“Design is not a thing you do. It’s a way of life.”
Alan Fletcher
Design, or especially graphic design, has increasingly become one of the most sought careers in today’s world. In fact, we have long witnessed the traces of graphic design in every segment of our lives throughout history. Graphic designers are in high demand; thereby, a graphic design career is worth and highly pursuable.
From the above quote by Alan Fletcher, he stated that you need to make design your way of life. We can safely presume that it requires passion or love to design, along with creativity, of course.
And when it times to choosing what career you are going to pursue, it is important to look for the one where you can thrive. Later in the section of reasons why choosing graphic design as a career, you will find out that you love what you are doing and even get paid for it.
Read through this article to figure out more about the reasons and several potential occupations you can explore as graphic designers or graphic design graduates. But before that, let’s start first by defining what graphic design and graphic designer are.
Graphic Design and Graphic Designer
What is Graphic Design?
The American Institute of Graphic Arts defines the role of design as to improve the visual appearance and function of messages and information, further stating that designers “use typography, photographs, illustrations, and graphic elements to construct messages that attract attention, cause us to think about their meaning, and stay in our memories over time.”
Another definition of graphic designing is a field that involves the creation of graphics, visuals, designs, layouts, and elements for different products and services across various industries. They range from publication and marketing to manufacturing and e-commerce stores.
A graphic design career can indeed take us to various sectors like multimedia, production, publishing, manufacturing, filmmaking, video gaming, etc. It is not to mention those relates to User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) design industry.
What is a Graphic Designer?
A graphic designer is a professional who creates all of the designs. They are those who create creative designs, for example, consumer and industrial goods, as well as digital products such as logos, websites, animations, e-books, video games, etc.
As a graphic designer, he or she needs to acquire solid knowledge and skills in diverse artistic or design principles like color theory, image construction, effects, shapes, layouts, and the like. Moreover, they need to be highly creative, imaginative, and analytical to transform their creative design ideas into reality.
Why Choosing Graphic Design Career Path?
Okay, now we arrive at another question: why choose graphic design as your profession?
Considering the wide spectrum it has, you will figure out more graphic design career potentially provides various advantages and also opportunities.
The following are several reasons why you may consider or even pursue graphic designer as your prospective career path.
#1 – The increasing demand for graphic design
Graphic design is increasingly growing in demand, especially in today’s digital-based world. Graphic design is in high demand around the globe and across fields.
IBISWorld reported that the industry of graphic design achieved approximately $45.8 billion worth globally by 2021. Of the number, branding and logo design particularly made up about $3 billion of the total market size. Both of them represent the considerable scale of the graphic design field.
Accordingly, the statistic shows the high-level prospect for a graphic design career as well in the near future.
#2 – Doing what you love and get paid
This actually can be the first reason for those who are pursuing graphic design as their profession. These individuals know that graphic designing closely relates to creativity. They also realize that they cannot force creative ideas.
Therefore, graphic designers are usually those who are truly passionate and enjoy what they are doing. So, it would be nice to get paid while doing what you love to do. Since the job is truly enjoyable, making a living will not seem to be a burden, right?
#3 – Remote working
One of the perks of pursuing a graphic design career is you will get the chance to work from everywhere. All you need is a PC or a laptop to turn your creative ideas into realization.
Thanks to advanced technology, we can work remotely and collaboratively through online meetings or conferences. The designers can discuss the projects among fellow designers and get feedback from the clients for further improvement.
#4 – Be-your-own-boss freelancer
Graphic design allows you the chance to choose between being a full-time or a freelancer. Even for a full-time graphic designer, you tend to have a more flexible working time compared to other professions.
As a freelancer, you can pick the job you want as long as following the predetermined deadline agreement. Once again, you can work remotely from anywhere too. It also means that you can work with different clients or brands around the globe without any geographical limitations.
To simply put, no one is bossing you around.
#5 – Keeping with the Digital Era
The world has increasingly witnessed the emergence and existence of the digital era in every life sector. The unfortunate recent pandemic has made it more obvious that most people engage in virtual demands and environments.
It is also true with graphic designing, where designers work in a more dynamic digital sphere. Graphic design is increasing across the web and mobile apps. More advanced design software is available to help many designers come with their incredible works to meet today’s growing demands.
It undoubtedly creates more career prospects thus higher incomes as well.
#6 – Making a contribution
Pursuing a graphic design career gives you the opportunities to make a difference, even the slightest one. Through your creatively distinctive designs, you can contribute something to the people or even the world. It mostly relates to particular ideas or purposes regarding common goods.
One of the most influential examples is working with eco-friendly campaigns in creating more earth-friendly products to protect our environment.
#7 – You will never get bored
As previously mentioned, graphic design is about creativity. In this industry, you will meet various clients with different purposes or demands. Accordingly, your work is going to be different for every different time.
Of course, they will pose challenges and new experiences too. That’s why graphic designing is far from being a boring job.
10 Prospective Careers in Graphic Design (The Unanticipated Ones)
Before we bring up some prospective graphic design career options you can pursue, it is better to figure out more the types in this field of graphic design. According to Dribble (2021), there are eight types you can explore, namely:
- Brand identity design
- Web and user interface design
- Marketing and advertising design
- Print and publication design
- Packaging design
- Graphic illustration
- Lettering and type design
- Data visualization and infographic design
Based on the above explanation of the graphic design and graphic designer, therefore you will mostly learn about those eight types of graphics during your study.
Now, what are the most common or expected graphic design career paths you can pursue? This time, Geekflare (2021) offers its top 13 choices that are still closely related to the above types. Let’s check them out as follow.
- User Experience (UX) designer
- User Interface (UI) designer
- Logo designer
- Fashion designer
- Photo editor
- Packaging designer
- Art director
- Product designer
- Video game designer
- Multimedia designer
- Advertising designer
- Publication designer
- Production artist
I bet that you are familiar with the aforementioned graphic design career prospects. Most graphic design graduates are looking up to be one of those most common professions in this industry.
Meanwhile, Creative Boom (2018) listed several unexpected jobs you can ultimately grasp as a graphic designer. The following are some of the inspiring graphic design occupations you can take into account as well.
– Wedding invitation designer
Weddings happen anywhere and anytime. The wedding industry has played a crucial role in history. They are big and booming businesses that require complete creative ideas and implementations.
Graphic designing in this market requires you to work from “save the date” up to the ceremony table plans.
– Book cover designer
Both printed and electronic books need attractive covers to complement the story or the content, as well as to appeal to prospective readers. Indeed, book cover design is still high in demand. Likewise, it can be one of the most inspiring graphic design career paths you can opt for.
– 3D Illustrator
The 3D illustration designers use the combination of traditional graphic design skills (hand-drawing) and modern computer processes (software). They design three-dimensional animations, models, or visual effects. Many others use those 3D designs further for other creative projects like movies, video games, advertising campaigns, and the like.
This career requires you to have educational background of bachelor’s degrees in graphic design, computer sciences, or other similar majors.
– Sign painter
This type of graphic design career is particularly common in the hospitality industry, such as in restaurants or hotels. It requires more traditional drawing skills in the form of sign painting and hand lettering.
By definition, sign painting itself is “a craft of painting lettered signs on buildings or signboards.” The purpose is to announce, promote, or identify products, services, or events. The sign painting artisans also have another title as signwriters.
– Letterpress printer
Letterpress printing is another dream career for a graphic designer. As a cemented heritage of the oldest printing technique, people also call it Relief printing or Typographic printing, especially in commercial printing.
The process allows you to create many copies of an image by repeating a direct impression of an inked, raised surface against sheets or a continuous roll of papers.
You need years of practice to develop such a high skill in this highly respected graphic design career.
– Surface pattern designer
Challenge your creativity and yourself by working not only on diverse ideas but also on various mediums. A surface pattern designer creates art or patterns seamlessly in a technical repeat on surfaces of usually mass-manufactured products.
These artists use a variety of materials as the canvas of their design projects. To name some of them are fabric, wallpaper, upholstery, wrapping paper, or floor covering.
– Email marketing designer
Marketing via emails has played an increasingly significant role in today’s personal and commercial lives. This social media platform has been one of the helpful opportunities to reach out to a massive audience.
Therefore, a graphic design career as an email marketing designer is one of the best alternatives you can pursue. Even, there are growing demands for specialized nice of email platform designing.
– Muralist
A graphic designer is also a graphic artist. In this case, we are talking about street art. People have celebrated and keep on celebrating it due to its distinctive visual charming attractiveness. Street murals tend to have the perk of transforming the atmosphere of a street or an entire environment in no time.
As an unexpected graphic design career, a muralist or a mural artist usually has fine arts as their background. They create their artworks mostly on the walls or ceilings, not to mention plasters, tiles, canvas, and other surfaces.
Muralists can use different painting techniques like graffiti or fresco to create decorative designs, for example, abstracts, portraits, or landscapes. They also come with functions designs of company logos or advertisements.
– Teacher or Lecturer
Yes, you can choose a teacher or lecturer as your graphic design career. You can come back to your previous schools where you graduated or share your knowledge with other schools.
By doing this, you can help and equip young, prospective graphic designers to enter the professional world.
– Marketing manager
Your graphic design educational background also can lead you to another field and rank of career, namely marketing. Your knowledge and skills will truly help you in many decisive roles like briefing creatives.
As a marketing manager, you need to oversee all the aspects of the creative mix, such as from brochure or web design to written communications.
To sum up, graphic design is indeed an impeccable career option, especially for those with creative minds. It offers immense creative opportunities in various sectors in today’s increasingly digitalized world.
Accordingly, if you get interested in pursuing a graphic design career, you can look for helpful tips or guides from the experts. It includes numerous credible online marketplaces to sharpen your skills with their creative design collections and software.
