Life as a child is easy – someone picks your clothes for you, shows you right from wrong, guides you in your personal development. The hardest question you have to answer is “What do you wanna be when you grow up?”. Spontaneously, you always have an idea – a doctor, a firefighter, a movie star. You believe you can conquer the world! Years later, when you have to make that choice again, you become more careful and less confident when taking the next step into a brighter future. You forget your dream of saving lives or putting out fires and wander around in a struggle to feel truly fulfilled in their everyday life. Making a choice based on expectations and social packages, salary and flexible working hours, team buildings and individual responsibilities is never easy. Nevertheless every adult on the planet will agree on a single thing…
Life is too short to be stuck in a job you hate.
How to find one that you don’t loathe? Tough question. During the last few years of my experience as a designer, I managed to appreciate both pros and cons of the visual communication industry. So I decided to prepare this post in order to help people who are considering a career in a similar role.Without further ado, here are my top 5 reasons why I will never be sorry for choosing to live my life as a graphic designer.
1. Communicating without talking.
You have heard the statement “a picture costs a thousand words”. This is what commercial art gives to humanity – the ability to “communicate without talking”. Most of the time designers create and send messages to a specific audience so a product or a brand can go viral. You realise the influence you have on people once you hit the “Submit” button and your work reaches millions of people in a few seconds. Expressing yourself throughout logos, posters and graphics easily becomes a way of life. When your ideas get shared and appreciated in social media you get an adrenaline rush flowing through your veins.
2. Being paid for expressing yourself.
A fun fact… a lot of people share photos on Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest but you will be among the few chosen ones to get paid to do it! You get to flex your brain muscles while making a decent living out of it. How cool is that? You probably won’t become a millionaire by figuring out how to combine different images, fonts and styles but you will definitely be able to afford to treat yourself.
3. Every day is different.
Projects, target groups and business goals are never alike. Funny enough, as a designer you are expected to be able to handle any job at any time in light speed. That’s what I call a challenge! Being an enemy of the comfort zone, you will get bored by some tasks, scared by others and inspired by few. A real martini of emotions (shaken not stirred) where the olive is a needy client who wants you to prioritize his venture. Remember, bad ideas don’t exist. There are only good ideas and better ones. Experimenting is the core particle in the science of design. Sometimes experiments lead to mistakes. In order to get good at design, you should allow yourself to make them. Designers get bad in order to get better. Speaking of excelling, graphic design is an industry where you will face competition on a daily basis. Thus your knowledge, skills and style have to be top-notch so you can keep up with others. If someone is trained in Illustrator, you have to be the one to write the instructions manual. Always strive for the best or you will be eaten alive in the jungle of design with its recent growth in popularity!
4. Everything is a source of inspiration.
One of the great things about design is that everything around you can be used to generate ideas. Most artists use different strategies to create unique and original ideas and to further develop their personal style. You just have to find your inner voice and own way of generating thoughts. There are literary unlimited opportunities, you just have to pick out the best one suiting the current project or task. A good designer always knows how to turn a bad idea intova good one which usually comes with time and experience. Building ideas will bring out both endless possibilities and the best of you.
5. Professional Graphic Designers are always in demand.
In the era of technology when people google everything – from restaurant ideas to flu symptoms, the demand for online presence is huge especially for the business. If you want to make money, you have to be “önline” for society to see and consume. This is where graphic designers come in. They can work a 09:00 to 17:00 job for big companies in order to boost their social media existence or freelance from the comfort of their homes while wearing their pjs. You will be able to find clients everywhere or even take up a startup. The sky is the limit!
Last words…
Once you’ve mastered something in a job, things can get boring quickly, but this never happens to graphic designers. Without knowing what stage of life you are currently in and knowing that you are here reading this, I would advise you to: stop thinking and start doing! The sooner you start following trends, getting to know different styles and building up your portfolio, the greater you will be. Don’t be afraid to dive in the world of design!
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