From the big banners and posters, you see on the road to small postcards, flyers, product labels, graphics are anywhere and everywhere. You often see the logos of big brands on their products, and wonder who crafts these eye-catching logos. The answer is a graphic designer. No matter what a company sells, behind every advertising campaign, be it printed or digital there is a graphic designer.
Now you might be wondering, what is a graphic design, what do these graphic designers exactly do? Etc. So in this article, I will cover all the basics.
So, what is graphic design?
It is the art and practice of projecting ideas visually and textually. In short, the graphic design visually communicates certain ideas or messages to you. For example, a business logo or a page layout on a website.
What exactly does a graphic designer do?
Graphic designers are also called graphic artists or communication designers. The basic job of a graphic designer is to create visual concepts, using technology or by hand. All this communicates, inspires, captivates the consumers. They generally develop the overall layout and production design for applications. These include advertisements, brochures, catalogs, etc.
Key skills for graphic designers
Graphic designing is a field in which your skills and creativity will pick up the check. Of course, like any other job, you’ll require some essential skills to get hired. And, they include both, technical and non-technical.
Technical Skills: –
- Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
- Digital (UI, UX, Sketch)
- Typography (Typesetting etc.)
- AI/AR/VR
- Branding
- Print Design, Web Design
- HTML
- CSS
How to get your foot in the door?
Firstly, you’ll have to pursue a formal education in this field i.e., a bachelor’s degree in graphic designing or a related field. However, if you’re from a different field, you’ll need to complete some technical training in graphic designing to meet most of the qualifications.
After that, you can take an internship at an organization to brush up on your skills. This will also help you to understand the work culture of this field. It will also allow you to work with designers and to experience the design process from concept to completion. And mainly, it will help you to build a portfolio. Your portfolio plays a very important role as it will contain all your previous work samples. Something that will help you to get hired.
Only after you have the relevant working experience you can apply for a full-time or part-time job in this field.