Graphic Designer: Job Profile and Role

You are a creative person and would love to work in a job where your creativity is one of the main essentials? You may want to think about becoming a graphic designer. The job title itself already tells you a lot about the things you may be doing in your career as a graphic designer. But what do you have to do to become a graphic designer? And how much will you eventually be paid? The following blog will answer these two questions. It will also tell you which responsibilities you will have, what an average working day looks like and how you can thrive as a graphic designer.

Short Summary

• As a graphic designer, you are in charge of developing visual concepts for your company.
• As a graphic designer, you have to have a very creative mind that goes hand in hand with excellent communication skills.
• As a graphic designer, you have to have vision as well as the adaptability to recognize and implement new trends.

Job description

As a graphic designer, you are responsible for everything to do with visuals and graphics. You are in charge of creating effective designs for pretty much every possible medium. This may include a company logo, the layout of a website or a social media account as well as various print mediums. By doing this, you are responsible for creating and maintaining a brand identity. As a graphic designer, you do not only need strong creative skills and a creative mind. You also need to have strong communication and people skills. These you not only use for talking to clients and colleagues. Your communication also takes part in the graphic designs you create. Being a graphic designer does not exclusively tie you to creating analogue and virtual images. This depends on which kind of graphic designer you decide to be.

Responsibilities

• User Experience Design
• Visual Identity/Branding
• Client Communication
• Presentation Design
• Presentation Design
• Conceptualization
• Layout Design
• Image Editing
• Print Design
• Web Design

Different types of Graphic Designers

• Web Designer
• Print Designer
• Branding Designer
• User Experience Researcher
• Social Media Graphic Designer

Salary

A graphic designer’s annual salary can range from about £24,500 to £31,700. One of the deciding factors is the location. Generally, you can expect higher wages in metropolitan areas. Your salary as a graphic designer will also be influenced by your work experience, the size of the employing company and your position within that company.

Working hours

As a graphic designer, you usually work between 35 to 40 hours a week. In general, your working hours are more or less fixed and can mean a 9 to 5 job. However, these times may vary, especially when a deadline has to be met or a new project is to be launched. Your working hours also depend on whether you are working full-time, part-time or as a freelancer. Usually, the latter two tend to work less hours in a week.

Further influencing factors can be remote work and overtime. Both variables can decide on your weekly working load and working hours.

Employers

Typical employers of graphic designers are advertising agencies. Design studios also tend to look for talented graphic designers. These are two specific employer examples. But if we are being honest, most companies need a graphic designer – especially, when they have an in-house marketing department. Besides, you can start looking for your first graphic design job among virtual design companies, in the film industry or at publishing houses.

If you do not “feel” being employed on a permanent full-time or part-time basis, you can always be brave and start your own graphic design company. This way, you would be your own boss.

Qualifications

In order to become a graphic designer, you have different options to acquire the necessary qualifications. You can either choose an academic degree, classically a Bachelor’s degree, followed by a Master’s, in either graphic design, illustrations or visual communications.

Alternatively, you can acquire the relevant qualifications by doing a college course or an apprenticeship in illustration or arts or a relevant fields. Note that you will have to have at least five GSCEs with at least 4/C grades, including English and Maths.

Your academic background, however, is only one part of the necessary qualifications. You should also know your way around the most common graphic design and photo softwares as well as having an in-depth knowledge of web design. It can also make sense to get some legal training. The most important legal aspects you should be familiar with are copyright and intellectual property.

Graphic Design and Fonts are Connected

The term graphic design was coined by desiger, illustrator, and calligrapher William Addison Dwiggins in 1922. Ever since then, graphic design has been used to describe any kind of graphic work. It was also Dwiggins who invented the fonts Caledonia, Metrolite, and Electra.

Skills

Your academic degree and your non-academic qualifications are your hard skills needed for the job of a graphic designer. These are accompanied by your soft skills, which are also mandatory for being a fantastic graphic designer. Creativity aside, you need to have outstanding people and communication skills. You also have to be proficient in deadline and time management.

Let’s take a closer look at the soft skills needed in order to excel as a graphic designer.

Communication

Communication is key. Having excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills is vital to deal with both clients and colleagues. These skills should be accompanied by a healthy dose of self-confidence and charisma as well as the ability to listen.

Creativity

Having a creative mind is just as important for a graphic designer. Your creativity goes hand in hand with your visions and ideas. It also applies to the latest trends and ad campaigns. Being a creative mind, you will be able to give those trends your personal spin and touch.

Sensitivity

By sensitivity, we specifically mean cultural sensitivity. Imagine you are working for an international company or a company with international clients. They can have different cultural backgrounds and ethics. Understanding the differences that can occur is vital for a successful graphic designer.

Career Path

To begin with, you will likely start with a junior or assistant position. This way, you gain valuable insights and work experience as a graphic designer. Being good at your job will likely lead to one or more promotions. This could well mean you being in charge of a graphic design department, for example an in-house design department in your company. It is equally possible to start your own agency and build up your own graphic design team from scratch.

Educational Background

A Bachelor’s degree is one entry ticket to becoming a graphic designer. After that, you have the option for further academic qualifications, including a Master’s degree. In some cases, it can be possible to do your Master’ while already working as a graphic designer. You should check with your employers whether this might be a possibility.

You can also become a graphic designer by doing an appropriate apprenticeship, for example, in illustration or in art. You can also get these qualifications by doing college courses. Note that you will need at least five GSCEs with top grades, including in Maths and English.

Gaining experience

Your academic degree is just the starting point as a graphic designer. Maybe you have already managed to gain some work experience by doing a traineeship or an internship? This gives you a valuable advantage when applying for your first job as a graphic designer. Gaining experience is an important factor in your career path – no matter, when you have gained your first valuable insights. The more experience you can gain, the better your prospects for future promotions as a graphic designer.

Continuous Learning

Your learning curve does not stop after you have finished your academic education. On the contrary – your studies have only started what will be an essential part of your working life. Continuous learning is essential in order to stay on top of things and to thrive as a graphic designer. It will enable you to spot the latest trends as well as innovative designs and branding ideas. Continuous learning is also vital when it comes to all things digital, like imaging softwares and web design.

A Day in the Life of a Graphic Designer

You now know everything there is to know on how to become a graphic designer. But what does a typical day in the life of a graphic designer look like? It is sort of self-explanatory that one of the daily things includes checking your emails. That is part of the graphic design parcel. But there are a few more specific things that shape your working day. Let’s take a closer look.

Project Planning

Before you get to work, you need to plan your projects for the upcoming days and weeks. Project planning also involves setting the day’s priorities. Unless you work as a self-employed solo graphic designer, this includes your team. Together, you set deadlines, timetables and goals you want to achieve in the upcoming days and weeks.

Quality Control

Before a project is being presented to a client, you need to make sure that it meets all the requirements. Does your design comply with the mandatory guidelines? Have you included all the client’s wishes and visions? If you can tick those and a few other questions, your quality control is done for the day.

Client Communication

Speaking of clients: client communication is another vital part of a graphic designer’s day. It may not happen every day and only at the beginning and the finish of a project. Nevertheless, it is an important part of your graphic design job. The communication does not stop with the clients. You also need to communicate with your superiors as well as with your team and other relevant departments.

Tips for Thriving as a Graphic Designer

As you now know, continuous learning is a vital jigsaw piece in your graphic design career. It is also a way to thrive as a graphic designer. Learning aside, we will now take a closer look at further tips for thriving as a graphic designer.

• Define your own brand
• Financial management
• Copyright awareness

Define your own brand

Even when you work for a company, you should know who “you” as a graphic designer are. You need to define your personal style and your personal approach to corporate and branding designs. If you know who your graphic design persona is, you have mastered the first step that will help you thrive in this business.

Financial management

Knowing about how to price your graphic design services and products is essential for thriving in this job. This is especially true for self-employed or freelance graphic designers. Defining your pricing is only one part of your financial management. You also need to stay on top of your expenses, your income and your taxes. Financial management is just as important when working for a company. It helps you to establish a project budget and to stay within this budget.

Copyright awareness

Copyright awareness does not only apply to copyrights. It means that you have to have legal awareness. This also includes familiarizing yourself with intellectual property laws. Knowing the legal background and framework will ensure that all your design inspirations comply with any legal standards.

Frequently Asked Questions