Discipline Investigation

Posted: December 22nd, 2022

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Discipline Investigation

Introduction

Every profession has independent rules and traditions. Investigating the discourse community is essential to comprehend how it works before venturing into a particular profession. In life, the choices people make translates to their success in the future. In short, destiny is a matter of choice; not a matter of chance. The discourse community I will delve into is graphic design. Graphic designing has proved to be an integral component of internet communication. It is fundamental, especially nowadays, that people have embraced the internet, integrating both the real and virtual world into virtual reality. Graphic design surrounds us, and it is a universal art. I chose this field of study because it fits me in different ways. First, I love the fact that working for myself is optional and also, I like creating things that can withstand time. It is a broad field that one can start up their businesses and become successful. However, I expected the interviewee to explain how he started his career as a graphic designer as well as the problems he faced before commencing the interview. Also, the interviewee was to detail his educational background and the skills needed for one to become a professional graphic designer. Besides, I expected to understand the requirements for the profession as well as the duties and responsibilities.

Interview Report

Background & Career Path

I had an opportunity to interview a successful businessperson who majored in the graphic design field. He founded his company after working for Studio Six company, graphic design and brand firm that is located in Colorado. He worked for the company for three years, intending to save to start up his business in the future. Before graduating, he worked for the company as an intern for three months. His designs were unique and very impressive to clients. At Studio Six, the interviewee had a great deal of experience and had the chance to train fresh graphic designers, especially those with little background in graphic designing. After a lengthy interview with him, the most interesting thing was that graphic design was not his passion; he wanted to be a software developer. After joining college, he was influenced by the work of his friend, whose models were impressive. He started with simple designs and progressed to more complicated designs. While in Studio Six, he won major awards and was promoted to be the project manager, a position he held for one year before quitting to start his company.

The interviewee expounded on the main requirement to get started as a graphic designer. I have always assumed that starting a career in graphic designing was a profession that one joins after schooling and learning the basic rules, but he was prompt to clarify that perception. Besides having a degree in graphic design, one has to work extra hard and late hours in the night to perfect their designing skills. It consumes a lot of time. It is an essential investment to study graphic design, and one must know their passion because becoming a graphic designer is not an overnight work. Secondly, learning is a daily thing because one is supposed to keep evolving and improving. New problems need to be solved; it is a non-ending whirlwind of innovations. Throughout one’s working life, they are required to improve their skills and knowledge to satisfy the customers.

Pointedly, the graphic design domain is expanding (Dziobczenski et al.) even though automation has taken up some jobs. Graphic design will need human thinking and creativity, something that robots cannot provide for specific brands. Apart from that, businesses cannot live without designs, which makes this profession lucrative. He said that graphic designers work as a team or close with the clients, teaming up to bring the best solution.

The interviewee had a lot of expectations while joining the profession. He expected to have his own office with his name written in big letters on the door after being employed. One of the most surprising realities that frustrated the interviewee in his first job as a graphic designer was the fact that the team did not value his ideas and designs. It is the responsibility of the employer to make the client happy, and they are not willing to risk losing the client as the designer cuts their teeth on their first projects. It is the goal of several businesses to meet or exceed clients’ expectations. According to Hyken, happy customers are crucial to the success of any company.

Further, starting a career in graphic design needs one to stay positive while focusing on the prize. Those portraying lousy attitudes are not allowed to prove themselves. The interviewee emphasized on having a positive attitude while interacting with workmates to get positive criticism from veteran graphic designers. This helps one to improve on critical areas as well as to master crucial skills required to produce masterpiece designs.

Roles & Responsibilities

It is a common experience for graphic designers to be self-employed. However, there are those individuals that are employed by the government and private institutions. In this profession, there are a lot of opportunities for grabs, but most graduates prefer becoming freelance graphic designers because the pay is reasonable as compared to being employed. Working with established institutions as a newcomer helps one to improve and adopt certain skills required for professional graphic designing.

Moreover, the interviewee is tasked with meeting his clients to evaluate the scope of the project. Since he is self-employed, he hired four graphic designers that work on the projects as he sources for more projects. In case there is a problem, he helps them to solve it promptly. Also, he incorporates changes recommended by the customer in the final design, as well as reviewing the designs before publishing. The key to becoming a successful graphic designer is by practicing professionalism, practical insight, as well as creativity to satisfy the client.

Graphic designing involves communicating inspiring ideas or captivating consumers by creating visual concepts. They find work in several areas such as branding and communication media (Bennet) cited in (Dziobczenski et al.). The interviewee pinpointed some of the jobs available for graphic designers, such as logo designers, flash designers, web designers, photoshop artist, and layout artists. Walker posits that graphic designer works with editors, writers, illustrators, photographers, and others involved in visual language. Graphic designing is crucial in sales and marketing of products since they work with marketers closely to generate eye-catching advertisements that drive sales. Also, graphic designers are employed in production industries, and others work in book centers to make visual designs for book jackets.  

The qualifications required for a graphic designer is a bachelors’ degree in graphic design. Creativity is one of the vital skills for graphic designers. It is challenging to develop new and innovative designers if one is not creative in tapping into resources. Secondly, one is supposed to have excellent communication skills to comprehend what the client wants to create a successful product. Computer skills and artistic ability are essential in creating mind-boggling designs.

In this profession, there are challenges. The interviewee stated that global competition is the biggest challenge faced in this job. There are online providers of low cost as well as free templates affecting the market. Also, updating equipment poses a challenge because there is new software being rolled out each day. A graphic designer should be flexible and undergo continuous training to update their skills to be on par with the advancing technology. Besides, graphic designers need to be innovative to satisfy their clients by modifying the designs to their preferred version. Since we are in a fast-changing world, graphic designers are responsible for remaining relevant in the industry because they interact with clients of different cultural backgrounds and generations.

Communication Skills

Graphic design technically is visual communication. Ideas are communicated through text and image. Consequently, communication skills can break or make any design project. According to Snell, many of the graphic designers are introverted and enjoy working alone, but communicating with clients is challenging. The interviewee explained that one must possess strong communication skills to improve your performance in this field. Designing is client service, and it requires communication between the client and the service provider (Snell). Without effective communication, there will be difficulties in finalizing the design to meet the client’s standards because they understand their business more than you. Graphic designers interact in a verbal or written form.

Pointedly, the interviewee stated that one must possess excellent negotiation and listening skills to convince the client to work with them. Some of the clients do not understand industry jargon, which requires the designer to communicate with them with more straightforward language for effective communication. The client will have a better grasp of what is being done, and one can get more referral clients. Communication can be through phone, face-to-face, e-mail, and skype. Besides, communication with other co-workers is through e-mail or telephone. However, the interviewee stated that explaining oneself well is an important communication skill since most of the designers say things that confuse the client, and it may affect your performance.

Conclusion

The most interesting thing about the interview and research is the fact that one doesn’t need to have a degree in graphic design to venture into this field. As a graphic designer, one needs to be creative in creating the best designs and the ability to use computer software effectively. He suggested that continuous practice and learning is the only way to master graphic design because there are new problems posed each day that should be solved. However, this changed my expectations about the field, to pursue graphic designs to a professional level. The interviewee suggested that one should work in start-up companies first because there is lots of work, and they value teamwork to create the best designs. Self-Employment is an option in a graphic design career, and there are many opportunities for grabs in the market.

Works Cited

Dziobczenski, Paulo Roberto Nicoletti et al. “Designing Career Paths in Graphic Design: A Document Analysis of Job Advertisements for Graphic Design Positions in Finland.” The Design Journal, vol 21, no. 3, 2018, pp. 349-370.

Hyken, Shep. “How Happy Employees Make Happy Customers”. Forbes.Com, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2017/05/27/how-happy-employees-make-happy-customers/#2e2eea3e5c35. Accessed 18 Nov 2019.

Snell, Steven. “Designers and Communication Skills: Why and How to Improve”. Vandelay Design, 2016, https://www.vandelaydesign.com/communication-tips/.Accessed 18 Nov 2019.

Walker, Sue. “Research in Graphic Design”. The Design Journal, vol 20, no. 5, 2017, pp. 549-559.

APPENDIX

1. Why did you work for the Studio Six company?
2. Why did you decide to pursue graphic design as a profession?
3. What are the qualifications required for one to a graphic designer?
4. How did you start your business, and why?
5. What are the readings and writings need in this career path?  
6. How can one communicate with clients effectively?
7. What are the responsibilities of your job?
8. What are the challenges you face in this job?