Should You Specialize as a Graphic Designer? (The Graphic Design Ladder Explained)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
- A subscriber asked: how do you specialise or find your niche as a graphic designer? In this video, I answer this question by looking at the design ladder.
#graphicdesign #branding #design
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I'm glad you brought this topic because there are a lot of people putting big titles on themselves that in the end an HR from a company chooses someone without real talent and experience and they ending hiring someone because they just believe in what their CV says and not in their portfolio. I started as a graphic designer in 2015 but I decided to specialize in UX/UI at the beginning of last year and I'm in my second job in this specialization that I can tell you that when I started my graphic design eye and knowledge helped me to create beautiful mobile interfaces and Is because all design principles apply to everything. In my current job, I'm playing the role of UX/UI Designer but someone else that has only a year of experience in UX started as a Senior! And is funny because is evidence of how they are learning in the process and even I know more about design and using Figma but I'm not a "Senior". And when I was working for advertising agencies was the same a lot of people saying they are Art Directors and leaving bad compositions, no using negative spaces, no matching colors hahaha. I do prefer my work speaks for me than my title. Greetings from Honduras!
Most people think they are art directors because they are "directing" themselves - which is ridiculous. I always assume most people on linkedin have 1-2 degrees less of what they say. So if they say: I am an Art Director, I assume this person is a mid weight graphic designer. And totally agree, people worry about their titles but not their work, and their work ultimately suck. If I am hiring, I only care about the work, and I can see from a mile away when someone is fake. Anyway, I have a video about LinkedIn titles coming up soon ; )
@@designthescenes Super! keep going with great content! Expose them all! hahah
Great video. The Design field is nowadays more complex than ever, someone has to delineate all these intricacies... thank you.
I really enjoy your videos and find them really helpful! I'm so glad to have found your channel 😊
Thank you! happy to have you around!
Thank you mr. Alex for making this video.
Love from Bangladesh
And congrats for reaching 1k subscribers.
Thanks to you
Update: Apparently, after reading many blogs and articles, the situation has changed and this is why it is so confusing:
Back in the days, you needed 8-10 years to be a senior, but it seems nowadays it's only 5. And after you have 5 years of experience, the next role you would take is the one of the director.
So the industry, even though I don't like this concept much, thinks as the design ladder this way:
JUNIOR:1-2
MEDIOR:2-5
SENIOR: 5+
And the design ladder is as follows:
JUNIOR > MEDIOR > SENIOR > ART DIRECTOR > CREATIVE DIRECTOR
My opinion in this is that 5 years of experience is not enough to do that much impressive work, even less to take responsibility, but it is just my opinion, just wanted you to have what the industry seems to dictate today.
I'm a senior disruption innovation design entrepreneur. 🤗
Don't forget to throw Consultant in there too
LOL! 😂
@@designthescenesHaha! 😂
Thx for the updates💡
Any time!
A very nice video.
I do mainly illustrations, occasional UI designs and I'm a certified web designer.
I love all 3 but do you have any advice for me?
if you do illustrations and some UI, and love web design, you best bet is to use Digital Designer as a title. You can keep improving and finding out what you like in the future, but no rush no specialize ; )
Plz make a series on How a brand is being developed (Includes Brand Naming, Brand Positioning, Tone, Voice, Character, Logo design, Logo presentation, Word Cloud, Brand Guidelines, Brand Presentation, Social media campaign, etc ). It will really be helpful for all of us. Thanks in advance. Sry i forget to mention, your videos are really helpful to me.
Thanks Anup, what you ask is a very broad matter and not something that I can do in a few videos. You forgot to add the most important topic which is creative strategy on Brand design. I might make an online brand design course in the future, but not any time soon. At the moment I am only reviewing work and making short videos about different topics. Once I have many more followers, I might revisit the idea of creating something with more depth, as you suggest ; )
You are so helpful. Thanks
You are so welcome!
Thanks for clarifying things. What if a designer has at least 2 years of informal experience (freelance work, involvement in organizations, internships or participating in contests) prior to graduating? Would this experience determine whether they qualify for a junior or mid-level role based on their years of practice?
Still junior, all experience counts, specially at the beginning you are getting to use the software which takes also a while to be proficient.
@@designthescenesI see. Thanks for the immediate response!
What do you mean by nichie on conceptual design? 😊
Specialise in coming up with ideas ; )
I do like your videos but not really agree with this one.
Firstly, we should split design to 2 sections like: Look/Feel or Outside/Inside or Skin/Bone(structure), you name it.
Anything relates to the appearance, it’s still Graphic Design but UX isn’t one of them. Take a look on their work of process to get the insight.
Secondly, I believe we should not judge a person's ability by the number of years but by What they did - How they did and What they got after a project. This one is a fairest way to see someone’s level.
Fair point mate. UX design by itself is different today. But since most people use UI/UX design together, those who do that are graphic designers.
I also agree to judge a person ability by their work (that's what I do) but my point was not about judging anyone but rather assessing their real level based on their real experience rather than made up title (which is usually inflated or confusing). But of course, there are exceptions, some senior designers are not that good and some juniors are really good, I am talking in general terms.