Many people do not stop to think if the person who made the image they are seeing was a graphic designer or an illustrator. Probably for the person who is seeing it, there is no vital difference.
On the other hand, creative professionals know that everyone has their field of action even if this is not obvious to everyone. Graphic design focuses primarily on commercial projects, while illustration is more on the side of “fine arts.”
Messages Vs. Art
The graphic design approach is mostly commercial; the professionals who create these images think of communicating something visually. Its main objective is to transmit a message that impacts the viewer to ensure that it responds with some concrete action such as buying. His role is mostly anonymous, deliver a message, and then step aside without being noticed.
On the other hand, illustrators, regardless of whether they are working on a commercial project or not, are more concerned with the image than with transmitting a message. The illustrators concentrate on showing their style through their work. Illustrator Norman Rockwell frequently includes a message in his illustrations, but in this case, due to his style, the message is almost as important as the drawing.
Because the job of graphic design is to communicate, it has to be very precise and frequently combines text with images. Graphic design that has a confusing message is bad. In a book, an illustration picture (gambar ilustrasi, which is the term in Indonesia) can catch your attention, but if the reader just passes them by, that does not necessarily mean that it has failed. But if someone ignores a graphic design, it did not do its job.
Different Tools
For most designers, their primary tool is the computer. They use different software to create their work. An illustrator can work with the computer, but most likely, he will have a notebook with sketches to draw what they see or imagine for later painting.
