What It Takes To Become a Graphic Designer?

Graphic designing is a very creative profession, which impacts most other domains in the present times. Starting from product packaging to application interfaces to websites, the talented and skilled services of a graphic designer are required everywhere. This is a challenging and rewarding career that has opened up new avenues of increasing the source of income for interested professionals.

What do Designers Do?

Designers do the job of creating visual communications which are seen regularly, almost every minute throughout the world. They develop advertising, entertainment, features and news in different forms. These forms include broadcasts and digital media such as television, game machines, portable devices, web browsers and social platforms. The forms can also include print publications like brochures, magazines and newspapers. These professionals work in the form of visual communicators who are into designing and developing electronic and print media. They are generally employed by design companies, advertising agencies, publishers and various other businesses in need of design professionals. They need to earn a bachelor’s degree, which allows them to develop technical and design skills while developing their portfolios for obtaining employment post-graduation.

The pre-requisites

The skills and the duties of designers have grown with the development of technology. This is a comprehensive career and the professionals in this field need formal education along with other important attributes in order to serve as successful designers.

Choose a design area

You need to narrow down your attention on any one of these areas – web development, advertising, print design, animation or multimedia – if it actually appeal to you.

Get the right tools

The most common applications used by graphic designers in the industry as per the industry standards are Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. Both these applications have been specifically designed to be used in a simple manner right from the beginning. If you are looking for a successful career in graphic designing, then it is important that you put in a good amount of focused effort on mastering these applications. It would be better for you to master the entire Adobe Creative Suite which includes Dreamweaver, Acrobat, Premiere, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects and Photoshop. Remember that these programs are not affordable and therefore you must try playing around with the free options like Scribus, Pixlr, Inkscape and Gimp. All the free applications will help you in learning the basics until you are able to get your hands into doing real graphic designing. 

Buy text books

You can also focus on different textbooks that teach the design fundamentals. You can study these textbooks as if you were undergoing a college course.

Get a qualifying degree in graphic designing

In the present times, employers are on the lookout for designers with well-rounded and complete education and this is something that can be achieved only by undergoing a college course or degree. An associate’s degree or a certificate in this field is considered important in getting employed for a popular company. However, professionals can only get a good job in this field if they are successful in earning a bachelor’s degree. Students in this field always have the flexibility of earning degrees at post-secondary institutions, public universities, private colleges and even art institutes. Online programs are also available in this field. The coursework covers different subjects like design principles, studio art, web design, commercial graphics, graphics-related computer technology and advertising.

Complete internships

All the college programs in this field do not require internships but the ones that offer the students with the exceptional scope of gaining practical experience, do require internships. Internships help students in forming professional relationships in design sector and completing work that is perfect for presentation in their design books or their portfolios.

Create an attractive portfolio

A good and attractive resume is important for the job search in this field, however, the biggest asset to searching a job in graphic designing is possessing an impressive and appealing portfolio. Your portfolio should demonstrate the wide assortment of work that you do and your development as a designer. It will help the prospective employers in understanding your abilities when working in the area.

It will help talented Individuals looking to make it big in this field of designing to be aware of these points.

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