graphic element and what is its purpose?

A graphic element is essentially a design component, which belongs to a larger visual theme. In other words, it can help your visuals and aesthetics by bringing them together, as part of a unitary creative concept, which will make it all more intuitive and recognizable. One of the most important reasons why designers use graphic elements is because they can help establish a visual hierarchy. In other words, what is the most important thing happening visually in the project? What should the viewer focus on with more attention? Graphic elements can highlight the most important component of any item, such as a website, or even packaging for a product, only to mention a couple of applications (more on that later).

Whether you use them in branding, illustrations, or other content, graphic elements can indeed help you tell a visual story and share your message through consistency and focus. This is an essential step in any design or branding project.

Why are they important as a part of your brand?

• Promoting brand awareness. Think of it as watching two football teams, playing each other in a stadium. How can you tell the players from each team apart? The colors of their uniforms! In much the same way, graphical elements can create a sense of belonging in your brand, creating more awareness and strengthening your identity.
• They instantly give a material a branded look. this can be essential to enhance the credibility and professionalism of your company, especially if you are looking to get serious about building an audience.
• They are flexible to use anywhere, individually or combined. many designers actually create graphical elements with the purpose of being incredibly diversified. This way, they can seamlessly be applied to various outlets, such as social media pages, e-commerce websites, print copy, and so much more.
• Creating end-products and branded materials. In some cases, graphical elements can be the actual final product – the selling point that makes your brand unique and the reason why people are drawn to it in the very first place.

Where can you use graphic elements in your brand?

• Websites. This is one of the most widespread applications for graphic elements. Designers implement these as buttons, background patterns, accents, headers, banners, and so many other things. The possibilities here are truly endless.
• Social media. Instagram highlight icons, Facebook covers, templates, story, even create GIFs to spice things up! Every social media platform has a different visual format, and clever designers know how to take advantage of it and create graphic elements that seamlessly fit within the workflow of each given social medial platform. If you have a look at any major company’s social media presence, you will certainly notice that all of their social media accounts have a graphic theme that’s very consistent, particularly through the use of customized graphic elements with a shared theme.
• Products. As mentioned earlier, graphic elements can be incredibly valuable as part of the “final” product that you are offering. For example, they can be featured on your packaging, or even directly on your products, as it happens with branded merchandise. In addition to that, graphic elements can be the actual products that you are selling: these might include digital printables/illustrations, clip arts, digital templates, customized GIFs, and many other things.
• Marketing materials. Graphic elements are incredibly important for ad-copy, and they are often seen on a wide range of materials, including brochures, business cards, pamphlets, flyers, posters.

In short, this article is barely scratching the surface. These are only some of the many applications for graphic elements, highlighting the importance of this foundational design technique! Did you know that The Mood Lab includes graphic elements in every branding project we do? Let’s connect and nerd out about graphic elements!