Imagine yourself in the evening having a toast with several graphic designers. You will realize that most of them have totally different jobs from each other. If you want to get into the world of graphic design and you don’t know where to start, read this article And then, if you are a graphic designer but don’t know how to explain what you do to those close to you, This article is also made for you!
What is a graphic designer?
Imagine yourself as a graphic designer. What do you think he does? He draws logos and illustrations, and what next? We imagine everything and nothing when we talk about the profession of graphic design and we cannot clearly present it. Indeed, graphics is a very broad field and brings together several types of graphic designers who are themselves specialized in various fields.
The graphic designer is the one who will translate his clients’ ideas into images. His creativity and technical expertise allow him to bring graphic creations to life, whether illustration or layout. This is a profession that evolves with technology, hence the current use of AI such as mid-journey. What is certain is that today, this profession can rely on DTP (Computer Aided Publication) software like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, or Affinity, which you must certainly know by name.
What is graphic design?
Before going further, it is interesting to understand what is graphic design? (and how is it different from art)
Graphic design is a field of applied arts. These applied arts apply to many fields such as object design, graphic design, textile design, etc. Graphic design applies to visual communication.
Thus, it meets a need that requires visual support. We therefore find graphics in promotional, information, and generally speaking, communication media.
Graphic design consists of creating and choosing graphic elements:
- Shapes
- Typographies
- Photos
- Colors
- Pictograms
- Illustrations
- etc.
These elements will be arranged on a communication medium to transmit an idea and a message. This is why each element is symbolic: its location, its color, and even its size are carefully considered in advance.
What does a graphic designer do?
The graphic designer profession can be relatively broad. It mainly formats visual elements to convey a message using its visual supports.
This is why their skills can be very varied:
- Create a visual identity for a brand, a product, or even a project
- Create book covers
- Create flyers and posters
- Create business cards and logos
- Create website pages
- Etc.
In short, a graphic designer can be either specialized or versatile. Talking about “types of graphic designers” necessarily requires talking about the specialization of the profession. However, there are common tasks that each of them must master:
- Identification of needs and analysis of customer requests
- Reflection on the creative process
- Design of supports, media, images, and graphics adapted to customer needs
- Etc.
Whether you want to become an editorial graphic designer or a 3D graphic designer, you will need to develop these skills that are universal to all graphic designers.
What are the skills to become a graphic designer?
One of the questions graphic designers get asked most often: do you need to know how to draw to work in graphic design? The answer is no”.
It all depends on the specialty you want to choose. Obviously, you have to love drawing to become an illustrator, it’s even essential. But being good at drawing is clearly essential when you do page layout or web design.
What you will need above all to practice this profession are these qualities:
- Artistic fiber: you must constantly keep an eye on the arts to stimulate and develop your creativity.
- Creativity: it allows you to offer innovative ideas to your customers. Thus, the graphic designer will seek to go further.
- The ability to communicate: the graphic designer must know how to explain his choices and why they are wise. But above all, being able to listen and understand what your interlocutor is looking for.
- Organization: generally speaking, you always do several things at the same time. It’s the same for the graphic designer. He manages several different projects and often has very tight deadlines. Organization is therefore essential to be effective.
What is the difference between a graphic designer and an infographic designer?
Isn’t that the same thing? Traditionally, No. Currently, yes!
The infographic designer was born with the development of the Internet and software. Thus, he became a digital graphic designer, unlike traditional graphic design which retains physical tools. At that time, he was still just a specialist technician used to digitize the creations of traditional graphic designers. With the new DTP tools, traditional graphic designers also began to use computers. So the line between the computer graphic designer and the DTP graphic designer has become even more blurred.
To explain it more clearly, illustrators and artists are graphic designers but they are not computer graphics designers! These are graphic designers who create concepts and visuals by hand and not with the help of DTP tools. Today, the majority of graphic designers work on computers and they are therefore computer graphics designers.
What is the difference between a creative graphic designer and an executive graphic designer?
The creative graphic designer will work on the design of a project from the beginning with more or less constraints. The executive graphic designer will be guided by an artistic director who supervises him within deadlines and constraints.
So the executive graphic designer would just be a secondary graphic designer? Neither! The role of a graphic designer is to transform ideas into a graphic design. And the added value of the graphics executor lies in the development of these graphic designs in production, while respecting the manufacturing constraints of the communication medium.
To simplify, the creative graphic designer conceptualizes the general idea and the executive graphic designer develops it thanks to his advanced software creation. Everyone knows Andy Warhol, especially for his portrait of Marilyn Monroe. He worked with the same system as creative and executive graphic designers. His works were conceptualized by Andy Warhol as a creative graphic designer and created in his factory by his employees, as executive graphic designers.
In the same system, we can find a team of creative graphic designers and executive graphic designers who work together because they are complementary.
If you want to acquire these skills or move towards this profession of graphic design, you need to know that a graphic designer can be one or the other but also both! Especially in the profession of freelance graphic designer where you will naturally be both!