Defining the Essential Question

1) What is your essential question?
My essential question is "What is most important to impact an audience through graphic design?

2) Define the words in your EQ to make sure we are on the same page regarding what your EQ means. 

• "most important" = at this point, I think it translates to "best strategy"
• "impact" = pull a positive reaction from someone i.e. make the person want to continue looking
• "audience" = the beholder, the person looking at the design, the reader, etc.
• "through graphic design" = e.g. ad campaigns, editorial designs, prints, packaging design, and other mediums which use design.

3) What are some possible answers to your EQ so far?

From what I've researched so far...

• knowing and understanding your target audience
• keeping up with current trends of design
• strong typography
• visual/verbal communication
• stylistic identity (e.g. logos, etc)
• .... that's all I have so far. I'll research more, I swear.

4) What has your most important source and why? Be specific. If it is a person, name them and what they do; if it is an article, book or video, name the title and author.

So far, my best source(s) has/have been the book, "A Graphic Design Project From Start To Finish," which is written by a collaborative team of graphic designers. It's been a step by step guide showing me what exactly the graphic design world holds and how it works. For example, it not only explains typography and color, but also deal with how to define the problem at hand and conjure up a solution for it by combining color, type, photo, and other graphical techniques. The other book which has helped me is "Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming," by Ellen Lupton, because it got my eye familiar to what graphic design is by dissecting successful graphic design projects and pointing out the techniques the professionals used, specifically how they brainstormed the initial idea and built upon that.