What Does A Graphic Designer Do?
Graphic designers, with their exceptional creativity, create ads, logos, web pages, illustrations and a lot of visual material of which their clients would have them do. These talented professionals could either work alone or in groups in order to generate the most interesting and the most attractive images possible. Their clients can either be magazines, companies who would place ads, billboards and virtually anybody who would need to use graphics.
Aside from being creative, graphic designers too should have exceptional technical knowledge as the job would require the knowledge on how to use a lot of different instruments such as computers, cameras, and a lot of other gadgets. For those who work alone or are self employed, which would consist 25% of all graphic designers, excellent communication and business skills are very essential.
The duties of a graphic designer would depend on their job descriptions and on their specializations. Work can change daily or week per week depending on the demands. Some would only specialize in one area of graphic design such as web page design, advertisements, logos and illustrations.
Job Outlook
This job is quite competitive since a lot of people are attracted to this career. Fortunately, with competition comes a lot of opportunities. Those who can really produce good images have good prospects in this industry.
Nowadays, there is a constant increase for ads as seen on how ads would be changing every once in a while, how many web pages are added to the world wide web everyday and how much businesses would need new logos. This increase is also compensated by more people who are qualified to be graphic artists thus, those who are into this profession have more opportunities now.
With a larger demand for people who can produce images with very high quality, there is a suspected increase in demand for graphic designers until 2016. Those who are exceptionally competent as well as have good knowledge in web design and advertising in this industry have the best prospects.
Requirements
A bachelor’s degree or an associate’s degrees are some of the most basic requirements for those who would want a graphic designing career. Ideal majors that would really help one prepare for this career are computer science, information technology, information management and fine arts for some. While education is required, training is also a good advantage.
A graphic designer should also be master in using photo developing software such as Photoshop as the job itself would depend on this. For a potential graphic designer to have something to show, one must complete his own portfolio of which than graphic designer can show to his clients later on.
For a graphic designer to be effective in his job, one must be exceptionally creative. The one that produces the best ads would make the most money. Since this job is also business oriented, organizational and communication skills are also very important. Graphic designers should also be able to know what kind of illustrations would fit a customer’s needs.
Salary Expectation
The average salary of a graphics designer would be at around $46,000, most of these graphic designers who would be working for newspapers, magazines and book publishing companies. The federal government is known to pay for the highest wages that would reach up to around $62,000.