What's Hot About Graphic Designer? Everything From A To Z

In recent years, graphic design has become one of the hottest professions, especially attracting young people because of its dynamism, creativity and diverse career opportunities. Just scrolling through recruitment sites, you will see hundreds of posts looking for Graphic Designers every month from start-up companies to large corporations. Thanks to the strong development of technology and the Internet, the need for beautiful images that convey the right message is becoming a must if a brand wants to "score points" with customers. So who exactly is a Graphic Designer? What do they do and what skills do they need to "survive" in this challenging creative environment? Join SaDesign to explore the colorful world and opportunities behind the graphic design profession in the article below!

1. What is a graphic designer?

A graphic designer is a person who combines elements such as images and fonts into a design to convey a message or meaning to the viewer.

Nowadays, graphic design and the need for graphic designers appear everywhere in your life. It is present in the form of movie posters, billboards conveying interesting messages, propaganda posters or elegant magazines…

Each graphic designer's design work is expressed in different styles, but all aim at a single purpose: Directing customers to the designed object to convey the business's message.

2. The need for Graphic designers in businesses

Why do businesses need to hire graphic designers? That's because graphic designers are an important position that contributes to creating a brand for the business.

Graphic designers help companies sell products: Because to sell products, it is necessary to go through many marketing stages, in which bringing product images to potential customers is important and graphic designers are an indispensable position. The main task of graphic designers is to design posters, advertising banners hung in public places to bring messages to users. At the same time, they are the ones who edit advertising images to make them look gorgeous to create sympathy with fans, ... In short, graphic designers will have to make the product images as beautiful as possible to help businesses sell products, so the demand for graphic designers is increasing.

Graphic designers help attract readers’ attention: Have you ever hesitated to buy a book because its cover was too boring? Have you ever bought a newspaper and felt annoyed by the messy arrangement inside? If the answer is yes, then it is the responsibility of graphic designers. They are the ones who are responsible for designing book covers and arranging pages reasonably to improve and encourage people to read them.

On the contrary, if you have ever admired and marveled at interesting images, it is the work of graphic designers.

Graphic designers help build relationships: any business always tries to create a good impression and relationship with customers, suppliers, investors. For example, if you own an e-commerce website and need an investor. And the first thing the investor will pay attention to besides the product is the website design. That is the website design. If the interface of the website is not attractive, you can lose the opportunity with that business relationship.

Graphic designer is the person who presents ideas, as a freelance graphic designer who is proficient in design, you have the ability to communicate and express information quite well. For example, when writing your CV, if you do not have basic knowledge of graphics, you will have difficulty in knowing where to place the paragraph, what font size is appropriate, or what images to insert to make the employer have a good impression of you.

Nowadays, businesses are actively promoting their brands and investing heavily in their images. Therefore, the demand for Graphic Designers is not small, and you can easily get a suitable job if you meet the basic requirements of the employer.

3. Classification of graphic design industry

3.1. Classification by design and creativity level

Senior Graphic Designer: They are in charge of complex tasks from meeting clients to controlling the entire advertising campaign. The general tasks include everything from conceptualization and design from start to finish. The directors will monitor your work progress. The advantage of this position is creative freedom, control over the entire project, but the workload is quite large so you will often be stressed.

Designer: The work of this position focuses on a broader scope. A Designer will be responsible for talking directly to clients and participating in the process of conceptualizing, layout and artwork, under the supervision of a Senior Graphic Designer.

Art Director: Within Graphic Designer this is the most controversial position, The shift in focus from designer to the marketing role of Art Director will be quite difficult.

3.2. Classification by expertise

3.2.1. Brand identity design
It can be said that brand identity plays an extremely important role for every business. Graphic Designer is the person who is responsible for designing the logo, will have to create the symbol, choose the font, color and image to match the brand personality.

To do well in this field, graphic designers need not only knowledge of graphics but also marketing and branding. In addition, they also need communication skills, the ability to research the market, customers, and competitors of the business.

In particular, they must constantly update new design trends.

Brand identity design includes:

Core brand identity includes Brand name, logo & symbol, slogan...
Basic office identification includes business cards, envelopes, document clips, invoices, employee cards, uniforms, etc.
Media publications include Company Profile, Product/Project Introduction, Advertising Posters, Website, Landing Pages, TVC...
3.2.2. Marketing and advertising design
Marketing and advertising design has long been favored by businesses as a way to boost sales and influence customers' purchasing decisions. Therefore, graphic designers or freelance graphic designers in this field create images with impressive and attractive content, helping businesses promote their brands.

In today's graphic design world, this is the field that many designers work in due to the growing number of publications.

Graphic Designers working in the advertising field, in addition to being proficient in design software such as Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, must also have a firm grasp of printing processes and technical specifications on online platforms.

Graphic designer is the person who designs posters, flyers, banners, menus, and email marketing for businesses.

3.2.3. Web interface design and applications
The interface of the website is considered the face of the business. A beautifully designed and professional web interface will bring stronger trust to customers.

Graphic designers designing interfaces must focus on visual experience and graphic elements such as buttons, menus... Therefore, the task of graphic designers is to balance attractiveness with functional efficiency.

Unlike other fields of Graphic Design, in this area, in addition to being proficient in graphic software, you need basic knowledge of programming such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript as well as working closely with UX designers and UI developers to produce quality and effective products.

The job of a graphic designer in web design is to design landing pages, icons or buttons for websites, design interfaces optimized for mobile applications...

3.2.4. Packaging and label design
Packaging design is no longer just about containing and protecting products, today it has also become a place for businesses to convey the brand behind each product. The art of packaging design is a combination of visual knowledge and brand image.

The work of graphic designers in packaging design spans many fields: fast-moving consumer goods, chemical and cosmetic industries, electronics, etc. To undertake this position, they need to have a solid knowledge of printing and industrial design. In addition, they must be flexible in meeting the needs of manufacturers as well as constantly updating consumer tastes.

Packaging and label design: Box design, bottle design, jar design....

3.2.5. Book cover design and publications
Traditional printed books, newspapers, magazines, etc. are typical products in the field of printing and publishing.

In addition to design expertise, graphic designers need to have basic knowledge of journalism, color management, printing and digital to do this job well. The software used mainly in this field is QuarkXPress and InDesign.

3.2.6. Television and audio graphic design
Graphic designers are required to create iconic animations for use in television show trailers. This requires graphic designers to have good imagination and conceptual skills.

Besides, in addition to being good at using software: After Effect, Adobe Photoshop, Motion Builder, May... graphic designers or freelance graphic designers need to be creative and regularly update new design trends that are popular with the public.

3.2.7. Game design
The task of graphic designers and freelance graphic designers designing games is to design unique characters, environments and create animations for the characters. To do that, you need to be proficient in art software: 3DS Max, Maya, Blender, Zbrush…

And graphic designers also need to understand code knowledge (HTML, CSS...) to support game interface design.

3.2.8. Design 3D visual effects
The form of designing images, 3D graphics to replace scenes that cannot be filmed, will create vividness for movies. To do this, graphic designers need to understand the techniques of creating images, knowledge of 3D graphics, and be proficient in software: Maya, Blender, Adobe Premier, After Effect, Cinema 4D...

4. Software that helps graphic designers be more successful in their work

4.1. Basic Photoshop software

Adobe Photoshop is an editing software developed and published by Adobe Systems. Photoshop is considered the market leader in image editing and is the standard software used in the graphic design industry.

4.2. GIMP image processing software

GIMP (short for “GNU Image Manipulation Program”) is a software used by graphic designers to process images developed by GNU. This is a software that helps create and process array graphic designs, but also supports vector graphics and is completely free.

4.3. Draw illustrations in Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is a vector drawing software. This graphic designer software is commonly used to draw illustrations, cartoons, diagrams, charts and icons.

Adobe Illustrator is also a flexible application that can support graphic designers to create high-quality works. With the ability to create and edit easily, Illustrator will help graphic designers create professional graphic publications.

4.4. Inkscape free photo editing software

Inkscape is a free photo editing software that allows users to create vector edits, resize photos while maintaining the original image quality.

If you are looking for a cheap and easy to use software then Inkscape is a reasonable candidate.

4.5. Diverse features - Corel Draw

Corel DRAW is a design software that possesses many useful features. Artists, graphic designers and technical illustrators in the country as well as in the world use Corel DRAW more than other similar tools, perhaps because of its sophisticated creativity and superior speed.

4.6. Indesign printing design

InDesign is also a software of Adobe. This software is used by graphic designers to design print and electronic layout, helping to create diverse products such as catalogs, brochures, magazines, newspapers, books, forms, CD labels, flyers, leaflets, etc.

InDesign is a solution for graphic designers to create graphics-intensive and highly accurate documents. It can be perfectly combined with other professional graphic design applications, especially Adobe graphic applications to create quality works.

5. Is Graphic Designer the career for you?

If you have the following characteristics, graphic design will be the industry "born for you":

Be creative within limits: Creativity is a must to survive in the graphic design environment. However, that does not mean you are allowed to be creative "as far as the eye can see", but will be subject to the management or control of the boss or partner company.

Love images and colors: If you have ever been fascinated by colorful advertising banners or "dazed" by beautiful "heart-stopping" photos, then Graphic Designer is a very suitable profession for you.

Not a lazy job: It can be said that Graphic Designer has never been a leisurely job. This is a job that requires creativity, so it certainly won't be easy. If you decide to follow the path of Graphic Designer, be prepared to face pressure and stress when you are out of ideas but still have to meet daily and monthly deadlines. You also have to accept working more than 8 hours a day because the working hours of a Graphic Designer are very flexible. If you know how to organize your work, you can work less, but if you are close to the deadline and still don't have any ideas, you will have to wake up early and work overtime to keep up with the project's progress.

Eager to learn: Graphic design is a field that constantly has to update design trends, so you always have to learn to keep up with the flow of the industry.

Willing to learn foreign languages: If you decide to pursue this industry "long term", it is obvious that you must improve your foreign language skills to learn design trends from abroad.

Thank you for taking the time to read the article. SaDesign hopes that after reading, you will have a comprehensive view and confidence to realize your dream of becoming a professional Graphic Designer . Wish you success and always maintain the endless flame of creativity!