anybody study know or is a grafic designer ??????????????

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hey guys, considering going back to school for... you guessed it grafic design , wondering if any of of you guys have experience with it. im concerned it will be very difficult to get a job after school

thanks
 
May help knowing how to spell graphic, for starters.
 
mmmnaked said:
May help knowing how to spell graphic, for starters.
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I LOLed! Indeed. Spelling is a big part of being a graphic designer. If you cannot be trusted to proofread, your career will be short and painful.

+++++++++++++

I've been a graphic designer for over 15 years now. The job market now, as it was then, is over-saturated with designers. Too many seagulls squabbling over a crumb of bread. Competition is fierce and the pay has slowly gone from pretty damn good to absolutely pathetic. That is, if you can find work. As a matter of fact, I was talking with a headhunter at one of my old agencies today about this and was told that, "The market has been absolutely dismal the last two years. Clients have laid off (like crazy). There are a lot of people out there, the whole ‘social marketing’ thing is growing quickly and several small businesses have disappeared."

I'm telling you now, if you want to get work here in graphic design, you'd better already be working in a studio by the start of the second year of your three year college program. That's what I did years ago and it worked for me. My friends from college did meh, some never did find work in the field, and one still makes pretty much minimum wage slugging out weekly flyers for Shoppers Drug Mart.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but better you hear it now.
 
Take my advice, get into real estate.
 
stormcat said:
I LOLed! Indeed. Spelling is a big part of being a graphic designer. If you cannot be trusted to proofread, your career will be short and painful.

+++++++++++++

I've been a graphic designer for over 15 years now. The job market now, as it was then, is over-saturated with designers. Too many seagulls squabbling over a crumb of bread. Competition is fierce and the pay has slowly gone from pretty damn good to absolutely pathetic. That is, if you can find work. As a matter of fact, I was talking with a headhunter at one of my old agencies today about this and was told that, "The market has been absolutely dismal the last two years. Clients have laid off (like crazy). There are a lot of people out there, the whole ‘social marketing’ thing is growing quickly and several small businesses have disappeared."

I'm telling you now, if you want to get work here in graphic design, you'd better already be working in a studio by the start of the second year of your three year college program. That's what I did years ago and it worked for me. My friends from college did meh, some never did find work in the field, and one still makes pretty much minimum wage slugging out weekly flyers for Shoppers Drug Mart.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but better you hear it now.
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much appreciated, yeah a few of my friends told me that a lot of their coworkers started with GD and ended up doing something else cause its too hard to find a job.

when you say yours frd from college did meh you mean they did find jobs but jsut doing so so?
 
My wifey went to school for graphic design and got her diploma, but had an incredibly difficult time getting any work. Anything that was entry level paid minimum wage, and there weren't that many jobs to begin with. She works in a different field now, but occasionally does some freelance work on the side. It's definitely not a career aspiration I'd recommend to anyone, unless you're very well connected or don't mind slogging through **** jobs for years before making a living wage.
 
My friend graduated top of his class through Humber and can't find work at all. He is still just getting by doing the odd freelance work. It tough out there.

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Ya seriously dude, stay away from Graphic Design, I went to school for it a few years ago, after my first year of full time work, I got laid off, went freelance, but that was just too hard. To much competition and most of it will work for minimum wage, so asking for more will get you nothing.
I ended up turning to desktop publishing, which deals with more text then design, so again another field you should stay clear of.
 
I worked very hard in my company for 7 years before I got the graphic design job I was looking for. Now I am being payed very well for what I do. I graduated top of my class with honors back in 2002. Good luck finding a graphic design job now.
 
i work in the graphic arts industry..... not a graphic designer but i have a few on staff.


the tittle "graphic designer" is very general.

there are tons of "graphic designers" out there making it hard to find work.

what i do see is an evolution of the the graphic designer.
what used to be defined as graphic designer is no longer the case.

the ones that find work, steady work, and get paid are the ones that do more than graphic design.

graphic designer is not enough to impress, it is the starting block to build a portfolio.
graphic design will allow you to become familiar with buttons/tools/programs but until you learn and expose yourself to new methods/technologies/principles it will be tough.
 
Exactly right. I did not just appear in the graphic design job, I worked as an IT administrator for years and did some programming work and some design on the side. After I had a number of big accomplishments I was promoted into my position. In other words I did technical computer work while building up my design experience at the office until I was recognized for my extra efforts and wide field of knowledge, both technical and artistic. It was a ***** but it's finally paying off.
anth1414 said:
i work in the graphic arts industry..... not a graphic designer but i have a few on staff. the tittle "graphic designer" is very general. there are tons of "graphic designers" out there making it hard to find work. what i do see is an evolution of the the graphic designer. what used to be defined as graphic designer is no longer the case. the ones that find work, steady work, and get paid are the ones that do more than graphic design. graphic designer is not enough to impress, it is the starting block to build a portfolio. graphic design will allow you to become familiar with buttons/tools/programs but until you learn and expose yourself to new methods/technologies/principles it will be tough.
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Numb said:
much appreciated, yeah a few of my friends told me that a lot of their coworkers started with GD and ended up doing something else cause its too hard to find a job.

when you say yours frd from college did meh you mean they did find jobs but jsut doing so so?
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'Meh' as in they found production artist jobs which are not creative positions, and they pay around minimum wage or slightly better. Trust me, actual creative positions where you get to use your noodle are few and far between. These jobs pay very little because they know that Humber, George Brown and Sheridan Colleges are pumping out the fresh grads by the truckload. I actually had one studio owner at a place I was freelancing at have the nerve to tell me I "don't deserve" my paltry $24/hr because "artists are a dime a dozen." Nice, eh? I went from $45+/hr down to $20/hr in my years. And I finished 3rd in my class from George Brown College in 1997. The field is sickening.

And if you want to get into this regardless, expect to not have a life outside of your cubicle. We're expected to pull crazy hours to appease the jerks in the marketing department who consistently make ridiculous deadline promises to clients... and then they go home at 5:00 while we're trapped behind a computer until all hours of the night making their promises a reality.

Lastly, get used to the phrase "but it's fun, right?" used as justification for a client's refusal to pay you. Happens to all of us.
 
Not to insult anybody in graphics design, but the reason the market is so saturated with them and the fact that the pay is so little is because even a kid can do that kind of stuff. You need to diversify your skillset if you want to get paid anything to do that kind of work. I've seen 13 year old kids who can photoshop as well as any seasoned artist. In fact when I was 16 I got paid to make a website with my graphics design skills that I had grown from just playing around in photoshop and dabbling in that stuff outside of school. It's too easy for anyone to do. Right now graphics design is more of a supplement to marketing, or web design, communications roles etc...
 
Freestyle72 said:
Not to insult anybody in graphics design, but the reason the market is so saturated with them and the fact that the pay is so little is because even a kid can do that kind of stuff. You need to diversify your skillset if you want to get paid anything to do that kind of work. I've seen 13 year old kids who can photoshop as well as any seasoned artist. In fact when I was 16 I got paid to make a website with my graphics design skills that I had grown from just playing around in photoshop and dabbling in that stuff outside of school. It's too easy for anyone to do. Right now graphics design is more of a supplement to marketing, or web design, communications roles etc...
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+1

I do some lite graphic design, but work in pre press, and see this all the time. Seems everyone "thinks" they are designers because they have photoshop, yet never think of the end products use. Its a tough market because of the amount of people who do know what they are doing, then adding to that the people who don't, who do things incredibly cheap. We regularly have people come in with work done by designers, yet the job has to go back as things were just not set properly, no bleeds, image and text right to the edge, no taking account for folding, etc. The designers that stand out are the ones that go the extra mile for their clients and know more then just how to make something pretty on the screen.

I enjoy what I do because it has variety, from all things pre press to design work, though design is not my foremost strength, I can put things out that are suitable and professional, just not award winning you could say.
 
LMAO! You do realize Photoshop isn't "graphic design," correct? It's an image manipulation tool and that is it. There are other products in the CS package, but you probably only got PSD Lite with your digi camera, so you think that's all there is to it. I've seen you wannabe designers using Microsoft Word before. I've seen you use Corel Draw. I've seen you use low res bitmap images you've stolen off the Internet with no understanding of copyright laws. The same people who can't understand colour processes and whine about the printed colour being 'off' from your monitor, have never heard of a printers bleed before — little less know how to apply one — and complain about the white line around your graphic, and caterwaul about the jagged image quality on your crappy images. No clue. No clue whatsoever. And it seems that very few true, educated designers know the first thing about prepping files for print, how to create a simple dieline, or even how to set simple tabs and style sheets.
 
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stormcat said:
LMAO! You do realize Photoshop isn't "graphic design," correct? It's an image manipulation tool and that is it. There are other products in the CS package, but you probably only got PSD Lite with your digi camera, so you think that's all there is to it. I've seen you wannabe designers using Microsoft Word before. I've seen you use Corel Draw. I've seen you use low res bitmap images you've stolen off the Internet with no understanding of copyright laws. The same people who can't understand colour processes and whine about the printed colour being 'off' from your monitor, have never heard of a printers bleed before — little less know how to apply one — and complain about the white line around your graphic, and caterwaul about the jagged image quality on your crappy images. No clue. No clue whatsoever. And it seems that very few true, educated designers know the first thing about prepping files for print, how to create a simple dieline, or even how to set simple tabs and style sheets.
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Oh when you put it that way I retract my statements. You guys truely are a rare breed. The reason you get paid $24/h is because the world is unfair.
 
Freestyle72 said:
Oh when you put it that way I retract my statements. You guys truely are a rare breed. The reason you get paid $24/h is because the world is unfair.
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Oh, suck it up. You got called out on the whole Photoshop IS graphic design statement. And don't put words in my mouth, either. Being a real graphic designer is a lot of work, it's stressful, mentally exhausting and the hours and continued education we put into our careers is seldom appreciated or understood. It's no wonder so many graphic designers are alcoholics. No, I'm not kidding.
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