The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Graphic Designer – Salary, Career and More

A graphic designer deals into a number of good and specific tasks related to creative and visual appeal of commercial or promotional campaign. The skills of a web designer are prominently needed in promotional campaigns like packaging, displays and logos and are used in a number of mediums to achieve artistic and decorative results. He can work under a varied number of job titles like graphic designer, graphic artist, designer, art director, artists, composing room supervisor, desktop publisher and online producer.

Work of a Graphic Designer:  The job of a graphic designer involves creating designs, concepts and sample layouts based upon knowledge of layout principles and esthetic design concepts. He estimates size and design of promotional campaign, material and copy and select style and size of type. For the purposes of bringing designing layout he uses computer software to produce new images. His work also involves printing charts, graphs, illustrations and other layout for printers. He finalizes layouts and provides suggestions as required by the concept and theme of the project. As a part of his job he also develops graphics, layouts for product illustrations, company logos and internet websites. It also prepares illustrations or rough sketches of material, discussing them with clients and supervisors and making necessary changes.

Qualification and Training:  Among all the qualifications that a graphic designer possesses the most important is the knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment and computer hardware and software involving applications and programming. He also should have a primary knowledge of English language involving meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar. Next of his qualification includes knowledge of media production, communication and dissemination techniques and methods. He should also have knowledge of principles of production, designing tools, precision. This is only an aspect of his qualification more he should have knowledge of various aspects of customer and personal service and knowledge of principle and methods for showing, promoting, selling products and services. And most essentially he should have understanding and knowledge of various theory and techniques of fine arts.

Skills: Creativity only is an aspect of graphic designing more he needs to have skills of time management hence he could learn tips to manage his as well as other’s time. He should also be an active listener so he attentively could pay proper attention to what has been asked him to accomplish in the limited time and framework. He should also be a critical thinker and decision maker so he could identify complex problems during a project and shall sort out them appropriately.   And he should be a socially aware guy so he should percept the occurring changes around him and convert them into his designs.

Salary: Average salary of a graphic designer in the United States is $46, 095

Online Graphic Design Degrees

Graphic design involves the study of pictorial arts using two dimension forms. Graphic arts are also a branch of visual arts that involves aesthetics and production of design layouts and typography. There is a wide range of courses offered in the design school including interactive media, graphic design multi media design web design, interior design, digital arts, marketing design, business marketing design and typography.

Any graphic designer uses graphic elements and text to deliver his or her idea to the audience or people. A graphic designer comes up with artistic representations under the tutelage of the creative director. And due to advanced technology most of designers use the computer to generate all visual elements of a page especially the background, spot imagery, layout, color scheme, navigation buttons and other forms of visual elements.

These courses include brand identity, advanced web, flash designs, digital photography, illustration; digital imaging, game art multimedia arts, print design and web business are some of the core courses that may be considered by the aspiring student when taking graphic design.

The various careers involved in graphic design include but are not limited to graphic designers, web designers, animators, interior designers, photographers and others. Some of the well known accredited online graphic design colleges and universities include:

American International University
This is a well established virtual campus where students can enroll for and take their respective courses, access their services, graduation and eventually find jobs placements once they have finished. The most established online graphic designs courses offered include bachelors in Visual Communication.

Westwood College of Technology
It offers custom made courses and they are instructor led and you can finish them in less than 3 years. The courses on offer include animation, game art and design, interior design, web and multimedia visual communications and graphic design

The Arts Institute Online
This is part of the Art Institute Pittsburgh and has been in existence since 1921. Besides online classes a student has access to lecture projects, group discussions and industrial experience, to create a good learning experience. The bachelors offered online are graphic design, game art and design, interior design, media arts and animation whereas associates are offered in interactive media design and graphic design. They also offer masters in computer animation and graphic design. It is accredited by the Accrediting Council for independent Colleges and Schools (A.C.I.C.S.).

Capella University
This is an accredited university by the Higher Learning Commission with over twenty eight thousand students and it offers bachelors degrees in both multimedia and B.S.I.T. It also has masters and doctoral in the graphic design online programs whose courses are affordable and suits professional needs.

Ashford University
This is a well established university that was set up in 1918 and offers courses in liberal arts especially in the field of bachelors of Arts in visual communications and computer graphic design. It is accredited by the Higher Commission of Learning of North Central Association of Colleges and Schools