You have decided to get a job in graphic design without quitting your job. There are different graphic design jobs and opportunities in one of those jobs without having to take time off from your current job.
This article will help guide you through some of the ways to land a graphic design job. There are different paths and steps to making this happen.
One of the first steps is to narrow down the type of graphic designer job that you want to pursue because they all require similar skill sets and personality traits, but each there are differences in both of the skill sets and personality traits that are required.
What Different Types of Graphic Design Jobs Are There?
There are different types of graphic design jobs. We are going to quickly go over what those jobs are and the skill sets that each one requires. As with a lot of jobs, the roles will be different depending on where you work.
Logo Designers
A logo designer creates logos that will represent a company or a brand. When you see some logos, you instantly think of the company that that logo represents. Some of these examples might be the Apple logo, the Nike logo, the Coke logo, and the Toyota logo.
Logos for smaller companies might give an idea of what the company does. For example, a house painting company might want a paint brush to be part of their logo or a house construction company might want a house to be part of their logo.
Logo designers will need to be proficient in software such as Photoshop, and Illustrator and have creative skills such as typography and color combinations.
Website Designers
A website designer creates and designs websites. That seems pretty simple and straightforward, but there are all kinds of websites and different ways to create and design websites.
A website can be as simple as a brochure type of website and as complex and big as Amazon or Google. With that being said, there are two ways to create websites, by hand coding a website using HTML, CSS, Javascript, and maybe a backend programming language like PHP or by using website building software such as WordPress.
Big brands and websites such as The White House, Best Buy Mobile, jQuery, cPanel’s blog, Etsy, and many more use WordPress to create, design and manage their websites. WordPress is used to create and design more than 30% of the websites on the internet, and that number is growing.
There are other website builders, but WordPress is usually recognize as the best one and is the more established one. Besides using website builders, you can also use HTML, CSS, Javascript, and a backend programming language like PHP to create and design websites.
Most website designers use WordPress to save themselves time and stress when it comes to building most websites.
UX Designers
UX designers are also call user experience designers. A UX designers focus on a product’s design, usability, and function and the end user’s interaction with these aspects of the product so that the user can have a positive user experience. The product can be something like a website or an app.
This is a wide scope and the work depends on each project because they can all be different. As a UX designer, the work that you do can range from making sure that a user’s purchasing experience is smooth and as simple as possible to making a form submission process smooth and simple as well.
UX designers have to coordinate with designers and developers many times to get their job done. UX designers also incorporate psychology, statistics, and iteration, and analysis to make the user experience better. Many times this includes prototyping and wireframing as part of their work.
A good user can result in higher sales, higher conversion rates, and users returning to use the product and negative user experiences can result in just the opposite.
UI Designers
User interface designers are called UI designers. UI designers focus on how a product looks, feels, and flows.
One of the jobs of UI designers is to make products such as websites or apps have the same look and feel throughout the whole product. This will include page layouts and color schemes, typography, buttons, text fields, drop-down lists, date fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, search fields, icons, tool tips, and more.
UI designers will need to know Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, Fireworks, prototyping, wireframing, and more.
Graphic Illustrator
Graphic illustrators create artwork for everything from billboards, company signs, product packaging, logos, infographics, books, magazines, websites, apps, newspapers, and the list is basically endless. This artwork can be physical or digital.
Graphic illustrator jobs have some common skill requirements, but graphic illustrator jobs can vary a lot which means that the skills required for each job can be completely different.
Like other graphic design jobs, being a graphic illustrator can also mean meeting with clients and also other people within the company such as other designers.
Some of the skills that graphic illustrators need are typography, color combinations, Photoshop, Illustrator, Fresco, Inspire Pro, Assembly, and more.
Graphic Designer Salaries
Graphic designer salaries can range a lot. Part of this reason is that the term graphic designer is a very general job title that has many specific jobs and roles. Where someone works at also plays a large part in determining how much someone makes and can potentially make.
Typically though, graphic designers make between $45,000 and $50,000 per year, with the low end starting at around $26,000 and the high end being at around $100,000. Luckily graphic design is one of those fields where you can gain skills and experience and “move up”.
Where Can I Learn Graphic Design?
Luckily, all that you need today to learn graphic design is access to the internet and a computer. This means that you do not have to go to a formal school to learn the skills necessary to be a graphic designer. You can continue to work and learn the skills when you are not working.
Some of the resources that you have available on the internet are YouTube and Udemy. You can find free video tutorials on YouTube with the quality ranging from ok to great. Udemy offers a few free video tutorials, but most are paid and the quality is usually very good to a professional level of teaching.
You can also go online and find other great resources for learning all aspects of graphic design.
Applying For Graphic Design Jobs
There is an old saying when you are first applying for jobs in a new field that goes like this.
“You can’t get a job without experience. You can’t get experience without a job.”
This is kind of true, but life is about solving real-life problems.
Once you have the skills necessary to be a graphic designer, it’s a good idea to gain experience by working on real-world graphic design projects. You don’t have to have a graphic design job to do graphic design work.
For example, if you want to be a website designer, you can gain experience and show that you’ve gained experience by making websites for people for free or at a very low cost, or you can post video tutorials on YouTube of yourself making websites. There are many ways to gain experience and to be able to showcase that without having a job at the moment.
You can also go on job boards like UpWork .com and Freelancer .com and take on freelance work to gain some experience.
Your priority should be to gain experience when you are first starting out. You can concern yourself more with how much you are paid once you have more experience and confidence in yourself and improve your skills.
Then make a resume and start applying for jobs on online job boards like Indeed .com, ZipRecruiter .com, GlassDoor .com and Monster .com.
You can also join graphic design groups on social networks like FaceBook .com and Gab .com and network there.
You will want a portfolio website to showcase your skills and experience. GoDaddy .com is a good place to get a domain name and a good place to get low cost web hosting.
Conclusion
Once you have decided what type of graphic designer job that you want, you can start gaining the skills and experience you can start by working on small projects for people in your area or network, by going on freelance job boards and by making tutorial videos and posting them on YouTube. This guide will help you get a job as a graphic designer as long as you put in the work. Good luck!
