Roles and Skills of a Graphic Designer

Graphic Designers create visual content to communicate messages or ideas through print and digital mediums.

The term ‘graphic designer’ can mean many things and there are numerous branches of design within this label that, as part of my Roles and Skills Report, I’d like to investigate. What are the goals I can set myself to provide better direction for my career path?

How can I gain experience and develop skills going forward to advance my career?

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Graphic designer roles and responsibilities -

• Translating client needs and branding strategies into design strategies.

• Designing visual concepts using graphic design tools including design software.

• Selecting colours, fonts, photographs, layouts, and other design elements to communicate creative concepts.

• Collaborating with art directors, branding experts, front end developers, marketing, content, and other professionals to create media.

• Articulating and pitching design concepts to clients, art directors and others

Sourced: https://www.indeed.com/hire/job-description/graphic-designer

 

Job Titles include –

• Graphic designer / graphic artist

• Creative director

• Branding / packaging designer

• Publication designer

• Animator

• Digital Illustrator

• Web designer

• Multimedia designer

• UI designer

• UX designer

• Advertising designer

• Photo editor

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The first step in any graphic design project is using the humble pen and paper.  To organically draw the design concepts in your mind and quickly discover problems and solutions as the sketches emerge.  Research has shown that taking notes, sketching, and writing by hand enhances focus, creativity and openness to learning.

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Personally, I’m passionate about this method of creating and I hope that throughout my design career that this continues to be a fundamental part of the design process between me and my clients.

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“Making stuff is the heart of everything.”

Paula Scher, Abstract, Netflix.

 

The ultimate tool for graphic designers is the computer.  This is what performs the heavy duty work in the profession and is the ultimate tool of communication between you and clients.  To invest in a good computer that you can trust to deal with graphics software such as Adobe Suite, and sustain your working life as a modern-day graphic designer.

Given that the Adobe Creative Cloud sets the standard for creating, editing and storing projects, I have a subscription for Adobe creative suite and can avail of graphics software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and so on.

One creative area I’m interested in is photo editing. I may need to consider purchasing a good camera going forward, but for now, I am happy to use my iPhone camera to capture any observations I make on a day-to-day basis.  It’s quick and easy to use especially when it comes to connecting to the web/social media etc.

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When working in the industry, file management is of utmost importance.  You have the hard drive and portable/external storage, which is well and good, but you will also need space in the cloud to store, synchronize and manage your design assets, projects and output. Among other things, cloud storage makes it easier to share and make changes on the go! 

Cloud storage providers include Adobe (Document Cloud), Dropbox, Microsoft (OneDrive) and Google (GoogleDrive)

It’s good design practise to start an efficient filing system from the start to make it easier to share and collaborate on design documents.

Part of the requirements of a graphic designer is to provide images for specific projects.  Very often, you will need to source a stock image.  It’s good to have a list of online libraries on hand, such as Behance, Pixabay and Shutterstock.

 

Graphic design is a competitive and challenging industry.  Practitioners looking to future proof their careers need to keep their design skills sharp, and their knowledge of trade tools always updated.  I will endeavour to keep on top of design trends regularly and upskill when necessary.

 

A designer I admire is Paula Scher.  She was ahead of her time and, like me, is a lover of the ‘non-screen’ side of graphic design.

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“Design exists beyond screens.”

Paula Scher, Abstract, Netflix.

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Scher’s portfolio of work is made up of identity and branding designs, promotional projects, environmental graphics, packaging and publications for a diverse range of clients such as the New York Times, Tiffany & Co., and Citibank. In 2000, she won the prestigious Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design.

In the 1990s, Paula Scher began painting colourful typographic maps of the world, its continents, countries, islands, oceans, cities, streets and neighbourhoods. These painstakingly detailed pieces of art prove that computers can never take over from the beauty of handmade creations.

 

In the Netflix documentary, Abstract she touches on ageism in the industry.  To hear her about the subject is interesting to me.  It demonstrates, that designers of a certain age group, no matter how celebrated or famous, will face this issue.

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