Commercial art

For other uses, see Commercial art (disambiguation).

An 1898 poster by Jan Van Beers.

Commercial art is the art of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. Commercial art traditionally includes designing books, advertisements of different products, signs, posters, and other displays to promote sale or acceptance of products, services, or ideas.

Skills of commercial art

Most commercial artists have the ability to organize information and knowledge of fine arts, visualization and media. Communication is often vital in this field. Usually, the art department is relatively small, consisting of art directors, perhaps an assistant director, and a small staff of design and product workers. Commercial artists work a variety of situations doing many things in the artistic world such as advertisement, illustration and animation. Commercial artists should have skills in free-hand drawing and painting, experience using graphic design and editing software, and a basic knowledge of advertising principles. Commercial Art is usually made for mass exposure and distribution. Commercial art creates a way to show people the product or service by using an image that may catch one's eye. This is one way businesses are promoting and advertising their products and services.

Commercial art applies artistic principles to a variety of fields. Commercial artists design advertisements, logos, billboards, brochures, book covers, product packaging and other similar artwork. Their work is often used to sell, promote, explain, narrate and inform.

Commercial artists can specialize in graphic design and illustration, among other areas. Illustrators create images for use in books, magazines and stationery. Graphic designers create artwork and layouts for books, newspapers, magazines, television, product packaging and the Internet. Graphic design professionals often work in advertising, marketing or related fields.

Genres

Commercial art can include many genres of art and categories of art technique, including:

• Commercial character design
• Illustration
• Graphic design
• Industrial design
• Motion graphic design
• Photography
• Television commercials
• Music videos
• Animation
• Computer art
• Fashion designer
• Interior design