All careers have their benefits and drawbacks. When it comes to graphic design, there are plenty of phenomenal advantages. After all, if you’re the one with the creative, strategic mindset that most graphic designers have, you’ll most likely find much of the design work very fulfilling.
However, just like all jobs, there can be downsides, too. Knowing the highs and lows of a position beforehand can take some of the shock value away from the inevitable job discoveries you’ll make. If creating visual concepts, collaborating with others, and inspiring, informing, and captivating consumers through design excites you, why not find out a little more about what a job in graphic design entails?
We made a list of advantages and disadvantages to figure out the true pros and cons of being a graphic designer so you can walk into the job with your eyes wide open.
WHO ARE GRAPHIC DESIGNERS?
Graphic designers are visual communicators who create concepts using specialized graphic design software. They communicate ideas to inspire, inform, or captivate consumers through both physical and virtual art forms that include images, words, or graphics. By constant communication with clients, customers, and other designers, they ensure that their designs accurately reflect the desired message and effectively express information.
Graphic designers combine art and technology to communicate ideas by using a variety of design elements to achieve artistic or decorative effects. They develop the overall layout and production design for advertisements, brochures, magazines, and corporate reports. This usually starts out by producing rough illustrations of design ideas, either by hand sketching or by using a computer program.
JOB PROFILE:
Job Description: Graphic designers create nice pictures and graphics that are published in printed or electronic formats for educational, entertaining or advertising purposes.
Salary: According to BLS, the mean annual wage for graphic designers in the U.S. in 2018 is $54,680.
Job Security: Decent since good graphic designers are in high demand right now.
Job Satisfaction: Good if you love to be creative at work.
Work-Life Balance: Good since you will have free weekends and also don’t have to work at nighttime as a graphic designer.
Physical or Mental Work: Mentally demanding.
Future Outlook: Decent since good graphic designers will always be needed in the future.
Requirements: You need a degree to become a graphic designer.
IMPORTANCE OF GRAPHIC DESIGN
A businessman imagines running a successful business online without paying for digital marketing. Digital marketing has become a prime requisite in every business or marketer’s arsenal. And graphic design works as fuel in igniting the marketing for your company to reach out to people and capture their attention. Digital marketing can't be done without Graphic Designers.
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The roles and importance of graphic designers to make a business are:
1. Impression
A powerful first impression is a must if you want to leave an impact on your target audience. Impressive graphic design is a true demonstration of your business principles and helps in initiating a powerful first impression in the minds of your prospects and returning customer.
2. Brand Identity
A well-planned graphic design strategy is important for a business to establish its image and remain visually consistent throughout its marketing efforts. Using the art of graphic design will help in improving the brand identity, rebranding of company, and brand recognition of a company.
3. Visualizing Information
If you are an entrepreneur you have a brand story that you would like to share with the world. Graphic design communicates your brand story with your target audience in the form of images, reports, charts, illustrations, etc., and attracts their attention to your brand’s offerings.
4. Increase Sales
Good graphic design will help a business to gain high visibility which in turn can lead to increased sales. Attractive visuals, effective communication of ideas, higher visibility and enhanced credibility push traffic to your brand. Increased traffic leads to more opportunities.
5. Credibility
Consistency in your brand’s appearance, online and on the street, will build trust and credibility. And your brand can evolve and be added to. Refreshing your website is something you can do on a regular basis and you can reduce your reliance on printed materials which is much more cost-effective.
ADVANTAGES OF BEING A GRAPHIC DESIGNER
ADVANTAGES:
1. Can Make Decent Money
2. Use of Creative and Analytical Brain Parts
3. Appreciation for your Work
4. Highly Coveted Skills
5. Steady Demand
6. Can Work From Home
7. Can be Creative
8. Can Work for Many Companies
9. Can be Self-Employed
10. Can Make Money on Side
11. Good Life Balance
12. Can get Benefit from Social Sites
13. Can Avoid Physical Work
14. Good Job Prospects
15. Secured Future
1. Can Make Decent Money
One advantage of being a graphic designer is that you can make decent money from what you are doing. While most graphic designers will not get rich, most of them still make enough money to cover their basic expenses and to afford some nice things from time to time.
In fact, graphic designers make a little bit more than the average person and it is therefore not the worst choice for sure when it comes solely to financial considerations. If you work really hard, you may even be able to earn a six-figure income and make more than most other people make from their jobs.
2. Use of Creative and Analytical Brain Parts
The interesting thing about graphic design is that you get to employ opposite functions of your brain as you work. There’s a theory out there that the right hemisphere is responsible for creative thinking, art awareness, and 3-D forms, whereas the left hemisphere is the side that helps you think with logic, facts, and sequencing.
As a graphic designer, you’re not only coming up with creative ways to shape logos and form graphics, but you’re also thinking logically about how to use the tools in InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. There can be measurements and numbers involved, and if you’re a freelancer, you’ll have to think logically about how to manage your business, send invoices, and keep track of what you owe for taxes.
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3. Appreciation for Your Work
Graphic design is visual, and most people are quickly drawn to eye-catching and impactful graphics. As the creator of visual representations, it’s only natural that you’ll end up getting lots of recognition for your work.
Whether you’re designing medals for marathons, a new logo and set of brand standards for a company or a large-scale graphic for a hallway in a building, chances are high that people will notice and compliment you on your excellent work.
4. Highly Coveted Skills
Graphic design is a skill that is widely coveted in many industries and can be seen as a bonus if you ever decide to move in the direction of marketing or entrepreneurship.
All businesses need design work completed in some fashion or form. Whether it’s their main company logo, brochures advertising services, or website graphics, the need for designers is high. If you end up pursuing another focus in your career, you’ll only be seen as more valuable for your skills in graphic design.
5. Steady Demand
Digital Platforms are one of the best places in the World to launch a graphic design career. The Internet has a large number of graphic design firms, advertising agencies, web services companies, and other organizations that hire designers.
The stable demand for designers is giving the occupation 2 out of 3 stars for employment outlook over the next 3 years. Just keep in mind, that this field is competitive to break into. You'll need to complete a quality graphic design program and assemble a strong portfolio, to land a good job and grow your career.
6. Can Work From Home
While some people like construction workers, roofers or service technicians often have to work outdoors during rain or even snow, you will be able to enjoy a rather cozy work environment as a graphic designer and can even enjoy a nice tea or coffee.
You can also use our modern technologies and also make use of air conditioning and heating to make your life at work as convenient as possible.
7. Can be Creative at work
Another benefit of a graphic designer is that you can be really creative at work. In fact, you need to be creative to succeed in this field in the long run.
Another benefit of being a graphic designer is that you can be really creative at work. In fact, you need to be creative to succeed in this field in the long run. further every day and chances are that you will never get bored with what you are doing and can really enjoy your time at work.
8. Can Work For Many Companies
Due to our digitalized world, graphic designers are needed in several different industries and you will be free to choose in what niche you want to specialize. Hence, this will also make it rather easy for you to quit your job and to work for someone else in case you are no longer satisfied with the working conditions.
In turn, you will have options, and having options is crucial for a happy life since only if you have options, you will have the freedom to do what you want and you will also have peace of mind regarding your overall prospects in life.
9. Can be Self-Employed
Many graphic designers work on their own or even have their own graphic design businesses. If you want to be free to structure your day and to do what you want every minute of your workday, chances are that a career as a self-employed graphic designer will be much more suitable for you compared to just working as a normal employee.
It is also pretty easy to start your own business in this field since you will barely have any upfront costs and if you are willing to work really hard and also have a certain talent for graphic design, you can make money quickly as a graphic designer.
10. Can Make Money on the Side
If you are really good at graphic design and are also willing to work after finishing your day job, you will also be able to make really good money on the side. In fact, there are more than enough jobs for graphic designers out there that you could do as a freelancer and this means that you will have additional income opportunities in case you urgently need money.
Consequently, you will be pretty flexible regarding how much you actually want to work depending on your individual circumstances.
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11. Good Life Balance
Most people who work in this field are pretty happy with the overall working conditions and some of them would be willing to work even more.
Hence, becoming a graphic designer can also make quite a lot of sense for you in case you want to have enough leisure for your hobbies or your family and still want to make decent money at the same time.
12. Can get Benefits from Social Sites
As a graphic designer, you will also have the great opportunity to leverage social media channels to promote your work. Many popular graphic designers started out as normal people and just shared their work on the internet.
However, they got famous pretty soon by sharing their work on YouTube and other social media channels. Thus, if you want to become a popular graphic designer, you should definitely leverage those channels as well since they are free to use and you can build a huge audience in a rather short period of time.
13. Can Avoid Physical Work
While your work as a graphic designer can be mentally demanding, you will still not have to do heavy physical work.
In turn, you will often have more energy left when you come home from work compared to welders, roofers, or construction workers who have to work in a heavy physical manner all day long and will often come home tired and without any motivation to meet up with people after work or to do other fun things.
14. Good Job Prospects
Graphic designers also have pretty decent job prospects right now. Sure, not every graphic designer will be able to work for one of the renowned companies that offer a great work-life balance and a nice salary at the same time.
However, if you are willing to put in the work and to improve your skills further every day, chances are that you will be finally good enough to work for one of these companies and that you will also have many options for whom you want to work in general.
15. Secured Future
Since our world becomes more digital every day, you will also have pretty good future job prospects as a graphic designer. If you always stay up-to-date with the latest graphic design software, you will never struggle with finding a good job. Hence, also your job prospects in the future will be pretty decent as long as you are willing to always learn and progress.
Now that you know all the advantages of working as a graphic designer, you might think that this would be the perfect job for you. However, it is still not all upside and we also have to talk about the downsides that come along with a graphic designer career so that you get a more realistic picture of reality and can better decide whether you still want to work in this field or not.
DISADVANTAGES OF BEING A GRAPHIC DESIGNER
DISADVANTAGES:
1. Most Designers don't get rich
2. Design is Subjective
3. Everyone Thinks it's an Easy Job
4. Competitive Job
5. Criticism and Demanding Clients
6. Working All Day on Computer
7. Jobs May Outsourced
8. Need Degree for Job
9. Some Designers Struggle to Pay Student Loan
10. Relying on your Parents
11. Limited Promotions
12. May Feel Lonely
13. May Get Lazy
14. Health Effects
15. Results Take Time
1. Most Designers Don't Get Rich
One problem with being a graphic designer is that you will likely just not get wealthy or even rich from what you are doing for a living. Sure, many graphic designers are able to make decent money from their jobs. Especially if you live in an expensive region, you may just not be able to afford any luxury since you will have to spend most of your money on rent and other basic things.
Consequently, if money and luxury are really important to you and you just don’t want to live a basic life, you may rather want to strive for a different career instead of becoming a graphic designer.
2. Design is Subjective
Everyone has opinions about what they think looks good. Beauty is subjective, so what you make as a graphic designer and consider attractive might not be the same thing your client enjoys. Everyone has an opinion about what you create.
The unfortunate part of this truth is that, generally, you’ll need to appease your client and that might mean designing a logo or graphic that doesn’t have the look and feel you would have naturally chosen. This also means having to scrap or significantly change a design you feel strongly about.
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3. Everyone Thinks it's an Easy Job
You’ll find out pretty quickly that many clients and people think graphic design is simple. Assumptions about how long it will take you to design something can be disheartening, especially because graphic design requires a very specific skill set. Friends might ask you to create posters for free, and businesses might not recognize the potential you offer.
It’s also important to rally for your pricing and hold fast to your cost. No one will want to pay you what you're worth. It’s up to you to stand up for yourself and the value of your work.
4. Competitive Job
There are a lot of freelance designers out there, as well as a lot of agencies, so the market is competitive, meaning you’ll really have to market yourself. You have to have a portfolio in order to get work, but it’s tough to create a portfolio without work.
If you’re looking for ways to beef up your portfolio, keep in mind that you can always include design projects from your time in school or at an internship. There are also plenty of organizations that will take your designs for free. There’s no shame in designing a few free logos or posters for a worthy cause in order to build experience.
5. Criticism and Demanding Clients
This is where the challenging aspect of graphic design. Remember, graphic designers don't design to please themselves. They have to work within client guidelines. That means sticking to a budget, understanding exactly what each client needs, and delivering a final product that meets their expectations.
And if your design solution doesn't impress, you'll have to accept the criticism, learn from it, and try again. There's often quite a lot of back-and-forth with big design projects. It takes a lot of edits to get client approval on a final design concept. You'll need to negotiate with clients, deal with their demands, and stay professional as you work toward a solution. This process can be long and frustrating at times.
6. Working All Day on Computer
Graphic designers also have to work in a classical office environment for most of their workday. In fact, you will just do most of the work with the help of a computer since you can do your work just much quicker.
Consequently, you will also have to stare at a computer screen for many hours per day and this will not only hurt your eyes in the long run, but it may also make you tired and you may even burn out in the long run. If you rather want to do hands-on work instead of computer work.
7. Jobs May Outsourced
While job prospects for graphic designers are pretty decent right now, they may become worse in the future since many jobs will be outsourced to low-wage countries in the long run. In fact, people in third-world countries will often do the same job for a small fraction of the wage people in high-wage countries will demand and this gives companies the incentive to outsource part of the work.
Sure, if you are really good at what you are doing, chances are that you will still have pretty decent job prospects as a graphic designer.
8. Need Degree for Job
Most companies out there also require you to have a degree if you want to work for them as a graphic designer.
In turn, this means that you will have to spend lots of time and money on education and you should therefore make sure that graphic design is really what you want to do for a living for quite a long time to make it worth the investment you have to make upfront.
9. Some Designers Struggle to Pay Student Loan
If you are not wealthy enough, you might also have to take on student loans to finance your studies.
However, you will also have to pay back those student loans sooner or later and this may financially constrain you in the future and may also prevent you from financing a home rather early in your life.
10. Relying on Your Parents
Due to the significant costs related to college education, you may also stay dependent on your parents for quite a long time.
Hence, while many of your friends who start working right after high school will make enough money to stand on their own feet, you will often have to go to college for quite a long time before you make significant amounts of money.
11. Limited Promotions
Many graphic designers also really struggle to get promoted.
While you may get a raise from time to time, you will still do the same job for quite long since real promotions are pretty rare in this field and you will therefore do similar jobs like people who just started your career.
12. May Feel Lonely
Graphic designers also work on their own for an extended period of time. Quite often, you will simply not have that many collaboration opportunities with your colleagues and will rather work on your own projects.
In turn, working as a graphic designer may become pretty lonely in the long run and social isolation may also become a serious issue.
13. May Get Lazy
Another downside of working as a graphic designer is that you may just get lazy.
Since you will work in front of a computer screen all day long, you will just not get any physical exercise and this may not only be pretty bad for your health, but you may just lose the motivation to go out and to really do things.
14. Health Effects
Due to the lack of exercise at work, there may also be the need to go to the gym if you want to stay fit and in shape as a graphic designer.
Otherwise, you might just gain weight and become obese in the long run, with all the unpleasant issues that might come along with it.
15. Results Take Time
Another disadvantage of a career as a graphic designer is that you will also not see results quickly.
Quite often, you will work on your projects for weeks or even months before you produce results that are really valuable.
This can be really frustrating since you will just not get the immediate satisfaction from your work as other people like construction workers who see the results of their labor every day do.
Pros And Cons Of Being A Graphic Designer
PROS | CONS |
1. Can Make Decent Money | 1. Most Designers don't get rich |
2. Use of Creative and Analytical Brain Parts | 2. Design is Subjective |
3. Appreciation for your Work | 3. Everyone Thinks it's a Easy Job |
4. Highly Coveted Skills | 4. Competitive Job |
5. Steady Demand | 5. Criticism and Demanding Clients |
6. Can Work From Home | 6. Working All Day on Computer |
7. Can be Creative | 7. Jobs May Outsourced |
8. Can Work for Many Companies | 8. Need Degree for Job |
9. Can be Self-Employed | 9. Some Designers Struggles to Pay Student Loan |
10. Can Make Money on Side | 10. Relying on your Parents |
11. Good Life Balance | 11. Limited Promotions |
12. Can get Benefit from Social Sites | 12. May Feel Lonely |
13. Can Avoid Physical Work | 13. May Get Lazy |
14. Good Job Prospects | 14. Health Effects |
15. Secured Future | 15. Results Take Time |
CONCLUSION
As you can see, there are many advantages and disadvantages of being a graphic designer.
You should definitely take your time and evaluate all the pros and cons of a graphic designer career carefully so that you can make a profound decision regarding this important topic and can stay happy and motivated for quite a long time.
