Tag: Graphic Design Careers

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Graphic Design News

Graphic Design School Hosts Conference for Teens

Graphic design students and instructors recently held a conference in Salt Lake City for teenagers who might be interested in the field of graphic design. Although high school students across the nation are becoming more and more exposed to computer systems and design principles through vocational programs in web and graphic design, many are overwhelmed at the prospect of design.

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The annual conference of the Academy of Information Technology convened on Wednesday, March 21, to host kids from five Utah school districts and reinforce the AOIT objective of offering better ways for students to learn. As a member program of the National Academy Foundation, a national network that supports the extracurricular development of professional and personal success, AOIT has branches to work with high school students all over the country.

Director of the local AOIT board Patricia Isom expressed the board’s desire to not only provide young students with education and opportunities, but to also build and maintain interest in the field, which Isom hopes will be contagious.

“We want to not only give students an idea of what’s available to them, but to wow them,” Isom said.

After the buzz of teenage chatter died down in the spacious conference hall before the keynote presentation, Jason Bangerter, adjunct instructor at UVU and owner of the nationally recognized design firm, “Struck,”explained to the students that both form and function are necessary for appealing interactions on the Internet.

As part of his presentation about design-emphasized engineering, Bangerter invited four students from his class, Special Topics in Graphic Design, to show the high school conference goers their class projects.

(Read more at UVU Review: Graphic design department offers expertise at conference)

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The conference hosted by Utah Valley University put emphasis on what is truly possible through a graphic design school and degree program.

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Two Ways to Become a High-Paid Graphic Designer

There are few self-taught graphic designers, so most people rely on a quality program at an accredited graphic design school to learn the skills of the trade. By utilizing the resources available at a college or training program near you, there are two ways to become a high-paid graphic designer: through a long-term commitment to education or through a long-term commitment to work.

In essence, students have the choice of becoming a successful and well-paid graphic designer through an advanced graduate program at a graphic design college or by completing an undergraduate program and working their way to a higher-paying job. Both methods are feasible ways to earn a great income in the field of graphic design and each carries its own set of benefits and sacrifices.

Regardless of the path a graphic design student takes, the traits of a graphic designer remain the same. Successful graphic design school students and professionals are creative individuals with artistic talent. They are able to take an idea or emotion and translate it into a visual retelling that motivates buyers, motivates a person to pick up a magazine, call a phone number, or simply click on a banner ad on the internet.

Graphic design schools, regardless of the level of the degree program, will arm students with the skills they need to work toward their personal and career goals. It is important for graphic designers to remain flexible because the industry and the standards in the profession can change rapidly. Graphic designers for print publications must be ready to take on the role of an online graphic designer. Likewise, graphic designers who specialize in online publications need to be always ready to take on a billboard or store advertising challenge.

The success of a professional graphic designer hinges on his or her ability to take a larger portion of the graphic design industries client-base. However, many graphic designers find great success by focusing on a niche within their profession, provided that there is little competition or that the designer has proven himself worthy of higher-paying jobs or contracts. Graphic design schools prepare students to face these types of challenges and decisions with confidence.

Become a Graphic Design through Long-Term Education vs. Long-Term Work

A long-term commitment to education at a graphic design school can expedite the student’s efforts to find a high-paying job immediately following graduation. By spending less time in the job market, however, the student loses work-experience opportunities. Some internships can help offset this sacrifice, however, and those with a higher degree from an accredited graphic design school often find it easier to land a higher paying job.

Long-term commitments to building a reputation as a graphic designer can help students graduating with a lesser degree earn more money over the long-run. While students who choose this route earn less money immediately following graduation from a graphic design school, they spend more time in the job market making connections and earning higher rate.

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CA Graphic Design School Student Wins Logo Contest

A student from a California school’s graphic design program designed a winning logo for an area water company this month.

Melissa Kuo, graphic design student at California Institute of Arts designed the logo that won first place in a competition held by the Santa Clarita Valley Family of Water Suppliers.

The water suppliers group asked graphic design schools and students to create a logo design that they felt would “make conservation cool”, while conveying the group’s mission and values. For her efforts, Kuo was awarded a $2,500 check by the group at the March 1st reception at the Castaic Lake Water Agency headquarters building.

There were over twenty logos entered into the contest, but Kuo’s logo design will be the new logo of the SCV Family of Water Suppliers. Her design features a teardrop shaped water droplet, with a group of three figures holding hands along the bottom rim and the brand “SCV Family of Water Suppliers above them inside the droplet. “The values of family, water and community — I broke those down into different words that I thought of, that related to those values,” she said in a press release.

In the press release about the new logo design, the Water Conservation Program Coordinator for the group said, ““We’re thrilled that Melissa submitted her logo. We were taken by how she managed to elegantly combine the idea of ‘family’ with water. We also want to emphasize the degree of local talent that was available to us at the college level. It was truly impressive.”

Kuo said that she used the skills she learned in her graphic design courses recently about using negative space and using symbolism in design aesthetics. Kuo said that she will use the prize money to help pay for her continued education at the graphic design school at California Arts Institute.

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How to Become an Advertising Graphic Designer

Graphic design schools are a great place to learn the art of advertising as it relates to graphic design. Nearly every piece of advertising we see on the internet, in the mailbox, at a retail outlet, on the television, and on billboards was created by a graphic design school graduate. It is a lucrative market that is highly competitive, but obtainable for students who complete an advanced graphic design program that specializes in advertising.

The U.S. Department of Labor and Statistics estimates that there were nearly 300,000 graphic designers working in the U.S. in 2008. This number is likely well over 300,000 by now. They also estimate that the job market will continue to grow through the rest of the decade, but that there will be keen competition among employees.

Although it is a competitive market, there are ways to make it easier to become a graphic designer that specializes in marketing; especially if he or she intends to become an online marketing graphic designer. The BLS says that those with specialized training in animation and web design have the best chances of landing a high paying job. But at minimum, hiring companies typically look for a graphic design school graduate who has earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design.

A bachelor’s degree program at a graphic design school typically incorporates print and advertising classes into the program’s curriculum. These classes are designed to teach graphic design students the principles and theories behind the graphic advertising profession and build confidence in their ability to apply what they’ve learned in a real-world market.

After completing a bachelor’s program at a graphic design school, graduates will be able to develop and clearly present graphic design solution to a client. This is a key principle in advertising, where pitching ideas is the common method of getting a contract for an advertising campaign. Research and analyzing a graphic design project for a marketing campaign is another core function of the graphic designer specializing in marketing and advertising, so many of a programs classes will be geared toward fine-tuning these skill sets.

The remaining classes in an advertising focused graphic design program will revolve around the art of graphic design; without which the other classes are unimportant. Therefore, schools include heavy art studies in the curriculum.

Art studies in a graphic design school include drawing skills that help with items such as logo development, communication of ideas, portfolio development according to the industry’s standards, typography and using type sets and fonts to influence emotion and behavior, and colors and composition classes. Colors and compositions will enable graphic design students to balance colors and designs within a graphic design concept as well as using layout and flow to influence the end user or viewer.

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Earning a Master’s Degree from a Graphic Design School

A master’s degree from an accredited graphic design school is a lot of work, but can pay off in big ways following graduation and landing that first job. A master’s degree in graphic design allows graduates to enter their profession at executive and managerial levels, as well as provides entry into educational fields. Graphic design graduates with this level of degree have reached the maximum in education for their field and are well qualified to teach university level graphic design classes, open a graphic design business of their own, or set out to invent the next “big thing” in graphic design.

All throughout their time in graphic design school, students learn how to be creative and develop the skills they need to grow in their industry. That includes research techniques, trending markets and consumer buying trends. It also includes the philosophy of art and graphic design, the theory of conceptualizing design work, and how to execute and present unique ideas to supervisors, clients, and business partners.

Graphic designers are part artist and part communicators, so a lot of emphasis is placed on the way that a design student’s art will come across to an audience. Will it make the audience want to buy a product? Believe in a program enough to make a donation? Choose the client’s services over the services offered by the competition? It is the graphic designer’s job to answer all of those questions within a single artistic creation, so graphic design schools weigh heavily the students ability to convey the message that the client intends to put out to the public.

A master’s degree in graphic design is an “MA” degree, or “Master of Arts”, and can set new designers ahead of the pack right out of college. Getting to graduation day may look like a long road when first entering into a graphic design program, but the rewards are certainly worth it. In order to enroll into an MA in Graphic Design program at a school, students need to have already built a strong portfolio of work and completed all of the prerequisite programs required by the graphic design school.

This means that students who want to enter into the MA program will first have to obtain lesser degrees successfully, while building their overall set of skills and the coveted “full” portfolio exhibiting their success as graphic design students. A master thesis project is the culmination of the graphic design degree and will require all of the student’s knowledge to complete successfully. The end of the program will typically require students to create an entire graphic design campaign that is totally unique and fresh, taking into account the trends of the contemporary market and the skills they will use in the real-world of graphic design as a designer.

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Earning a Graphic Design School Degree Online

Online degree programs are becoming more popular with every graduating class and industries like graphic design are the ideal fields of study when it comes to earning an online degree. Graphic design schools offer loads of training about technology, concepts, artistic styles, marketing, and more. It is one of the few schools of art in which nearly 100% of the occupation requires digital rendering and web-based or computer-based technology to execute.

For students who wish to attend graphic design school, the advent and acceptance of online degree programs is great news. The almost all-digital nature of graphic design makes it a completely relevant study in the online education genre. Furthermore, graphic design schools taught primarily through online courses force learners to become even more familiar with the technology they will inevitably use in the future: computer applications and internet-based marketing.

While not all graphic designers are entering the field of online marketing, the lion’s share of them do work in digital desktop publishing. There are far fewer limitations on the types of degrees that can be earned online from a graphic design school than most other occupations out there. Add to this the flexibility of online class schedules and the lowered cost of an online degree, and the perfect picture begins to develop.

So what kind of degrees can you earn online from a graphic design school? Associate of Arts (A.A), Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), and Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) makeup the majority of degree programs that can be completed through a primarily online curriculum. Degree levels allow students to choose exactly how detailed they will get in their education and the level of graphic design jobs for which they will be qualified to apply upon graduation.

With an online A.A. degree from a graphic design school, students are recognized to have an understanding of print and online technologies, concept development, brand management, typography, and packaging designs. New A.A. degree holders can apply for entry level positions in graphic design and work their way up to other positions or can work on their next level of degree.

With an online B.F.A. from a graphic design school, employers accept that the student knows everything that an A.A. student knows and that they are especially aware of the problem in various industries of marketing and design. They also learn about problem solving, learn how to be innovative with their designs, and are trained in the social causes for marketing strategies.

Online degree holders with an M.F.A. from an accredited graphic design school are believed to be the most well-trained college graduates once they’ve earned their master’s degree. In addition to all of the subordinate degree learning, these graphic designers are trained in public speaking to narrate graphic design concepts and have become strategy experts. Students with this type of degree from an online graphic design school are widely-accepted at most graphic design jobs after graduation and are the highest earners in the group.

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Contest Teaches Graphic Design Students about Self-Promotion

A contest sponsored by the Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation (GAERF) is out to teach students in graphic design classes how to sell themselves to potential employers in the future.

The “Why Hire Me?” contest is open for submission from graphic design instructors on behalf of students until June 15th, with prizes including up to $2,000 and a trip to the GRAPH EXPO 2012 in Chicago.

This is the fourth annual contest hosted by GAERF for student works. The contest is open to secondary and post secondary graphic design schools. Secondary graphic design instructors may submit up to 5 student campaigns, but post-secondary school teachers may submit an unlimited number of student designs for consideration in the contest.

The challenge of the Why Hire Me contest is to create a self-promoting marketing campaign that the student believes will put them a step-ahead of other professional competitors in the job market. To accomplish this task, however, student must consider which type of graphic design discipline they most desire to pursue.

Graphic designs students can choose from a wide array of career paths upon graduation in disciplines including art and design, science, and technology, communications, and business. Within each discipline, the student must further differentiate his or herself by choosing a specific job title, with options like web page designs, multimedia designer, cartoonists, package designers, pre-media specialist, production manager, editor, and many more.

One first place contest winner will be chosen from a post-secondary graphic design school and one from a secondary school before the GRAPH EXPO in October, along with a second and third place per type of school. First place prize for contestants, in addition to the all-expenses paid trip to the expo, is $2,000. Second place will be awarded $1,500 and third place will win $1,000.

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Graphic Design News

Rising Graphic Design Careers in Animation, Web Design

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), graphic design careers are expected to continue in stability and see an overall 13% growth in job through 2018.

But not all graphic design careers are the same and according to the most recent reports, the best sector for graphic designers is going to be in animation and web design.

As huge as the web has become, there seems to be a gap in the number of graphic designers choosing a career in this sector of the job market. Graphic design career paths can take designers into many facets of the art – from promotional packaging and displays to marketing and logo designs; some even develop the government signs and markers we see on the side of the roads.

However, the BLS report indicates that these types of jobs are very saturated and the competition can be fierce. It does identify one underserved area of design, however – web related graphic design careers will be the most open in the job market for new designers. While it can take 1 to 3 years of “paying the dues” in a lower-end job before any advancement opportunities open up, graphic designers with training in web design and animation stand to make $10,000 more annually than any other type of designer. Furthermore, those with this specialty training will face less competition until the market starts filling up in the next 4 years.

Education is an important part of this process, obviously. At most graphic design firms, a bachelors degree is the minimum requirement for qualifying for a job with no prior experience. However, for freelance graphic designers and those that intend to start a firm as quickly as possible, there are also plenty of trade schools and colleges where one can earn an Associate’s Degree and Certificate courses.