Graphic Design Artist Career Basic 101

Photo Credit: Jordanhill School D&T Dept on Flickr. folio effort by Rasheeda Ahmed - CC Some rights reserved.

Going through college (years ago) computers were barely in the classrooms for art. Sure they were there for English and Journalism, but the money wasn't funded yet. I think the school boards weren't sure about why the art department would even need a computer. So one teacher somehow got one computer in a tiny room beside the class. Well I was the only one that seemed interested and he showed me a few things on the computer. He gave me a design program, it fit onto 10 floppy disks! That must have been 10-12MB.

Graphic Design has changed the way we do things. It's actually easier now to share your artwork than ever before. Much cheaper too. Back then, in the early 90's, when we had an art piece to sell, it had (sometimes still does) to be printed in large numbers. Now there is print on demand and the internet. Your customer wants just one print, it's in the mail. They want to see a proof of the logo design, it's already done! Just check your inbox.

Photo: boboroshi / John Athayde on Flickr. CC Some rights reserved.

My last year in college a teacher found me a job at a printing company. This is where I started computer training. I learned Quark, Freehand and Illustrator. I had to get documents ready for press. I had to design stationary, catalogs, cards, scan images and type. Typing is something you will do a lot. It helps to know how to write and know grammar (?). At that time, the company probably only used internet for the office up front, like for emails. There wasn't a network like we have now in offices.

Photo: L Hollis Photography / Landin Hollis on Flickr. SA, CC Some rights reserved.

Typography was one of my favorites to focus on. Some projects in one class were to take a magazine ad, put tracing paper over it, using markers color it exactly the same. From there it was to examine the elements and placement of things. Then with the same ad make a new one, but design it better. Which was almost impossible because they were already perfectly designed!

Photo: Jordanhill School D&T Dept on Flickr. CC Some rights reserved.

It was a few months later, one of my teachers got a call from an advertising agency looking to hire an art student. He gave me the information and I applied for the job. What helped me here the most was a few things:
1. My teacher's support!
2. My college portfolio!!
3. Hard work on art projects while other students did little effort. Typography & Design.
4. Printing samples from the printing company I was at.

My portfolio was organized with relative information. Showing my typography abilities, paintings and drawings. What my interviewer liked the most were the newspaper ads, brochures and printing examples that I collected in my printing prepress job. These were more of the skills the agency wanted to see.

Photo: VFS Digital Design on Flickr. CC Some rights reserved.

Things change so fast now. Especially with technology,
so try and keep up and stay in the loop!

Photo: chinnian on Flickr. SA, CC Some rights reserved.

Photo: vancouverfilmschool on Flickr. CC Some rights reserved.

"The Creative Spirit" it's a four part series well worth it!

If your a christian or thinking about becoming one.... and you need a little spiritual help in your creative resources, I recommend this download available at Streams Ministries. Click Here.

Photo Credit: thinkpublic on Flickr. ND, CC Some rights reserved.