How to become Graphic Designer in 2024

Graphic Designer Design or create graphics to meet specific commercial or promotional needs, such as packaging, displays, or logos. May use a variety of mediums to achieve artistic or decorative effects.

Graphic Designer is Also Know as

In different settings, Graphic Designer is titled as

  • Artist
  • Brand Designer
  • Designer
  • Graphic Artist
  • Graphic Design Coordinator
  • Graphic Designer
  • Online Producer
  • Production Artist
  • Publications Designer
  • Technical Illustrator

Education and Training of Graphic Designer

Graphic Designer is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Graphic Designer

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Education Required for Graphic Designer

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Degrees Related to Graphic Designer

Training Required for Graphic Designer

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Graphic Designer in different industries are

What Do Graphic Designer do?

  • Create designs, concepts, and sample layouts, based on knowledge of layout principles and esthetic design concepts.
  • Determine size and arrangement of illustrative material and copy, and select style and size of type.
  • Use computer software to generate new images.
  • Mark up, paste, and assemble final layouts to prepare layouts for printer.
  • Draw and print charts, graphs, illustrations, and other artwork, using computer.
  • Review final layouts and suggest improvements, as needed.
  • Confer with clients to discuss and determine layout design.
  • Develop graphics and layouts for product illustrations, company logos, and Web sites.
  • Key information into computer equipment to create layouts for client or supervisor.
  • Prepare illustrations or rough sketches of material, discussing them with clients or supervisors and making necessary changes.
  • Study illustrations and photographs to plan presentation of materials, products, or services.
  • Prepare notes and instructions for workers who assemble and prepare final layouts for printing.
  • Photograph layouts, using camera, to make layout prints for supervisors or clients.
  • Produce still and animated graphics for on-air and taped portions of television news broadcasts, using electronic video equipment.
  • Maintain archive of images, photos, or previous work products.
  • Research new software or design concepts.
  • Prepare digital files for printing.
  • Research the target audience of projects.
  • Write or edit copy for clients.

Qualities of Good Graphic Designer

  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.

Tools Used by Graphic Designer

  • 35 millimeter cameras
  • Computer laser printers
  • Computer scanners
  • Desktop computers
  • Digital cameras
  • Graphics tablets
  • Laptop computers
  • Personal computers
  • Photocopying equipment
  • Wide format printers

Technology Skills required for Graphic Designer

  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Adobe ActionScript
  • Adobe After Effects
  • Adobe ColdFusion
  • Adobe Creative Cloud software
  • Adobe Distiller
  • Adobe Dreamweaver
  • Adobe FrameMaker
  • Adobe FreeHand MX
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Adobe Macromedia HomeSite
  • Adobe PageMaker
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Premiere Pro
  • AJAX
  • Apple Final Cut Pro
  • Apple iMovie
  • Apple iWork Keynote
  • Apple Keynote
  • Apple macOS
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D
  • Autodesk Revit
  • Avid Pro Tools
  • Bentley MicroStation
  • Cascading style sheets CSS
  • Computer aided design and drafting CADD software
  • Computer aided design and drafting software CADD
  • Corel CorelDraw Graphics Suite
  • Corel WordPerfect Office Suite
  • Dassault Systemes CATIA
  • Drupal
  • Dynamic hypertext markup language DHTML
  • Extensible hypertext markup language XHTML
  • Extensible markup language XML
  • Facebook
  • Figma
  • FileMaker Pro
  • Google Ads
  • Google Docs
  • Google Drive
  • Google Slides
  • Hypertext markup language HTML
  • IBM Notes
  • JavaScript
  • jQuery
  • LinkedIn
  • Maxon Cinema 4D
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft Publisher
  • Microsoft Visio
  • Microsoft Word
  • Nuance OmniPage Professional
  • Oracle Eloqua
  • Oracle JavaServer Pages JSP
  • PHP
  • PTC Creo Parametric
  • QuarkXPress
  • SignCAD Systems SignCAD
  • SmugMug Flickr
  • Social media sites
  • Structured query language SQL
  • Trimble SketchUp Pro
  • Verilog
  • Web browser software
  • WeVideo
  • WordPress
  • YouTube