What job oppertunities' exist?

As a graphic designer, you have a varied range of jobs available, due to your type of work. As a graphic designer, you can adapt to the jobs of illustrators, fine arts and other professions, as graphic design links with them. This all depends however on your preferred aspect of graphic design; you may prefer creating 3D woodwork art and thus become working for theatres in helping to create stages, you may enjoy animation and then become working for companies such as Coca Cola and Sky for promotional advertisements on TV, you may prefer creating digital artwork and thus gain a job working for a games company creating concept artwork/models, or creating illustrations/logos for companies.

The best thing about being a graphic designer is that you are not tied down into one specific area of jobs, there are many different jobs which are graphic design related, as the meaning of the word can mean most things which are art related. This means that once you have found an aspect that you enjoy, if you then try to get work for it and it doesn't become all that successful, you will then be able to move onto something else which is similar and not find it too much of a change.

A lot of the work may start out as freelance, to gain fame and word of mouth from others. And then as you progress and get a name known for yourself, you will possibly move into making your own business with people who you got to know from networking at events and shows, or follow up a job offer from a company who you are interested in.

The most common jobs within Graphic design are; Web design, Logo design, Clothing printing, Animation, Printwork (magazines, newspapers), Photography, Packaging. A good place to search for jobs and also to look for similar artists/graphic designers who are currently freelancers is at Creative Pool. You can view the freelancers' work and contact them, or view the businesses wanting a graphic designer and contact them to inquire about their job offer. It's a nice start to the graphic design industry and to see what kind of opportunities are about there.

http://www.creativepool.co.uk

What is the role of the Graphic Designer?

Source: Kittyfinegan

So what is a graphic designer, and what roles do they have? A graphic designer is someone who is open to furthering their abilities, whilst also wanting to learn about new technology and integrate it to their own flow and style. You then commit to the lifestyle of a graphic designer; subscribing to certain magazines, creating a twitter account, participating in designer forums and communities, visiting exhibitions of other artists, research your chosen field. There is much more that you would do, but everyone is different. The general reasoning for doing all of this however, is so that you can know what's going on in the industry, and then be able to challenge it head on by yourself.

Experimentation and determination is key for a successful graphic designer. If you stick to one type of media and don't adapt your technique or try new ideas, you are not giving yourself the full oppertunity to succeed, and will not progress much from where you began. A good graphic designer is someone who can express themselves in their work, and can push the boundaries to create something new; something that you wouldn't expect. Examples of this are the likes of Banksy, Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol and Michael Craig Martin; artists that don't just do a painting on canvas, they go out of their way to get their work out there and do the unexpected, always experimenting with new ideas and giving the shock factor to the public.

Banksy is a worldwide known graffiti artist, who uses spray painting for designs which are controversial to what is happening in the society at the time. No one knows what he looks like, but everyone admires his work. The sense of mystery is one thing which makes this artist exciting; no one knows who he is, but we love his work either way because it's not something we see in everyday art, and we then have the anxiety because we don't know who he is, but we want to see more of it.

   

Source: Newyorker