Sunday, February 2, 2014

Types of Graphic Designers

Being a graphic designer means knowing how to make the right kind of images for a particular project. Sometimes, these images are as large as tarpaulin advertisements on freeways and sometimes, they are as small as mobile ads on your iPhone 5.

Are you thinking of becoming a graphic designer? What sort of jobs are out there for you? We have compiled what we believe are the 4 most interesting job types for artists or graphic designers.
 
 

Job #1: UX designer

A designer focusing on how a user interacts with a website or application – from discovery to registration, logging in, playing or viewing pages to exiting the site, is called a UX or User Experience designer. Apart from creating attractive elements like buttons and images, it is also your job to:

•    Make sure elements are viewable from all platforms (mobile, tablet, desktop etc.)
•    Create an easy experience for buying or viewing the site (whichever are the goals of the site)
•    Design a smooth flow from one page to the next
•    Make sure there are no dead ends or errors in terms of page flow

Job #2: Entry-level graphics

Entry-level graphics are popular these days since they are affordable and can be tasked to do simple and yet important things like creating icons, cleaning up photographs, laying out images for publishing etc.

These types of graphics work can apply to the following industries:

•    Print and traditional media
•    Digital ads
•    Web design and development
•    Illustration houses
•    Schools and universities
•    Consumer goods and marketing teams


Job #3: Art or Creative director

For those wanting leadership apart from doing creative work, you can try being an art director or a creative director. What is the difference between the two?

•    Art director – focuses on graphical elements like fonts, overall layout, design flow and branding
•    Creative director – covers even the copy content (text), musical scoring and video production

So this means you are not just working on your own work now, you are responsible for a cohesive and compelling campaign for a product or brand.

Job #4: Digital advertising artist

A digital artist specializes on creating mobile and web images – making sure they are optimized for quick loading, follows web standards and are easily used by the web development team. This involves the following skills:

•    Optimizing file sizes without compromising on image quality
•    Using sprites to minimize repetitive files for a site
•    Using web fonts for maximum browser compatibility
•    Understanding mobile display requirements and standards

There are many options for a career in graphic design and there is no better time to start learning than today.