Graphic Design and Illustration
“Design in art is a recognition of the relation between various things, various elements in the creative flux.”
– D. H. Lawrence
Overview
Do you like to bring order to chaos? To concern yourself with the aesthetic presentation of things? Then a career in graphic design or illustration might be just the perfect touch. Find out more about becoming a graphic artist, graphic designer, publication designer, art director, illustrator, medical and scientific illustrator, multimedia artist or animator, and how you can benefit from an accredited online associate’s or bachelor’s degree in visual communications, media arts, animation, game design, or graphic design.
Graphic Design: Career Insights
- Designers are more likely than other professionals to be self-employed – it’s a great career if you’re a motivated self-starter.
- Designers are creative professionals – they need ideas, as well as the ability to oversee their implementation.
- Design is considered a “glamour profession,” so competition for jobs is intense, and networking and business skills – along with the requisite bachelor’s and master’s degrees – are essential for success.
Graphic Artist and Graphic Designer
Graphic artists and graphic designers – the titles are frequently interchanged – are responsible for the creation of graphics for communications pieces. They may design company logos, business cards, brochures, web sites and more, concerning themselves both with overall layout and specific elements of a design.
Publication Designer
A publication designer is a graphic designer specifically concerned with printed materials such as brochures, catalogues, magazines and books.
Art Director
An art director typically is responsible for higher level conceptual work and may turn over an idea to a graphic designer for hands-on implementation.
Illustrator
An illustrator may use traditional pen-and-ink materials, or drawing programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand, or some combination of traditional and digital tools.
Medical and Scientific Illustrator
A medical and scientific illustrator typically is concerned with creating realistic diagrams or other visual interpretations of real-world systems and conditions such as bone structure, plate tectonics or the solar system.
Multimedia Artist
As computers become more powerful and high-speed Internet connections become more commonplace, multimedia is becoming the de facto norm on the Web. Multimedia artists use programs such as Flash to create dynamic online experiences combining images, video, sound and interactivity. Multimedia can unquestionably add life to a web page, but many web surfers complain that it is overused and often deployed in an effort to make style compensate for lack of substance.
Animator
An animator’s job is to create the illusion of movement. Traditional animators painstakingly drew one frame at a time, often requiring thousands to create an effect. Today, powerful animation applications can create realistic animations based on programmed rules.
If you would like to design a career in the graphic arts, find out how an accredited online associate’s or bachelor’s degree in visual communications, media arts, animation, game design, or graphic design can help you find work as a graphic artist, graphic designer, publication designer, art director, illustrator, medical and scientific illustrator, multimedia artist or animator.
Click here for a complete list of accredited online Graphic Design and Illustration degree programs