Advertising is dependent on graphic design. In large advertising agencies, entire departments devote themselves to determining what images and messages will draw people's attention and convince them to buy. Cleverness, humor, appeals to people's vanity, scare tactics, and pathos are all utilized visually to promote products and messages. Graphic designers are deeply involved in the transformation of people's desires into imagery that reflects those desires. The goal of many corporations is to permanently inscribe the image of their logo on people's minds. The ubiquity of logos such as Coca Cola, McDonald's and IBM is testament to the success of their methods.
Silk screening, and its more technically complex offshoots, is one of the more common methods used for art dissemination and the mass production of graphic design. Silk screening creates mass-produced images by forcing ink through a screen that has had an image applied to it. The ink goes through the part that has been left open, and is stopped by the part that has been sealed with emulsion, thus creating an image on the material below the screen. This is the basis of the designs that are seen on t-shirts, caps, and posters. This process can be done at home by hobbyists, or in enormous numbers by mechanized versions of the same basic process in factories.
The Internet has spawned a vast world of online commercial art and graphic design. Due to the ease with which electronic images can be created and modified, more people have gotten involved in the field and produce more imagery at a faster rate. Without the expense and complications of fabric, paper, and ink, artists are free to pursue their visions, with only the potential of crashed computers to slow them down.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently about 286,000 professional graphic designers in the United States today. The field is predicted to grow by 13 percent in the decade ending in 2018. Applicants with skills in web design and animation are predicted to be the most sought after. While few commercial artists become rich or famous, it is possible to make a decent living, although the field is competitive. Talented artists with the drive and focus to promote their work in the right places stand a good chance of at least paying the rent and eating every day, which is not always the case for those trying to get their work into museums.
Used properly, graphic design can beautify urban spaces, cyberspaces, and reading material, and make life more interesting and fun. Talented graphic designers are able not only to fulfill the mandates of their clients, but to provide their audiences with interesting and inspiring content.