Today I received a phone call from a student who is graduating soon and she wants to come by the studio for a few hours to learn what a day is like for a graphic designer. It reminded me of an answer I posted on the same topic in “Yahoo! Answers” — The question was:
Graphic design… college grad question…?
What advice do you feel is important for a fresh college grad without experience to know about the field?
Here was My reply -
Graphic design is creative and can be very fast paced. The challenging part is designing something the client likes under a tight deadline. A graphic designer will also spend the day inside, usually on a mac. Regarding the software, the most popular are Adobe’s; perhaps with the exception of Quark (a layout program primarily used for jobs that are going to press).
Usually, most new designers will start as production artist. Their jobs usually requires working from templates, where the layout stays the same but the client information will change. Typically, the production artist is hired at places like: newspapers, coupon book companies or saturation magazines like the Penny Saver -In my experience these jobs pay between $9.00-$12.00 an hour.
As a designer becomes faster and more experienced (about 3-5 years) they will move to a more creative role working for ad agencies or moving up the company ladder. The pay can vary, but an experienced graphic designer
