The Job Of A Graphic Designer

'Graphic designers create the visual presentation and design of goods, from gravestone markers to detergent boxes, from album covers to dog food cans'; (The Princeton Review Guide to Your Career.) Graphic artists, or graphic designers, are the bases of the graphic world. It is their designs that are sent to layout artists and then to the printers and then onto the outside world on cd covers, cereal boxes, billboards, posters, and basically anything that has to do with a visual representation.

Graphic artists, even though most love what they do, can have a highly stressful job because they must meet time deadlines and design limits to satisfy the customer. They are usually self-employed, but graphic artists are also important to advertising agencies, commercial art and reproduction firms, publishing firms, manufacturing firms, department stores, the motion picture industry, and government agencies. A graphic artist must be able to listen to the client and use his input towards an eye-catching design.

The tools of a graphic artist

The equipment that a graphic artist uses computers, mainly Macintoshes because of their dependability, ease of use, and graphics capabilities. For storage they use Zip disks ranging from 100 megabytes to 250 megabytes, and Jazz drives which can go from 1 gigabyte to 2 gigabytes, and now they even use protable Fire-Wire hard drives, or even CD-R

S, CD-RW's, and nowadays DVD.

Training

No specific training is required for a graphic artist, since anyone with talent can get a job for themselves, but those who want the best jobs will want to have training in, or at least be familiar with, Photoshop, Freehand, Quark Express, and Multi Ad Creator. Also, if working with web design, should be familiar with InDesign, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Flash.

When looking for a job with a larger company, they may wish to see a portfolio, which is a collection of projects that you have done in the past, or even work that you have done during training courses.