Design is the search for a magical balance between business and art; art and craft; intuition and reason; concept and detail; playfulness and formality; client and designer; designer and printer; and printer and public.
— Valerie Pettis
Connecticut-based Graphic Designer
“Design is the search for a magical balance …” This part of the quote by Connecticut-based graphic designer Valerie Pettis really sticks out in my mind. I think that this is the one things that I have really learned through my classes and teachers in the graphics program at Southeast Tech., that graphic design is truly a balancing act. In every design, designers are saddled with the task balancing a whole host of contrasting ideas to create visual pieces containing both aesthetically pleasing art and a specific message. But what is a graphic designer and does it actually take to be one, besides a good sense of balance, that is?
Through this post I will explore what a graphic designer is, the qualifications, skills and education required to be a design professional, the basic duties of a designer, as well as the job specifics, such as job availability and projected median pay.
Through this post I will explore what a graphic designer is, the qualifications, skills and education required to be a design professional, the basic duties of a designer, as well as the job specifics, such as job availability and projected median pay.
Graphic design combines art and technology to communicate ideas. The designer works with a variety of communication tools, primarily image and typography, in order to convey a message from a client to a particular audience. Designers create, choose, and organize these elements — typography, images, and the so-called “white space” around them — to communicate a message.
Graphic designers use many drawn, painted, photographed, and now computer-generated images to create the design for graphics and layouts for a variety of visual pieces and formats such as print pieces, including business cards, letter heads, posters, fliers, brochures, maps and info-graphics. They might also develop the entire layout of magazines, newspapers, journals or websites.
In addition to these finished projects, they also design the letterforms that make up various typefaces that can be seen everywhere from movie credits and TV ads to books, magazines, and menus, and even on computer screens. There would be no electronic words anywhere if a designer hadn’t created the fonts first.
In the graphic design profession, it is often the case that formal training is not necessarily needed to be successful, but often it can be difficult to pick up the required skills well enough to make a living without at least some sort of degree in art or graphic design. For most professional graphic design positions, it is required that the applicant have a bachelor's degree, although many entry-level technical jobs only require an associate degree.
Through professional design training, either a bachelor’s or associate degree program, fledgling designers usually receive knowledge of studio art and design, commercial graphics production, computerized design, and website development and design. One major part of these programs is that they allow the design students the opportunity to complete of number of original, professional type projects and skills sets in order to put together a good portfolio before entering the job market, which is often crucial in getting a job.
Along with postsecondary training, creativity, communication, and problem-solving are very important skills for a designer to posses and develop. Designers must be creative and able to communicate their ideas visually, verbally, and in writing. They also must have an eye for details.
Because consumer tastes can, and often do, change fairly quickly, designers also need to widen their world-view by keeping up with professional design literature, being open to new ideas and influences, and must be able to react quickly to changing trends. The abilities to work without direction and under the pressure of deadlines are equally important traits. Other important skills needed by designers are the self-discipline to start projects on their own, the ability to budget their time, and to meet deadlines and production schedules. In addition to these, good business sense and sales ability can also prove themselves useful to designers, especially for those who plan to freelance or manage their own firms.
It is also very important that graphic designers keep up with new and updated computer graphics and design software, either on their own or through formal software training programs.
Rapid growth is projected for the graphic design field as well as the jobs associated with it. Employment of graphic designers is expected to grow 13 percent, as fast as the average for all occupations from 2008 to 2018, as the continued growth of the Internet will provide many new job opportunities, and businesses will always have the need for visually appealing documents and communication to help with their advertising and marketing. However, growth may slow due to reduced demand for print publishing, where many graphic designers are employed.
The average annual wages in May 2008 for graphic designers were $42,400. The middle 50 percent earned between $32,600 and $56,620, while the lowest 10 percent earned less than $26,110, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $74,660. A more specific breakdown can be seen in the chart below:
Position | Average Salary (As of May 2008) |
Staff Level Designers | $45,000 |
Senior Designers | $60,000 |
Solo-Freelance Designers | $57,000 |
Design Directors | $95,000 |
Design Firm Owners/Partners | $95,000 |
With the growth of the industry expected to continually climb with new technologies, skilled, creative and dedicated newcomers should find it a welcoming industry to work their way into and advance their careers in. They will join a new generation of proverbial trapeze artists in the balancing act that is the graphic design field.
Sources:
Graphic Designer: Educational Requirements for a Career in Graphic Design
Graphic Design: A Career Guide and Education Directory by Sharon Helmer Poggenpohl
United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
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