What does a graphic designer do?

What Do Graphic Designers Do?

What do graphic designers do? Graphic designers communicate information visually. They create illustrations and layouts that appeal to consumers and convey particular information. Graphic designers also create informative content like infographics, brochures, reports, and magazines.

Graphic designers work closely with art directors and clients to understand a project's goals and its target consumers. They create designs with software programs like Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. Digital designers also rely on software like Sketch. They create custom elements like logos or illustrations. They choose the colors, typefaces, and images for the design.

Within graphic design, professionals specialize in areas like product design, mobile app design, animation, and typography. Related fields like web design, UX design, and UI design draw on graphic design skills.

Graphic designers create physical and digital projects, including:

Creative and Technical Skill Sets

What do graphic designers do? They mix creative and technical skills to create visually engaging, informative work. Graphic designers bring human and hard skills to their careers.

In addition to a creative eye and an innovative spirit, this career requires technical skills. Graphic designers regularly work with software programs like Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. Specialists in digital design rely on software like Sketch to create finished products. Other key skills include communication, time management, and collaboration.

Ask a Graphic Designer

Thomas Faessler

Thomas Faessler is co-founder, art technician, and historian at Art in Context, a dominant website that helps create actionable posts, guides, and reviews about the world of Art. He has always been fascinated by the world of art and decided to pursue it full-time after graduation. He is currently exploring digital art and hopes to create unique illustrations in the future.

What are the most rewarding aspects of your career?

The most rewarding aspect of my career has to be the fact that I can work independently and have freedom in choosing the projects that I like. Of course, the ultimate benefit is being able to express myself creatively.

This career has also given me the opportunity to work with people from around the globe, and the fact that I can share my creativity with so many people truly makes me happy.

What are the most challenging aspects of your career?

One of the challenges that I have personally encountered is [that] it becomes difficult to keep track of time. Creative imagination is not time-bound, and sometimes certain designing projects have fixed deadlines within which you must come up with the perfect design. Creative blocks can always be discouraging at such times. This is something that I have always struggled with, but I am getting better at maintaining my creative flow.

What type of person is successful and thrives in a graphic design career? What type of person may not be the best fit?

To excel at a graphic designing career, you must constantly innovate and experiment with different designing techniques and digital tools. So, it's not just being good at art, but also knowing how to translate the physical painting into digital illustrations, since nowadays being equipped with the digital techniques and trends is the priority.

So, a creative person who is also good at using Photoshop, Illustrator, ProCreate, InDesign, and other designing softwares would be able to thrive in a graphic designing career. However, for those who love to paint on paper and cannot think of using digital painting softwares ever — graphic designing may not be the best fit for them.

What's a typical day for a graphic designer? What tasks do you typically work on?

Most of my days are spent working on layouts and product illustrations, reviewing the finalized designs, and organizing the designs properly. Losing any one of them could cost me my job!

Who do you communicate with?

Since I work remotely most of the time, communication with the teams and clients is limited to emails, messages, and sometimes video calls. Depending on the project I am working on, the communication method differs.

Mostly I communicate directly with clients, and at other times, it is the product teams that reach out to me. When working with small businesses, I mainly communicate with the marketing teams over voice or video calls and have to participate in the team discussions regularly so that everyone is updated with the changes and requirements.

What kind of hours do you keep?

My work hours are flexible, but I like to set aside an eight-hour work period, from 7 am to 3 pm. I am an early riser and feel the most productive during the day, which is why I like working early so that I can save up time in the evening for my passion project.

Who are your coworkers?

My coworkers include everyone from non-design backgrounds to techies! But mostly I work with junior designers, team leaders, product managers, and interns as well.

What knowledge do you utilize?

In terms of knowledge, I would say understanding color, composition, and design elements are the prime knowledge that I use daily. It is the artistic ability and creativity that go into creating the perfect designs.

Apart from that, utilizing technical knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud and other design softwares, such as QuarkXpress, is also a part of my day-to-day work.

Since becoming a graphic designer, has there been anything about the role that you didn't expect or anticipate?

I might have been biased in thinking that it would be easy, since I have been painting for such a long time.

Also, I didn't think that motion designing would become a part of my role. Previously, the graphic designing niche wasn't as saturated as it is now. So, companies look to hire designers who have experience working with video-editing softwares and are good at animation. This was something that I wasn't adept at at the beginning of my career.

But over the past couple of years, I have realized that if you want to stay relevant in this niche, you have to continuously upskill.

What would you recommend that students do, in addition to their graphic design degree program, in order to stand out to employers?

A simple graphic designing degree, I am afraid, wouldn't be enough to land a job, especially now when graphic design has become so competitive.

It is good to have some work experience before applying to graphic design jobs. Even if someone wants to pursue it as a freelancing gig, they would need to stand out against other designers, and the freelance market is even more competitive.

As I mentioned before, motion graphics would become an integral part of a graphic designer's career. Therefore, I would urge students to learn to use tools like After Effects and Cinema 4D, apart from Photoshop and Illustrator.

Always stay updated with the industry trends and get some 3D design and typography experience to build your portfolio. The more projects you can add to your portfolio, the better your chances of standing out to your future employers.

What was the most challenging, rigorous course you took in your graphic design degree program? What advice would you give to students who are about to start this course?

I didn't pursue a graphic designing degree program until it was absolutely necessary. I was already preoccupied with an art historian role that I had taken up, but since I wanted to experiment with different art forms, I decided to take up a part-time graphic design program.

The graphic design (currently called "communication design") degree program was challenging for me since I hadn't used any digital design tools before, but this program forced me to learn all about Illustrator, XD, InDesign, and more. But it was also fun, and I got the chance to experiment with different styles other than my usual painting techniques.

I would advise students to be open-minded and explore as much as they can. Don't restrict creativity and don't be afraid of pushing your creative boundaries. Oftentimes, you might be bothered by some of the themes you think of, but consider it as a part of the creative process and remember that there are no boundaries in the art and design world.

Graphic Design Professional Organizations