What trends in design exist and how to find your own? What do you need to know to build a successful career? In this article, we are going to investigate the activity of graphic designers from various facets and provide novice designers with tips in graphic design internships.
What is the responsibility of a graphic designer?
A graphic designer is a fairly broad concept that can include many different responsibilities. This is the creation of identity for brands, product design, the layout of books, and layouts for printing, packaging design, and more. Specialists of this profession use graphic editors: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Figma.
Projects and tasks are always different and depend on the client’s request. Thus, designers have to process an array of new information every time, delve into the market and the customer’s product to find the best design solution.
Which designers are companies looking for?
In addition to the traditional skills of working in graphic editors, a designer must have many other skills:
● Composition. A designer (anyone – graphic, web, subject, interior, techno, etc.) must be able to think how to systematize the chaos, and when there is a solution – his outlook, taste, and humor come to the rescue.
● Branding, emotional design. Each of these elements is a unique opportunity to visually acquaint the audience with the company (recognizability effect).
● Understanding typography. If the design text is unreadable, it means that the designer did a bad job. It is very important to learn to work with typography and make good font pairs.
● Creating an intuitive design. The designer should analyze what people expect to see when they look at the design of a particular product.
● Ability to look for new ideas. Each trend has an expiration date. An element of surprise is needed to evoke delight. In order to constantly astonish, you have to redesign them again and again.
● Marketing. One of the most important truths for a designer – in addition to becoming a designer, you need to learn to “sell” your design.
● Understanding the psychological aspects of the audience. Things that fascinate one person can frighten another. Delight is a subjective thing. Therefore, design tact is very important.
How to become a good graphic designer?
Most newbies are “merged” by the fact that they do not have a quality portfolio and work experience. What to do in this case?
Don’t be afraid. It is recommended to start learning immediately about real tasks. There are freelance exchanges for beginners. When you take your first orders and fulfill them, you will have self-confidence and experience.
Invite your friends, acquaintances, or “first to meet” to develop a design in exchange for feedback.
Put your social networks in order. On the other side of the computer, nothing is known about you, so it is very important to have a “live” page on a social network.
Finally, start working at one of the freelance professional exchanges. Pay close attention to your profile.