The history of graphic design can serve as an excellent source of inspiration, especially if you study how art and technological developments influenced certain designers. While the entire history of graphic design is way too long for this blog, here are some interesting details to note.
Advertising existed in ancient times. Egyptians wrote sales messages and designed wall posters on papyrus, while politicians in Pompei and ancient Arabia created campaign displays.
The lines between graphic design, advertising, and fine art often blurred together until the mid-1800s. At that time, Henry Cole explained the importance of graphic design to his government (in Great Britain) in the Journal of Design and Manufactures. Cole went on to become influential in the growth of design education.
You can see an incredibly successful example of a logo as far back as 1885, when Frank Mason Robinson created the classic Coca Cola logotype. Yet the actual term “graphic design” didn’t appear until 1922, when it was coined by the type designer, illustrator, and book designer William Addison Dwiggins.
Throughout the 20th century, new styles and technologies emerged rapidly, each one exerting some influence on graphic design. For instance, the Bauhaus movement embraced mass production and the new machine culture after World War I; after World War II photography began replacing illustrations in most graphic design, and post-modernism brought new materials, bright colors, and humor to design. And of course with computers came the digital revolution.
Hopefully you’ll look further into some of these design movements. After all, who says Art Nouveau can’t be used in a digital format, and computer fonts can certainly recreate ancient calligraphy. Perhaps graphic designs of the past can help enhance your own work in original ways today.
“Graphic designer” encompasses an array of careers from animation to web design, but some newer job titles have risen to the top in recent years.
Brand Identity Designer
How do companies want to appear in the public’s eye? What image does their logo, advertising, and website project? The brand identity designer oversees all these aspects of the company, essentially illustrating and then integrating its image through a variety of media like business cards, packaging, promotions, and more. For instance, think of Nike’s swoosh logo or Apple’s pervasive apple with the bite taken out of it.
The brand identity can change and evolve over time, meaning a brand designer might work as a permanent employee for one company or take a job at a brand identity consulting firm working with many different companies.
Flash Designer
Flash, a multimedia graphics program, uses specific types of graphics to create “movies” on websites. These can include animation, video, text, and other special effects. You can even make the movies interactive. To become a Flash designer, you first need a firm grasp of HTM and how to build websites. Then you can take courses specifically in Flash design, offered at many graphic design schools. While you may not find a job working solely with Flash, having this knowledge could help to significantly expand your job opportunities.
Package Designer
Along with basic graphic design skills, designing packaging for a corporation can also require 3D layout skills and a knowledge of visual communication techniques and strategies. You may work with a packaging engineer who can help guide you in what material to use, but learning the basics of packaging materials yourself can put you ahead of the curve when applying for employment.
Most employers want to see a graphic design school listed on your resume because it guarantees you have learned certain skills. Yet a graphic design education can culminate in a certificate, associate’s degree, or bachelor’s degree. Which one should you get?
Certificate: Some graphic design schools may not allow you to begin a bachelor’s degree program without completing a year of basic art and design courses first. Usually you can do this in high school, but if that isn’t an option you may want to enroll in a short certificate program before applying.
A certificate can also help working graphic designers to hone their skills and keep up-to-date with the latest software and design technology.
Associate’s Degree: Earned at a 2-year or 3-year professional school, this type of graphic design education qualifies you as an assistant to a professional graphic designer or for a job that only requires technical skills.
If you already have a bachelor’s degree in another field, this degree may be your best option. It teaches you the technical skills you need without forcing you to complete another 4-year program.
Bachelor’s Degree: Gives you the best opportunities to get your foot in the door, whether your degree is in graphic design specifically or fine arts overall. This degree also has the advantage of providing you with an overall liberal arts education, which can help you develop additional skills to help you succeed in your career. Your coursework should include:
Commercial graphics production
Computerized design
Principles of design
Printing techniques
Studio art
Website design
You can earn a bachelor’s degree at a traditional graphic design school or through an online program.
Graphic design schools can teach you all the top techniques to create brilliant designs, but if you don’t feel inspired where do you begin? Fortunately, the Internet can prove an excellent source of inspiration for both website and print designs. Here are some of the best sites you should check out:
Raster: An Internet website dedicated to providing and finding inspiration with designs organized by chapters.
Deviant Art: From manga to realistic photography, you can find every type of design on this site. Hopefully one of the images can get your creative juices slowing.
Behance Network: Explore digital images, illustrations, typography, game design, and even storyboards on this unique website. You can conveniently sort the designs by “most viewed,” “most discussed,” or “most appreciated” based on whether you want to seek inspiration in more controversial conversation-sparking designs or those with mass appeal.
Creative Depart: Find your inspiration among these videos, photography, or one of a kind packaging designs. You can even submit artwork you feel belongs on this site. The “Resources” page also announces contests, graphic design events, and other news.
Creattica: Created specifically to help designers, this site displays business cards, flash websites, HTML/CSS, logos, posters, motion graphics, snowboard art, iPad wallpapers, and much more.
Inspiration might be a mere click away. So don’t get frustrated if fresh, new ideas don’t come to you immediately. Now you can surf the Internet at work for a legitimate work-related reason.
The short answer is no, you don’t. But in truth this question requires a more complicated response. Plenty of graphic designers have gotten jobs without knowing how to draw at all. Nevertheless, learning how to draw or sketch can be invaluable for three big reasons.
You have to be able to explain visual concepts and ideas to clients, yet their imagination might not work in the same way as yours does. Being able to quickly sketch out what’s in your head allows you and your client to make sure you’re both on the same page and will be satisfied with the ultimate results. Yes, you can get someone else to draw out concepts for you ahead of time or prepare images yourself on a computer, but then what happens if your client has feedback or you need to quickly present an alternative idea? The ability to pull out a sketch pad can then prove essential.
Knowing how to draw can actually save you money in the graphic design world. If you want someone else to create an illustration for you, then you have to pay that person. People with exceptional drawing skills rarely work for free.
Taking drawing and sketching classes at graphic design schools could make you a better graphic designer overall. As you develop your talent, you find yourself also developing a better eye for detail, balance, contrast, and perspective. It also gives you a better greater awareness of light and how the manipulation of light sources can alter an image. You’d be surprised how often that skill comes in handy in all types of graphic design.
Should you relocate to make more money as a graphic designer? Or even look for graphic design colleges in specific cities to improve your employment prospects? Certain cities do pay significantly more than others.
If a high salary is your primary goal, then you should know the five highest paying metropolitan areas for graphic designers in 2009 were:
San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, California: $74,660 average annual salary
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California: $68,810
All of those salaries are considerably higher than the 2009 U.S. average annual salary of $47,820. Yet you do have to weigh that against the cost of living in some of those cities. For instance, San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities in America, which means high salary may not get you as much.
That’s why it’s worth thinking outside the box a bit and looking at other factors before moving anywhere. Austin, Texas may not spring to mind as a graphic design mecca, but 36.8% of the city’s workforce is in the creative class. The recent boom in high-tech entrepreneurism has also generated a demand for workers. Or go slightly further southwest to San Antonio and you have a city with the most solid salary to cost of living ratio in the country. San Antonio also boasts the lowest change in its unemployment rate since the recession began.
The contacts you make at graphic design colleges, especially if you do an internship, can open doors to future employment. So you may want consider a school’s location before applying.
Want to improve your resume, impress potential employers, and get your name in front of the biggest firms and most important people in the design community? Then you need to consider entering some graphic design contests and competitions.
However, consider a few things before entering.
1. How worthwhile is this competition?
Look at past winners and Google them to find out how their careers progressed after the contest. Did this contest actually get them noticed? Also consider who is judging the competition. Are the design firms judging this competition the companies who might want to hire you? Do the judges have impressive names or positions in the field of graphic design?
2. Is this the best contest to showcase your work?
Graphic design contests abound, ranging from poster design to logos, animation, multi-media, and more. Instead of randomly entering all of them, focus your energy and attention on the fields where you know you excel.
3. How much does it cost to enter?
Some contests can have outrageous entrance fees, and if that’s the case you need to reevaluate question #1 with the cost in mind. It may be worth it to pay the fee and enter, but it could also be a waste of your time and money.
You can easily browse the Internet to find graphic design contests, but here are a few to get you started:
AIGA 365: Considered by some to be the Olympics of graphic design competitions
HOW Design competitions: HOW magazine sponsors several design contests every year including the Interactive Design Awards, Poster Design Awards, and Logo Design Awards
Find your competitive spirit and consider how entering–and possibly winning–one of these competitions could help your graphic design career.
Do you ever worry that you aren’t creative enough to succeed as a graphic designer? It’s a thought that crosses nearly every artist’s mind at some point. Fortunately, you can improve and build your creative skills by increasing your knowledge.
For decades, scientists and psychologists have theorized that several distinct levels of creativity exist. While the names change depending on whose theory you follow, the levels essentially go:
Expressive or Intuitive Creativity: a primitive level of creativity with a unique directness and joy in the simple act of creating. This is the type children exhibit when they bring home paintings from school.
Productive or Technical Creativity: at this level you create things that are new to you, but not necessarily new to the world. It’s a time to learn new skills and techniques. Graphic design schools can help you develop this level so you can advance to…
Inventive Creativity: take the techniques and skills you’ve learned and make them your own, finding new uses for them or employing them in original ways.
Innovative Creativity: break boundaries, take the knowledge of your predecessors and use it to come up with new ideas. Explore new methods and materials. The productive or technical creativity you learned remains in your subconscious, fueling new levels of originality.
Genius or Emergent Creativity: Many people find this level unattainable because it belongs to those who create an entirely new idea that greatly affects humankind. Einstein, Newton, and Shakespeare belong at this level. But never underestimate yourself–you can reach it too. As Michelangelo once said, “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”
Just imagine: You and your team spend weeks and weeks preparing the perfect print campaign. You pull all nighters, tweak graphic designs, and perfect copy. Then on the big rollout day, you get banned. The horror!
It should be a crushing blow. But if you’re an expert social marketing group like PETA, being banned from the airwaves/billboards of the world is all just part of your master plan. Proving once again that they’re one of the most PR savvy organizations out there, PETA took yet another advertising ban in stride on July 15th. Canadian officials put the kibosh on pro-vegetarian ads featuring a bikini-clad Pam Anderson marked up with different cuts of meat. The tagline: “All animals have the same parts. Have a heart. Go vegetarian.”
Failed Graphic Design? Or Brilliant Strategy?
It’s a great piece of graphic design work, with a highly illustrative (if not provocative) visual. But Canada wouldn’t have it. No worries–PETA was standing at the ready with press releases, tweets, and status updates about the latest in a series of bans, and essentially garnered more media attention than the ads alone would have. Lucky for PETA.
Bnet’s Catherine P. Taylor, in a rant against ads like “Man Crunch” that were rejected from airing during the Superbowl, notes that many of these ads never really intend to be aired anyway. They’re purposefully engineered to simply ride the wave of media that follows after telling the world they’ve been banned.
Over the past 25 years, Corel has grown from a tiny start-up company to a global software brand. So to celebrate, they’re throwing one heck of a virtual party for fans and customers across the world. Kicking off the bevy of special events and offers is the Quest for the Best Creativity Challenge, an open invitation for illustrators, artists, and graphic designers to show the world their creative chops.
The rules are simple–use Corel software to create a masterpiece of your choice. Then submit your entry at the Quest for the Best site by August 31. Finalists will be chosen based on user votes, with the 5 top winners hand picked by a panel of expert judges.
If you need to brush up on your CorelDraw skills, don’t worry. You can find plenty of tutorials on the Corel site, as well as a great tutorial library at DesignerToday. Looking for inspiration? While you wait for the final winners to be announced, scroll through the gallery of other entries to see who you’re up against — cast a vote for your favorite and you could win 1 of 10 HP Mini Notebooks.
With over $25,000 in prizes, including an ultimate design studio for the grand prize winner, this is one contest not to be missed. So what are you waiting for? Put that graphic design education to good use!
All Graphic Design News is a blog which focuses on the fields of Graphic Design and Web Design. Articles span a range of topics including career and educational advice, information about new and existing Graphic Design and Web Design software, lists of useful Design resources and tools both online and offline, as well as many other topics of interest to Graphic Designers.
