Graphic Design Career - What It All About?

Ladies and gentlemen, this week we're going to have a little discussion about a not-so-well-known profession which millions of people around the world make a living from and which deserves our attention when approaching a debate about career choice.

I'm going to discuss a few points in this article:

1. What does this profession consist of?
2. What are the advantages of this profession?
3. What are the disadvantages of this profession?
4. Who should consider this as a career?


 What does this profession consist of:

Graphic design is  actually the visual expression of ideas and values i.e. putting what a  company, an organization or an individual  wish to express into a visible implementation.  The graphical design field consists of 2 main sub-fields:

1. Imprint design - this is the graphics put on a paper:  logos, advertisments, symbols, banners, or  page layouts.  This refers to how should these objectives look in order to promote the idea they stand for.  Who would buy a car of a brand that its advertisments look ugly or obsolete?

2. Online design - this is the graphics put on Internet pages, where the appeal to the eye  is crucial to the very survival of a site due to the sharp competition between websites and the fact that a website must make its visitors come back again and again.


What are the advantages of this profession?


As it sounds, this career may offer a few advantages for people who are suitable for using them wisely:

1. Independence oriented - working as a graphic designer is perfectly suitable working as a freelancer or other form of self employment, as  it technically based on your wits and a laptop.  You don't have to rent a workshop or an office as you can perfectly work  from your room at home.  Even if you work for a company on a regular basis, it seems plausible for you to do most of the work from home.

2. Age bias proof - working as a graphic designer doesn't seem to be much influenced by the "40 years old crisis", as professions based on the esthetics world tend to be exempt from an age bias due to the fact that the requirements for these professions develop slowly along the years so 50 years old designer are commonly better than 35 years old ones.

3. Creativity - yes, this job is not as ordinary and routine as working as a bookkeeper or a post office clerk. Here you need to come up now and then with new ideas of how o present things to your customers.  You can't do the same every week and every month.  The ability to come up with new ideas on a regular basis is creativity.

4. Possible short training time - alongside 4 year academic tracks, a designer may get the basic training needed for the job market by attending a short term course of a couple of month.  It's true that such short training courses wouldn't make the next Picasso, but still it might train a person well enough in order to start working at the field.


 What are the disadvantages of this profession?


Ironically, the advantages of this career yield its disadvantages:

1. Most work is as self employed 1 person team.  For some it's a great advantage but for most it's a disaster.  Wake up when you want?  Come up with new ideas?  Working alone?  dealing with customers?   I bet at least 80% of people  would freak out in such an environment.

2. Short training time also means: almost everyone can enter this field as its entrance barriers are quite low.  This means that never can occur a state of manpower shortage in this field, which mean that you'll never find employment easily and your life  will probably not be a garden of  roses.

3. Income - this career isn't basically for very ambitious people financially as it seldom offers wages higher than the average and in many cases designers struggle to pay the bills.  Therefore, you should think carefully whether you're willing to put up with this side effect.


 Who should consider this as a career?


The answer for this is extremely obvious - people who like the advantages of this career path and can put up with its disadvantages.  Every  career path can be great for the suitable person or horrible for the unsuitable one.   There's no good or bad answer for this.  But do yourself a favor - think if you see yourself in this career for at least 20 years.  A career choice is not for 5 years, but for decades.