Career in Graphic Design
Career Overview
Graphic designers create logos and packaging for basically every company and product. When you look in your pantry, everything you see has been influenced by a graphic designer; whether it is a can of soup, a cereal box, or even a box of trash bags, a graphic designer worked to fashion the appearance of that product. Since this is the case, graphic designers tend to work on a project to project basis, which often means firm deadlines and strict financial and design limits. While the designer is usually given artistic license on their project, the company they are working with will have guidelines and ideas about the packaging of their product; the design will ultimately be a reflection of that company, so they have the final say.
As a graphic designer, you will need the ability to synthesize input from many different sources and create a distinctive image that conveys a message about the product, company, or both that you are representing. An important aspect of the design process is generating a variety of sketches and models which demonstrate different approaches to the product. This requires incorporating constructively critical comments from others into your final design. Although you are not in charge of marketing the product, every consumer will see the packaging of the product before purchasing it, and, in many instances, the packaging itself will be what draws consumers to the product. Thus, your design needs to "sell" the product inside.
You will also need to sell your designs to your clients and understand what it is that they are expecting from you. So, communication skills are a must in this field. Every project requires the collaboration of a number of people and the integration of a number of ideas to form one image that everybody agrees upon. This may take any number of meetings, conferences, conversations, emails, and brainstorming sessions. Although you are the artist, creating a design is a joint effort between you and your clients, which means that you not only need help them understand your vision, but you need to respect theirs as well. You must be prepared to accept any criticisms that they have to offer, and to alter your creation based on their concerns. If you are not able or willing to change your ideas based on industry trends, and, most importantly, clients' desires, you will not be very successful.
As a web designer, you will be exposing your designs to anyone who has access to the Internet across the globe, as compared to the publishing industry where your designs would be viewed by only a few thousand people who subscribe to that particular magazine or newspaper.
Requirements
Graphic designers have to work under extreme time pressures and very defined financial and design limits to produce quality work.
This profession takes a person who can:
/ Listen to comments
/ Has a good eye for aesthetic design
/ Has a flair for colour
/ A good understanding of the needs of the corporate world
/ Good communication skills are very important if you want to see your designs accepted
/ Good aesthetic sense
/ A good hand at sketching
/ An ability to work long hours
A graphic designer in the publishing industry is expected to know packages like:
PhotoShop, PageMaker, CorelDraw, illustrator, freehand, Quark xpress.
For a web site designer :
PhotoShop, Freehand, Flash, Dream weaver, Little knowledge of HTML and Java script would be added advantage.
Job Opportunities
The graphic design industry is an exciting, fast-changing and rewarding area to be involved with. Well-qualified graphic design professionals continue to be in great demand by domestic and international firms.
In print and television media, and advertising agencies too, a graphic designer is required to draw cartoons, visuals, illustrations, charts, etc. One may also land a job at garment manufacturing firms, publishing houses and film and documentary companies.
Apart from working in a dot com company you can also be employed in newspapers, magazines, television, films, special effects companies, technical publications, advertising agencies, etc.
Remuneration & Other Benefits
Freshers out of college can expect Rs 7000-12000 a month, which goes up to Rs 15000-18,000 after a year.
A experienced designer having 2-4 years of experience can get a salary of Rs 20-25,000.
There is vast scope for freelance in this profession. Everyone wants to have a presence on the web these days and that makes for a lot of work for web designers.