Graphic Design: A Great Way To Make A Living As An Artist

With a rising demand for computer-related skills in job markets around the world, students often put technical know-how on their resumes. This has often left those with artistic inclinations out in the cold when it comes to getting a well-paying job.

Fortunately, with new trends in art degrees that combine art with computers, artists may no longer have to sacrifice creative experiences to earn a decent living. A career as a commercial digital graphic designer links the world of art and computers. It’s a career whereby the left brain and right brain are both used to create whole brain thinking.

This is good news. It means that you can find well-paying work while taking your artistic gifts to the next level .

What Do Graphic Designers Do?

As a graphic designer, you will express visual ideas through computer software, and your work will be used to inspire and inform your audience. You will design images for magazines, brochures, advertisements, or other artistic forms of expression that businesses use to communicate their marketing message to consumers.

What Type Of Education Do You Need?

Generally speaking, employers are interested in a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and a professional portfolio that features examples of their original ideas and creative expression.

What Do You Learn In School?

When you sign up for a graphic design program, you’ll learn how to be a better artist, and you’ll also learn how to express your artistic vision with the aid of computers. Programs focus on developing the foundations of graphic design. Students pursuing a degree in graphic design from Platt College, for instance, are taught “composition, layout, digital paint and illustration, typography, prepress production, and photo manipulation.”

How Easy Is It To Get A Job?

Unlike other careers, where students often can’t get a job because they have an education but no experience, graphic design students can use their education to demonstrate their experience.

Many graphic design programs give their students a chance to build a professional portfolio while in school. Students can collect samples of their work as they create designs for their class projects and their internships. These can then be used to demonstrate artistic skills when applying for a job.

What Is The Job Market Like?

Although the statistics in the government’s Occupational Outlook Handbook were collected two years ago, they offer a good baseline estimation. In 2012, the median pay was ,150 per year, which breaks down to .22 per hour and there were 259,000 jobs. Since a median wage is an average, this means that the lowest paid graphic designers earned ,250 or less while the highest paid graphic designers earned ,490 or more. The government estimates that the profession will grow at a rate of 7% up to the year 2022.

What Type Of Work Is It?

Graphic designers can either opt to work for themselves or work for a company that specializes in providing clients with design services. Clients come from the publishing, advertising, or public relations industrial sector. In 2012, 14% worked in the manufacturing industry, 10% in specialized design services; 9% in newspaper, periodical, book, or directory publishing; 8% in advertising and public relations; and 5% in the wholesale trade industry.

Graphic designers meet with art directors to discuss a project’s scope. Sometimes, they advise clients directly on the best type of art to connect with a target audience. In essence, then, they determine the best image to convey a message for a product or service. This image may be expressed in the form of a website graphic, a logo, or a product illustration.

Once the work has been decided on, numerous iterations may be necessary before the final design is printed or published.

Conclusion

For centuries now, there has been an unspoken competition between left brain thinkers and right brain thinkers in society. Usually, left brain-oriented people are interested in language, logic, and sequence, and they have won out over right brain-oriented people interested in art, creativity, and patterns. This has led to the stereotype of the starving artist. While some outstanding artists have broken free of the stereotype, they are few in number.

A larger proportion has found it difficult to make a living from an artistic career. Now with the field of graphic design, it’s finally possible to be an artist and have a great career, too.

Graphic Design: A Great Way To Make A Living As An Artist