GRAPHIC DESIGNER: A PERSON WHO CRAFTS WHAT WE SEE

Graphic design is one of the most prestigious and popular spheres at the moment. It is a creative career, which opens up a whole new world of opportunities and allows specialists to travel the world, discover new skills and enjoy life to the fullest!

Here are only a few responsibilities that graphic designers have:

• Meeting with clients, art directors or other individuals to determine goals and focus of projects;
• Using illustration, editing and layout software to generate designs;
• Creating visual elements, including images, logos and all sorts of illustrations;
• Designing layouts, choosing color schemes and images;
• Presenting concepts of design to clients;
• Making changes based on client’s recommendations;
• Reviewing drafts for any mistakes before publishing or printing them.

However, if you are studying graphing design, you will have more opportunities than simply becoming a graphic designer! You can improve your skills and create any future you like, searching for positions in the companies you are interested in or even becoming a freelancer or entrepreneur.

If you follow the news you probably know that design careers are trending for the past few years. They are modern, mobile and are paid well! According to BLS statistics, the average annual salary of a graphic designer is almost $49,000 and top specialists can earn more than $80,000.

So, if you are creative and see yourself in design, attending courses or obtaining an education in design is a must. Today we will tell you what types of occupations exist for designers, how you can reach your goals and how to create a great resume!

Graphic Designer Resume Sample & Tips

If you want to become a graphic designer or to find better options, it is necessary to strike hiring managers right from the beginning. That is why you should always start by creating an outstanding resume.

While most of the industry’s resumes should remain more formal, design resumes should show all the capabilities and taste of their authors. These resumes are a working example, so when building a creative resume, you will show hiring managers how well you can work with fonts and color schemes.

However, you need to find the right balance: your resume should stand out but still not to distract its reader from the text. If you don’t have a clue how these resumes look like and how to show your graphic art through the CV, get familiar with resume samples online.

The best format is PDF because most of the companies use Acrobat or other software and will be able to read your resume without any difficulties. Also, you need to title the resume by indicating the position and your surname. No ‘my resume’ or ‘design resume’, because they will confuse the hiring manager and your resume may end up in a bin.

If you worry that you won’t create a powerful CV, you can contact our resume custom service and we will do all the work for you!

Here are the elements that a designer resume should include:

• Contact information

Here you should indicate your full name, phone number, email, and address. If you have a portfolio online, provide its URL.

• Experience

Write about your professional experience using bullet points. If you have a big record of design jobs, choose the most relevant and impressive ones. Organize them in reverse chronological order.

• Education

Here you should show where you have studied. Any certifications, courses, two- or four-year degrees should fall in this section.

• Design skills

In this section, you need to indicate all of the skills you possess. For example, the mastership of CSS or HTML and experience working with different software (Photoshop, Indesign, Adobe Illustrator, etc). There is no need to indicate your level of proficiency – just provide a name and it will help you to earn additional points.

• Extras

If you think that your resume will benefit from it, you can add a section with extras. It may contain your background information: job titles, personal details or any other information you’d like to share with potential employers.

You can alter the number of sections and their content but it is necessary to include the above sections because they are the core of your resume and missing even one of them may harm you.

Remember, you are a personal brand, so you should treat your resume as another project. Yes, it may be difficult at first but when you treat yourself as a client, you start applying the best tools and instruments, and eventually, your resume will benefit from it!

Graphic Designer Career Path

If you are willing to become a designer, you won’t do without education and training. However, unlike other occupations, you have more freedom and your creative vision is often more important than the number of diplomas.

Usually, a bachelor’s degree is required in design or any related field but if you have a bachelor’s in any other major, you may take additional courses in graphic design to meet the main requirements. Considering that the average annual growth rate in employment is 7%, it is obvious that graphic design salary and freedom to express oneself will long be attractive for most of the employees, and more and more specialists will switch industries to try themselves in design.

Moreover, experienced designers may expect to advance to art directors, chief designers or any other supervisory occupations. If you want to have additional benefits and to make your resume stronger, the best way is to get licenses and certifications. Usually, these programs are available through sellers of software products. Such certifications can show proficiency levels and can give you a serious advantage over competitors.

In case you are already a visual designer but want to research what opportunities, you have in the field, let us introduce you to occupations, where you can apply your skills!

• Graphic designer: entry-level

If you have just graduated and don’t have any work experience, you will need to start with junior positions. Usually, entry-level designers work under experienced ones, helping with a variety of tasks like creating ads for designing banners or labels.

• Graphic design manager

After you gain experience working as an entry-level designer, you can start looking for a management job offer. These managers are usually responsible for controlling projects and helping the team to manage its various parts.

• Freelance designer

Designers often work from home or remotely, because there is often no difference where you get design inspiration and use it in your projects. It may be a great benefit because you are your boss and decide how and when to work. However, if you want to become a freelancer you need to be ready for more responsibilities and strong self-organization.

You will not only need to create designs but also to find clients, work on every stage of the project, manage the financial side, follow the deadlines and so on.

• Art director

The art director is a more responsible position but with a proper approach and enough devotion you will surely succeed. Art directors work on a general design and product themes, marketing campaigns, advertisements, and any other projects.

It takes several years to be able to create a project from A to Z, which will inspire not only your team but will also impress the client.

• Marketing manager

Any graphic designer may eventually become a marketing manager because it is a field, which combines a variety of skills. A marketing manager is ahead of a marketing department, who leads different projects that are used for production and promotion. This specialist also managers employees in advertisement and marketing. So, if you always wanted to be someone’s boss, being a marketing manager will give you that opportunity.

• Creative director

The creative director is an occupation, which can usually be achieved after several years of working as a designer. It is quite similar to being an art director. However, while the creative one takes responsibility for the general vision of the project, campaign or company, an art director interprets that vision and leads the team to achieve goals.

In most of the cases, creative directors work in multiple departments at the same time, implementing ideas in reality.

• Digital media specialist

We are living in digital times, where everything becomes computerized. That is why specialists, who are both good with technologies and design, are in real demand. Such specialists can create all types of elements: audio or video clips, graphics for animation or games.

To start this career, you will need to learn the basics of design and to be a tech geek.

• Web designer

Graphic design is the basic skill for a web designer. Even though the development and design of a website are two different careers, very often both of the tasks can be done by the same specialist: web designer, who creates, designs and then maintains the website.

Such specialists often work from home, because they can work on several projects at the same time outside a single company. If you prefer staying at the office, you can also choose whether to work on a single website or to join a studio, which creates websites for customers.

• Animator

You will hardly find an occupation that will be as close to pure art than being an animator. This specialist creates pictures and brings them to life!

Animators can find a job on television or in the movies to create motion pictures. Such specialists are also in high demand in advertising or companies, where there is a need to create tutorials, presentations, and other content. Have you seen the new Lion King? You can be the next person to draw such a masterpiece!

• Product designer

Everything is simple and clear from the title of this occupation. Such professionals work on the design of all types of products: from cell phones to diapers. A product designer is a necessity for any company that produces and sells products.

• Editor of videos and films

Video or film designers have a wide range of responsibilities: they shoot movies, utilize editing programs, cooperate with directors to share the personal vision of the film, choose and learn how to operate filming equipment and help producers to make their movie better.

• 3D designer and illustrator

If you have studied design on courses or at college, you have surely had a class of 3D graphics. Such a specialist is a designer, who has experience working with three-dimensions. So if you want to try yourself in 3D, watch tutorials and practice!

• Game designer

Video and online games are extremely popular with tens of them emerging every day. And there is a team of game designers behind all of them! A game would be impossible to create without designers, who work on all the elements: background, visual content, rules of the game and characters’ behavior.

• Book designer

Book designer is a specialist that works on every page of a book and all the visual elements it includes. The author works together with a designer to create an unforgettable story. You can work not only on paper books but also on ebooks and audio versions.

Book designers work on layouts, choose typography, design the final page and of course the book cover to render the author’s ideas most accurately.

• UX UI designer

User experience and user interface are relatively new terms in design. However, they are becoming more and more important, because websites, products, and applications need to consider users to provide a positive experience and a simple interface.

That is what the UX/UI designer does. Being such a specialist, you may work on making the application simple to use and intuitive or may test the website to provide potential users with the best experience.

• Packaging designer

Every product has a package. This means that the package should also be designed and created. Packaging designer is a person, who decides what the best package for a product is: starting with materials that are used and finishing with the way the package opens.

• Graphic novelist

Graphic novels occupy a special place in people’s hearts and are gaining popularity across the world. They are not just comic books: they take time to create and can by right be called a literature type. Some writers of graphic novels work on the design on their own but in most of the cases, they hire specialists, who would put their vision in pictures.

• Journalist – graphic designer

Journalists are not only writers, reporters or photographers. Graphic designers also work hard to make the material readable and accurate. These graphic designers process information and convert it into charts, images, infographics, and any other visual content to help readers get the maximum out of the story.

As you see, graphic design has lots of opportunities to offer, so if you are only thinking whether to study it or not – give the design a chance and you will surely find your niche!