Graphic designers – please tell me the good the bad the ugly

Hi at the moment I am thinking of retraining and I’ve been thinking about going into graphic design. So i was wondering if any graphic designers on the forum could give me advice so I can go into this with my eyes open. I have a keen eye for art and a working as a commission artist but I want to do more and have a career.
One thing that I am worried about is going into a classroom full of teenagers especially as I was told yesterday by one college that at 42 I would be the oldest among a class of teens.

I was told yesterday by one college that at 42 I would be the oldest among a class of teens.

You’ll probably be older than a fair few of the staff to but don’t concern yourself too much with that – my GF’s mum didn’t go to art school until she was 55.

You’re not there to socialise (although thats nice) you’re there to learn. What sets mature students apart from the the rest is mature students actually know why they are there, know what they want to get out of the course and are aware that time is ticking and money is burning and want to get every drop of value out of it. The rest of the year group are at college because its the next thing to do after the last thing they did before possibly doing something else.

Tutors can be a bit wary of mature students – they can find them a bit difficult to teach sometimes because they can maybe be a bit entrenched and art/design teaching can sometimes involve a bit of un-learnig, it can also can also be difficult to tutor and critique on issues of taste with someone older and stronger in their opinions but mainly because mature students are more driven, have made a bigger commitment to be there and consequently are more demanding of better tuition – so they make their tutors work for a living. 🙂

When I done my HND, my old 2nd year computer teacher was actually in a few of my classes! He was a bit of a bam at school and he was no different on a level playing field, socially. So you would possibly get on better. But he was essentilly the butt of everyones jokes. usual age range was about 17-25. Art schools will probably have a more grown up approach. HND was much better mind, NC I did, only about 3 of us actually passed and went on to the HND!

Btw I’d get the idea of art out your head right now, maybe at a higher level, but it’s not all glam and glitz! There’s a crappy production side to the business! 😆

Plus, you also need to remember, you’re a conduit for other peoples ideas, so what you like doing/think looks good, will differ wildly from what you actually do!

Think about specalising and what your end goal is.

My passion was in interaction design, HCI and UX. I design exclusively for web/mobile/digital and that works for me. Bu some people love the idea of print, packaging or editorial. Or campaigns, advertisement, etc.

Think about where you want to go with design. You have to specalise

It is very competitive and not that well paid! Much easier to get a decent job as a web dev.

As some one who helps hire graphic designers, all I care about is your portfolio and above all else your attitude / approach. Qualifications really do not matter.

Think about specalising and what your end goal is.

This – a lot of printers don’t really care how qualified you are as long as you are able to a) do nice work b) deliver on time; c) send clean print ready files.

Qualifications would help for more specialist web/computer graphics work.

It really doesn’t pay well though unless you own your own business.

Pitching for work usually involves working late, unpaid – although some agencies are changing their attitude toward unpaid pitch work.

This – a lot of printers don’t really care how qualified you are as long as you are able to a) do nice work b) deliver on time; c) send clean print ready files.

who cares what the printer thinks, its the paying client that matters not the sheet feeders.

re the OP i presume you are computer savvy and already been playing around with illustrator/photoshop? there are ‘mature’ designers out there who are not 100% up on software but they are at a level in the industry where somebody else is usually taking care of the details and it’s their design thinking that is their asset, if you are starting at the bottom then those computer skills will need to be learnt quickly.

the-muffin-man

It really doesn’t pay well though unless you own your own business.

That’s not entirely true. A friend of mine cleared £100k in a year once (and still had about £40k in unpaid invoices). However, he worked 7 days a week, basically 18 hours days, never turned down a job and he said it nearly killed him. Shortly after that he set up his own advertising agency as that’s where the real money is made (his words).

If you’re working for a company expect long hours, medium to high stress and frankly not great wages unless you’re in a senior position. If you’re freelance you’ll need a couple of regular clients who pay well and who pay on time. These are very rare.

And obviously web design is a massive part of graphic design these days so be aware that very few people just get to mess around with the crayons. Of the people I studied with, the people who really made a success from design were decent designers who really mastered the programming side of web design.

Graphic design and web development are completely different things.

Completely.

Graphic design and web development are completely different things.

This is absolutely true but graphic design is probably one of the most widely misused job titles. You don’t have to look far to find someone claiming to be graphic designer that clearly isn’t.

Qualifications are not necessary, what you need is a strong and varied portfolio of work. Now it might be that college/university is the best way to achieve that strong portfolio so I wouldn’t discount it but the bit of paper with the grade on is basically worthless unless it’s accompanied by folder/website chock full of great examples of your work.

Where do you see yourself working in the long run? It’s a competitive market at whatever level you aim for but the closer you get to the high end accounts the more likely you are to be actually designing rather than artworking or pushing clip art around. If you live near a big city you stand more chance of getting regular work than if you live in a more rural location. If you’re established and can work remotely then this is less of a problem but to begin with it helps to be near where the work is.

You said that you’ve worked as a commissioned artist, is there a chance you could take a smaller side step and apply your style of work to commercial illustration.

Talent and a great portfolio will get you so far, but a good design education will get you further.

I went back as a mature student, and I was self-conscious at first but soon realised that I was accepted – I think the younger folk will respect your decision and recognise it takes guts.

Graphic design and web development are completely different things.

Well, yes and no.

Talent and a great portfolio will get you so far, but a good design education will get you further.

That’s the wrong way around.

Well, yes and no.

Well yes.

Well, yes and no.

No, they absolutely are different.

The days of “full stack” design/developers, or designers who code are over as industry realises to really excel in each field you need to let designers design and developers develop.

You won’t find any company who is serious about design asking their designers to code. Whilst myself and members of our design team do have some CSS/C/Swift knowledge, we never code. Thats what devs are for!

Obviously you do need a working knowledge of what can be developed within budgets so you don’t shoot off a design a solution that’s going to take 60 days to code for one interaction.

In terms of the money – digital is where there is money in design right now. You won’t get much being a photoshop monkey at a printers but if you’re in house at a tech company you can pull £25k at junior, mid to high 30’s as middleweight and mid 40’s to 100k+ as senior depending on the company.

Sure, it’s not the highest paying job around, but the atmosphere in a good digital experience team is great, the work fulfilling and creative.

You could earn more just by becoming a Linux System Admin and Googling your way to the top, but one day that’ll become automated – design will never be automated 😉

The downside is digital design is very London centric. I’d be scared to look at salary’s for designers anywhere in the North.

As said about “graphic design” is such a loose and widely miss-used title. I studied Graphic Design as Uni, but now I’m an interaction designer.

Agrees with all that ^^^^^^

(Apart from ‘London-centric’ that is – the digital scene is pretty good in places like Manchester and Leeds).

(Apart from ‘London-centric’ that is – the digital scene is pretty good in places like Manchester and Leeds).

yeah, you’re right actually. The scene is really good there. I hope this grows and reaches down to places like Bristol, Exeter, etc. I really dislike the London thing and hope we can spread out in our tiny island.

Agreed 🙂

Salary expectations around Leeds are pretty high too – especially now that Sky have moved in and have started to pay some particularly silly salaries to some average/slightly above average developers, some of which are fresh out of Uni.

For us, we have gone from paying high £20ks to mid-£30ks for middleweights (1-2 years industry experience) just to keep them with us since Sky moved in.

who cares what the printer thinks, its the paying client that matters not the sheet feeders.

Until you supply trashy artwork to a supplier on behalf of the paying client and incur costs, as it isn’t usable.

It’s not just “sheet feeders” who have to use the junk some so called “graphic designers” churn out.

Plenty of UX jobs in Bristol at the moment (if you’re any good).

Thanks for the replies it’s given me a few things to think about. I know it probably won’t be the highest paid job in the world but I’d like something that would enable me to live comfortably, pay for the odd holiday and maybe a new bike. What is important to me is job satisfaction and feeling fulfilled and getting to use my brain. I’m based in Durham but would be willing to commute to Newcastle or areas nearby

…and when I said

Well, yes and no

… what I had in my head was the idea that when the ‘design’ (or the ‘service’, or the ‘experience’) is something that emerges from so many inputs from so many educated experts (ideally) – including researchers, tech/devs, marketing/business, management, as well as visual design and IxD/UX – it’s really impossible to say that any one specialism is ‘completely different’ to the other. We’re all working towards a thing and that demands a good appreciation of the others’ expertise.

I certainly wasn’t trying to say that one person should try to work across specialisms: the opposite.

I do find that those with a good design education are better able to explain (defend) their work when necessary, and maintain good spirits if/when things need to change. At a certain level, that ability seems to become even more important than raw visual talent but I suppose, really, it’s all equally important at different times.

(And can I just say that I have proudly managed to avoid Sky, so far at least.)

retrogirl I hardly ever give direct advice here (or anywhere) but you’ve got me thinking …

‘Design’ is s weasel word – covers so much. Might be worth thinking about what type of design you want to end up doing, and specialising from the start. (I don’t know what educational level you’re thinking of.)

For instance

Design research: understanding the goals and motivations of the target audience – is fascinating, and the start-point of all design work – psychology/design

Interaction design/UX – forming research findings into workable solutions – problem solving, sketching, combining ideas, user testing …

Visual design – applying visual language, typography, colour, branding … in conjunction with all of the above …

If any of these areas appeal more than any other, I’m thinking there might be more specialist courses you might choose … ?

Dunno, I’m not a counsellor or anything. Just my thoughts. (In case you’re wondering, I have a BA and MA in a design subject, worked as a writer for 10 years before sliding into interaction design and UX where I’ve been for another 10 years at least. And I do love my job, which is worth what?)

… But mainly, go for it 🙂

who cares what the printer thinks, its the paying client that matters not the sheet feeders.
Until you supply trashy artwork to a supplier on behalf of the paying client and incur costs, as it isn’t usable.

It’s not just “sheet feeders” who have to use the junk some so called “graphic designers” churn out.
This! Having worked in print/design/publishing from the days of Letraset and Cow Gum, and seeing what the studio at my most recent employer have to deal with, there are an awful lot of artist/designers out there who have creative ideas, and enough knowledge of the software to produce pretty artwork, but little knowledge of actual print media, so their ‘finished’ files frequently need to be pulled apart and put back together with all the RGB images converted to CMYK, low-res images replaced with decent hi-res, Illustrator/Ps images checked for hidden layers, etc and flattened, a lot of which I used to do; you’d soon find out you’d missed one when a colour image goes mono at the proofing stage.
These are often things that just don’t get taught, it’s experience working in a print environment that teaches you the hidden traps.

who cares what the printer thinks, its the paying client that matters not the sheet feeders.

It’s been said above, but most designers can make pretty pictures but don’t have a clue how to set up artwork for print. The reason I know this as i was one, once. After a job turned out wrong i took a few years out to work in a prepress dept to try and educate myself, and ended up staying in the print trade. I still do a lots of ‘design’ stuff now (probably more, and more varied than ever before) but also fix the files supplied by some of the countries ‘top’ designers.

File -> Save for web

😉

It staggers me daily that some of the work we get sent is from people who call themselves “graphic designers”.
We do vehicle graphics and get sent designs on a van outline. Quite frequently the designers just remove trim or even door handles, because it doesn’t work with their design. Most don’t understand that a vehicle is 3D rather than 2D.
Proves to me that there must be work for good graphic designers.

most agencies i work with have team of artworkers and a production/print buyer team.
a good designers time is too valuable to have them overseeing all the aspects of production even if they have the knowledge. i guess its different for a small outfit or 1 man band.