Graphic Designer | Roles, Skills & Career Outlook

Graphic Designer – Graphics are often considered the most important elements of a design to grab the user’s attention and hook them to the website or application. Graphic design is not just about coming up with logos for a company, a Graphic Designer covers every aspect of design – from designing logos to the front pages of your books.

In this article, we will discuss who is a Graphic Designer, what are the responsibilities of a Graphic Designer along with the tools and skills required to become a Graphic Designer.

Graphic Designer

What is Graphic Design?

Graphic design is the art of visually communicating ideas through typography, imagery, and layout. It involves creating compelling designs for various purposes such as branding, advertising, and digital media. Graphic designers use color, composition, and visual elements to convey messages effectively and evoke desired emotions.

What is a Graphic Designer?

A Graphic Designer is a professional responsible to designing graphics for an application, website, billboard, ad, etc. as well as implementing those graphics in the overall design. In many cases a Graphic Artist would design graphics for the Graphic designer who would then refine those graphics according to the website or application design and implement those graphics in the website or the application design.

What does a Graphic Designer do?

Graphic Designers develop design concepts, select appropriate imagery and typography, and use graphic design software to produce digital or print materials such as advertisements, logos, brochures, websites, and more by being updated on design trends and software advancements to continually refine their craft and meet the evolving needs of their clients.

Also, they collaborate with clients and team members, incorporate feedback, and ensure that final designs meet technical specifications and quality standards.

Graphic Designer Roles and Responsibilities

Roles and Responsibilities of Graphic Designer may vary from organization to organization, but here are the most common responsibilities that a Graphic Designer performs:

1. Creative Thinking

Creative Thinking is essential to both a Graphic Artist and a Graphic Designer. For a Graphic Designer creative thinking is more about coming with creative ideas about implementation of the visuals created by Graphic Artists.

2. Designing Graphics

As the name itself suggests, A Graphic Designer is responsible to design graphics and visual elements for an application or a website and implement them in the website or application design.

3. Manage Business and Clients

A Graphic Designer also has to be a business person in certain cases. They may have to manage client’s expectations like budgets, timelines and some other constrains.

4. Technical Knowledge

In addition to understand design, some of the companies also expect Graphic Designers to understand the fundamentals of software and the technical aspects of design.

Tools Used by Graphic Designers

These are some of the essential tools that are used by Graphic Designers:

• Adobe Photoshop: Adobe Photoshop is most popular graphics editing software till date. It is the first choice of most of the designers for its extensive list of features.
• Sketch: Sketch is a vector graphics editor for macOS. It is commonly used for wireframing and prototyping by web designers and graphic designers.
• Adobe Illustrator: Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editing tool that comes as a part of Adobe Creative Cloud suite and is used widely by Graphic Designers for designing Illustrations, Logos, Icons and other vector based graphics.
• Adobe Indesign: Adobe Indesign is a software used by Graphic designers for editing and designing Graphics for media companies, this includes designing pages for book covers, PDFs, magazines, etc.
• Adobe After Effects: Adobe After Effects is the most popular tool among professionals for designing effects and moving graphics. It is a highly professional software that is used by Graphic designers for designing animations, VFX and other effects.
• Pen and Paper: Pen and Paper is still quite popular tool for graphic designers to create rough sketches at the beginning for their workflow. It help in picturizing the initial concept of the Graphics.

Skills Required to be a Graphic Designer

These are some of the important skills that are required from a Graphic Designer:

Graphic Designer Hard Skills:

• Logo Design: Every company, startup or brand needs a logo and Logo design is a core skill of a graphic designer. On Platforms like Upwork there are more than 4,000 open jobs looking to hire people that can do logo design.
• Social Media Imagery: Graphic designers are also except to know the process of designing images that can be used by individuals or brands for their social media. On Platforms like Upwork there are more than 2,000 openings for Social Media images designers.
• Illustration Design: Illustration design is a core skill one must have as a Graphic Design, also this skills requires a little bit more expertise and mastery but also gets paid a lot better. On platforms like Upwork, right now there are more than 3,000 open positions looking for graphic designers skilled on illustration design.
• Infographics: more and more companies are starting to use infographics on their websites, this skill is quite usefull for getting a job or a freelance project. On Platforms like Upwork, you can see more than 2,000 open positions looking for graphic designers for Infographics.
• Brand Identity and Guidelines: Professional Graphic designers are expected to understand how to create a distinct Brand Identity. Again there are about 2,000 open positions on platforms like Upwork as of now.

Graphic Designer Soft Skills:

Soft Skills are crucial for communicating and presenting your ideas when you work with or on any organization. The most important soft skills required as a Graphic designer are:

• Communication & collaboration within the team.
• Empathy for others.
• Time management and punctuality.
• Critical thinking.
• A passion for web design.
• Being up-to-date with new trends and technologies in the market.

Graphic Designer Salary & Career outlook

Graphic Designing as a career comes with a handsome salary and good perks. The average Graphic Designer salary for a fresher without any experience in India ranges between 2Lakhs to 6Lakhs INR depending on the skill sets and the organization.

Meanwhile the average Graphic Designer salary for a fresher without any experience in the US ranges between $50k to $60k. This keeps on increasing as the experience adds up in your resume.

With opportunities in freelancing, specialization, and remote work, the career outlook for Graphic Designers remains promising due to ongoing demand for visually appealing content across industries.

Conclusion

A Graphic Designer is a professional responsible to designing graphics for an application, website, billboard, ad, etc. as well as implementing those graphics in the overall design. The role of Graphic Designer has a lot of perks and a very handsome salary as well.

But they do have a set of roles and responsibilities to take care of to justify those perks. According to surveys conducted by IBISWorld, there are about 2,50,000 Graphic Designing jobs in 2024 alone. The Graphic Designing industry employees more than 400k professional world wide.

A median Graphic Designer Salary is expected to be around $60,000 in the US. Graphic design is quite a well paying profession and enables you to express the creativity inside you.

Graphic Designer – FAQs

Is Graphic Design a good career?

Yes, Graphic Design can be a rewarding career for those passionate about creativity and problem-solving, offering versatility and opportunities for growth but its requires continuous skill development and adaptation to new technologies.

Can AI replace Graphic Designers?

It is less likely for AI to replace Graphic Designers since it can’t provide creative intuition and emotional intelligence that human graphic designers bring to their work.

What qualifications do you need to be a Graphic Designer?

To be a graphic designer, you typically need a formal education (like a bachelor’s degree in graphic design), technical proficiency in design software, and a strong portfolio.

Is Graphic Designer salary good?

The salary of a Graphic Designer can be rewarding with the average salary of a Graphic Designer being INR 7 LPA.

How long is a Graphic Design course?

A graphic design course typically ranges from a few months for certificates to four years for bachelor’s degrees.

Is there a future in Graphic Design?

Yes, as technology evolves and businesses continue to rely on visual communication, Graphic Designers will play a crucial role in creating engaging content for various platforms.