What exactly does a graphic designer do?
A graphic designer creates visual concepts to convey information through photos and art.
A
graphic designer creates posters, bus wraps, billboards, packaging,
logos and marketing materials, depending on the industry—graphic
designers work at magazines, advertising and marketing agencies, and
more. Selecting photos and typefaces, and developing layouts for
advertisements, annual reports, brochures, magazines and other projects
are also part of the gig.
“A
graphic designer does a range of things, depending on the type of
company [she works] for,” says Kaitlin Mendoza, a graphic designer for
Stampington & Company in Laguna Hills, California. Mendoza has her
hands full editing photos, laying out copy and choosing fonts for title
treatments for the various magazines she works on. But she loves every
minute of it. “I’m never bored at my job,” she says.
What skills are required?
The
ability to design eye-catching visuals that are easily understood
without a lot of thinking is essential, says multimedia designer Alan
Tabish, who designs and produces training materials as a graphic
designer for management and technology consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton.
Experience with typography, color theory and Web design are also
helpful, he says.
Flexibility
is important too, adds Mendoza. If the client’s vision doesn’t align
with yours, you have to make the necessary adjustments. And you have to
be able to take criticism: Clients are vocal and sometimes indecisive.
(Don’t take it personally.)
And you should be familiar with design software, especially Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.
What Is Graphic Design Like, as a Job?
Designers become designers in many different ways.
Not all of us were drawn to art from day one. Quite often graphic
design is learned out of necessity. You need a flyer for your business
or your kids' bake sale and suddenly you're choosing silly fonts, photos
and colors, trying to make the template look presentable. (Though most
professional designers rarely use a template!)
Graphic design is a career of problem solving and organization.
The problem solving portion of what a graphic designer does involves
meeting a challenge. Our client generally tells us what that challenge
is without us having to ask, "I need to sell more books."
Graphic design is form and function working together.
That may sound like a cliche, but really, it's a formula for success.
The form is one half of what a designer does, we create or choose
imagery that tells a story. This may be by way of great photography, or
illustrations, iconography, texture, type - or any combination of these
things. Along with the aesthetics of the design (or the "pretty" stuff)
we are also challenged with sending the message that our client needs to
send.
Part two of what a designer does is organize:
Hierarchy of the elements on a page helps the viewer get the message.
Things like a headline, call to action and remembering to put contact
information fall within the range of this often grey area of design. A
professional designer knows to ask questions, and to educate the client
when they fail to provide such details. Remember - form AND function. If
you allow your client to forget the website or 800 number and nobody
can buy their product - you've failed.
"I need to sell more books." is the message.
With an attention grabbing website, an expertly designed book cover,
and well designed social media presence the graphic designer truly
becomes a cog in the marketing machine. We may not be the marketing
team, but we are an integral part of the execution of a marketing
strategy, and quite often that strategy is born with the design team,
first.
As a job, designers quite often spend more hours executing the creative idea.
What this means is that as an actual career, in hours spent per day,
you may often spend less time being creative and more time creating.
What that means is that often the "fun" part happens early on. Once you
have your base design, elements are reused throughout a campaign, so
your actual time spent on a job is spent laying out pages, creating
assets for different social media channels, website elements, and other
functions that require an entirely different skill set.
While
you may view graphic design as a career where your time is entirely
spent making beautiful things truly much of our time is spent organizing
information, checking margins and specs, and nitpicking details.
Choosing the perfect typeface that is easily readable, yet complimentary
to the look and feel of the overall composition is imperative. Choosing
the right display fonts is even more critical.
Quite
often inexperienced designers overcompensate with poor typography
choices, and forget to give equal attention to things like leading (line
spacing), kerning (letter spacing), margins and gutters, widows and
orphans, grammar, spelling, spacing, and overall page composition. These
items are imperative, and these aspects of design are what separate the
novice from the pro.
I
would estimate that design is 20% problem solving and creativity and
80% execution. Of course this will vary from project to project, but I
feel this is a fair assessment.
So, whether it is a good career for you or not, is entirely up to you to decide.
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