A graphic design job can take you to diverse sectors such as manufacturing, production, multimedia, publishing, video gaming, filmmaking, and many more. Almost every industry uses some form of design. And with increasing competition and the need to stand out, brands constantly look for graphic designers. These professionals can be UI/UX designers, product designers, video game designers, and so on. Based on the industry, brands hire designers to produce unique, high-quality designs that can beat the competition while presenting their products and services precisely as they have imagined. So, if you love designing and are thinking of pursuing a career in it, we have listed different graphic design jobs for you. But first, let’s understand a bit about his field.
What is Graphic Designing?
Graphic designing is a field that involves creating graphics, visuals, designs, layouts, and elements for different products and services across various industries, from publication and marketing to manufacturing and e-commerce stores. The professionals who create those designs are graphic designers. They create designs for consumer and industrial goods and digital products like websites, ebooks, user manuals, logos, video games, animations, and many more. Graphic designers possess strong knowledge and skills in various artistic principles such as image construction, color theory, shapes, effects, layouts. In addition, they have highly analytical, imaginative, and creative minds to bring complex designs to reality. Furthermore, graphic designers leverage different types of tools to create designs or sketches on paper or computer. With the growth of technology, using software tools empower them to experiment with their designs and scale them based on design requirements. They use CAD software such as AutoCAD or other tools like PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator, Corel Graphics Suite, etc. Therefore, a strong knowledge of working with these tools is a requirement for modern graphic designers.
Why should you choose Graphic Design? 👇
Being a graphic designer comes with a lot of advantages for your career and on an individual basis. Here are some reasons why choosing a graphic design can be a great career option.
Get paid for what you love doing: Creativity cannot be forced. So, if you truly love designing and want to work as a graphic designer, you will actually be paid for what you love doing. It won’t appear to you as a burden that you do to make a living. Instead, you will enjoy it constantly. Growing demand: Graphic designers are in high demand across the globe. According to IBISWorld, the market size for graphic designers is $45.8 billion globally. Make a difference: With your unique design ideas and implementation, you can make a difference in the world. You can associate in designing environment-friendly products, participate in campaigns to preserve the environment, encourage people to get vaccinated for a disease through powerful illustrations and whatnot. Get a chance to work from anywhere: For graphic designing, you need a laptop to work. You don’t necessarily need physical mediums. For discussions, you can meet online and take feedback to improve your designs. Be your own boss: If you don’t want to do a full-time job, you can work as a freelance graphic designer to be your own boss. You can have flexible working hours and nobody else to boss you around. Also, you can work with multiple brands across the globe with no geographical limitations.
So, if you seek a career in this field, here are multiple graphic design jobs that you can explore and choose the one that fits you the most based on your interest and skills.
User Experience (UX) Designer
One of the highest-paying graphic design jobs is UX designing. It is perfect for you if you are into graphic designing and have some technical skills in web and mobile development. As a UX designer, you will work on a project to design a website, application, or service, ensuring users can easily open and work with the digital product.
Responsibilities: A UX designer aims to offer an excellent user experience (UX) when a user opens a website, application, or web service. They must find it effortless to use and navigate through the product. In addition, you need to take care of its looks to make it aesthetically pleasing. You’ll get to work on projects to enhance user experience utilizing your design skills. In addition, UX designers ensure the product’s logic flow is solid, and they also test it under different conditions to check its behavior and make modifications. Qualification: UX designing may require a degree in graphic design, UX design, or programming. Also, other employers may look for a bachelor’s degree. And this area requires strong technical skills and an understanding of customer psychology to provide excellent user-friendliness. Salary: The average salary of UX designers is $90,634 per year in the US.
User Interface (UI) Designer
User Interface (UI) designers are professionals who create user interface designs for applications and websites. They sometimes go hand in hand with user experience (UX) design, and hence, UX knowledge is an added advantage. So, if you have some coding knowledge and designing skills, go for UI designing.
Responsibilities: A user interface designer ensures that web pages are user-friendly both in design and functionality. UI designers are responsible for designing advertisements, web pages, and other web services that are easy to interact with end-users. Although they don’t do direct coding, they develop user interface designs by working closely with software programmers. Qualification: many employers require a degree in graphic design, UI design, or coding for UI designers or a bachelor’s degree. As a UI designer, you need to have strong coding skills, strong designing skills, and create functional interfaces for web products. Salary: UI designers can make an average salary of around $78,080 annually.
Logo Designer
Do marketing and branding interest you besides designing? Logo Designer can be a lucrative career option for you. As logos are a vital aspect of a brand’s identity, meaningful designs help differentiate companies. Logo designers can also work as brand identity designers to create logos, and play with colors and fonts, shapes, and elements, to create beautiful designs. Apart from logos, they can also create designs for business cards, ads, etc.
Responsibilities: Logo designers create symbols or graphics representing a brand, service, or product. They also play around with shapes and colors to complement the brand identity. For this, they thoroughly research the brand or product, their target audience, where they serve, and other critical information that helps them create a visually competing design. In addition, they also remain updated about current design standards and other designs trending in the market. However, they must also produce fresh and unique designs, not copied from anywhere. Qualification: Typically, a logo designer must have a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, but it may vary from company to company. Most importantly, knowledge of advertising and illustration abilities are looked for in candidates. You can choose to work a full-time job in an advertising company or a big brand looking for in-house designers. Or, you can become a freelance logo designer and work with multiple brands. Salary: The average salary of a logo designer is $50,430 per year.
Fashion Designer
If you are passionate about fashion and art, you can try your luck in Fashion Designing. Fashion designers assist and design clothing ranges, accessories, and shoes. They have a keen eye for detail and colors and a stronger sense of proportion, balance, and aesthetics. You may choose to work as a specialist in a specific area such as shoes, women’s apparel, etc., or work as a generalist.
Responsibilities: The responsibilities of a Fashion designer include creating designs based on the audience. They usually leverage Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software to develop designs and scale them to fit clothing sizes. For this, they understand a brand’s customer base and their demands to create designs that appeal to their customers. In addition, they also plan and formulate product ranges, coordinate with other team members, present storyboards to clients, and review products. They also track the latest fashion trends to fulfill changing fashion demands. Qualification: It usually requires a Bachelor’s degree in fashion designing or graphic design with prior experience. These graphic design jobs are offered by apparel or accessory brands or a 3rd-party agency working for various brands. Salary: Fashion designers’ salaries can range from $48,998 to $73,643 per year.
Photo Editor
Photo editing is a demanding skill these days. They are required in companies selling wide-ranging products like e-commerce stores, social media, clothing brands, and others. A photo editor must have a good sense of aesthetics, colors, lighting, and effects. So, if you love photography, you can consider this career option.
Responsibilities: Photo Editors edit real-life pictures to adjust them, balance colors and lighting, combine multiple images, etc., to produce the desired picture. Sometimes they even change the colors of garments, jewelry, etc., and make them presentable before the audience. In addition, they may add the company banner or logo in a picture to highlight the brand. Qualification: If you want to become a photo editor, you need strong Photoshop skills or knowledge of other photo-editing tools. You can learn it inside a graphic design course. Some brands also require a bachelor’s degree in product design, graphic design, or photography. Companies manufacturing products can employ photo editors to work on images if it does not represent the actual products. They also make the pictures representable so the customers can better understand the product. Salary: Photo editors’ average salary in the US is $39,029 per year.
Packaging Designer
Have you ever wondered how beautiful some brands’ packaging looks? For example, Apple’s packaging is elegant and follows minimalism. For this, Package designers are the ones you should thank! Package designing is diverse and comes in all sorts of sizes and shapes. You have boxes, bottles, bags, jars, cans, wrappers, and whatnot. Package designers are the ones producing designs for packaging products and wrapping them. It’s a highly creative branch and demands a significant level of imagination with the correct blend of design feasibility. It must offer convenience to customers for opening the package and using the product.
Responsibilities: Package designers utilize CAD software to design packages, include product details with readable fonts, and add other information to help consumers use the product. They must also make the design scalable so the same package design can be used for different sizes, for example, a shampoo bottle. In addition, they must have knowledge of packaging materials, their impact on the environment, and other aspects. Qualification: Most companies require a bachelor’s degree in product design or graphic design with prior experience. Salary: A package designer can make $33,167 per year on average.
Art Director
Art directors are high-level professionals managing a team of many designers that work on creative projects for designs and visuals included in web design, television, film, television, marketing, publishing, etc. They oversee design work and know different art forms, film making, fashion, and other art-related industries.
Responsibilities: Art directors are responsible for understanding brand targets and objectives and directing their team to create excellent designs tailored for a specific project. They train designers, hire new ones, and collaborate with others involved in the department to create visual elements. In addition, they also set timelines and budgets for projects, track project performance, and study consumer demands and market trends. Qualification: Employers may look for a bachelor’s or master’s degree in design or art with proven experience. Art directors must have excellent social and leadership skills since they constantly engage with internal staff and clients. Salary: The art director’s salary could be $72,297 on average per year.
Product Designer
Product designers are associated with designing products used in daily lives. These products can be consumer or industrial goods. Apart from designing new products, they also enhance the designs for existing products. They collaborate with manufacturing, marketing, and engineering teams to produce the designs that can be the most feasible and valuable for consumers and businesses.
Responsibilities: Product designers analyze the product development process and create detailed documentation and design, and present them to other teams via sketches, blueprints, and storyboards. They may also design prototypes for testing the product functionality and collecting client feedback and insider teams. Qualification: Product designers must have a bachelor’s degree in product design or equivalent degree with some experience. They may work in manufacturing companies, workshops, or design studios. Salary: Product designers can make an average salary of $62,400 per annum.
Video Game Designer
If you love video games, you have the option to make a career in it by becoming a video game designer. They are creative thinkers with high imagination and excellent designing skills with a pinch of adventure, sports, or other related video gaming fields.
Responsibilities: Video game designers create interactive effects and visuals for video games. It may include designing characters, environments, animating backgrounds, landscapes, wildlife, weapons, and much more. You can design adventurous games, racing games, and various others to showcase your designing skills. In addition to designing these, you can work with the writing department to develop storylines using different features and present characters and elements based on the story. Qualification: Employers might look for a bachelor’s degree in graphic design or an equivalent degree. For this position, you need to have strong visualization and designing skills in addition to working with elements complementing storylines. You can choose to work as a freelancer or join full-time. Salary: As a video game designer, you can make an average annual salary of around $57,355.
Multimedia Designer
Multimedia designers can work as animators or artists who leverage multiple technologies to create animation, 3D elements, special effects, and other visuals. They can work for different types of media like television, video games, movies, etc.
Responsibilities: Multimedia designers work with 2D and 3D models and develop complex animation and graphics using illustration and computer programs like CAD software such as AutoCAD. They play with colors, lights, motion, texture, shadow, and other aspects of objects to make a character look lively. They collaborate with the art departments to align with the storyline, create storyboards, and research about latest design trends and projects. In addition, they constantly work with writers, actors, directors, and clients to produce meaningful designs while adhering to deadlines. Qualification: A degree in animation or graphic design can be the qualifying criteria for this job. However, it would help if you had a strong sense of characters, emotions, motions, designing, and other aspects of multimedia designs, and experience is always an added advantage. Salary: Multimedia designers can make $56,351 per year on average.
Advertising Designer
If you are into marketing and love designing, advertising designers can be a good career option. You can combine your marketing knowledge and techniques with designing skills to produce excellent visuals that can help promote a brand’s products and services uniquely and differentiate it from the competition.
Responsibilities: Advertising designers are responsible for sketching and designing visually appealing marketing materials such as banners, leaflets, menus, ebooks, brochures, etc., for a brand. They may also leverage their photography to add more flavors to their designs. In addition, they also design billboards, website ads, magazine ads, and other materials targeted for promotion. Advertising designers utilize design tools such as Adobe, PhotoShop, and some high-end software tools to create designs that best convey the brand message. Using tools, they also scale the designs or make changes quickly based on feedback by other team members or higher executives to produce the enhanced version. Qualification: Employers may look for a bachelor’s degree in graphic design for these jobs. And, if you have undergone a certified course on marketing, business, or advertising, it’s a big bonus for you to get selected. Salary: The average salary for an advertising designer is $62,930 per annum.
Publication Designer
If you have a high degree of creativity with some knowledge of print media, you can try building a career as a publication designer. These professionals have a natural skill to translate written information into designs that people find easy to understand.
Responsibilities: Publication designers are responsible for creating the designs, graphics, visual appearance, and layouts for different printed publications. It may include adding graphics to books, user manuals, reports, whitepapers, research papers, catalogs, etc., for a brand to market its products and services. As a publication designer, your focus must be to produce a design that can help describe a concept well, such as how to use a product in multiple steps. Your designs will be added alongside the explainer texts, but they should stand out and be easily understandable. Qualification: For this job, employers can look for a degree in print design, graphic design, user experience, or an equivalent degree. Companies that look for publication designs are publication agencies, news agencies, etc. Salary: Publication designers can make an average of $72,184 per annum.
Production Artist
Production artists are the people who evaluate the final design of a product. They have strong design skills and a keen eye to assess whether or not the design should be approved or not. It requires both designing and analytical skills to work as a production artist.
Responsibilities: Production artists finalize a design. They collect, upload, and process files containing designs in digital format and then review their final copies. In addition, they always keep track of client requirements and whether the final design meets those demands or not. If yes, they approve the design and send it for further production stage; otherwise, work on optimizing the design. Production designers work with fonts, colors, and elements and ensure that the design meets the production quality. Production artists also perform finishing touches, eliminate redundancy, and set the layout. In addition, they must look for typos and errors in the final design and get rid of them while following deadlines. Qualification: A degree in graphic design can give you a good start. In addition, you must have design and analytical skills. Salary: Production artists can expect an average salary of $56,259 in the US.
Conclusion 👨‍🏫
A career in graphic design can be rewarding if you have a passion for designing and the skills to bring your designs to life. Thus, explore the above-mentioned graphic design jobs and pursue the one you think will be the best based on your interests and skills. Interested in UX Design instead? 12 UX Design Courses for Developers and Designers. Want to learn Photoshop? Here are 6 online tutorials. Going freelance? Here are some platforms to start your freelance graphic design career.
