3 Career Ideas for People With a Background in Graphic Design

Graphic designers are some of the most creative people in the working industry. They make ideas into art and art into products. They can work as freelancers, full-time employees, and any other job type in between. Graphic designers conceptualize ideas with computer software as well as by hand. As more digital devices and products are being created every year, jobs continue to be created as well.

Here are three career ideas for people with a background in graphic design.

1. Presentation Designer

A presentation designer will create visuals, animations, and graphics to put together digital presentations. These designers will use software like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, for example, to create their unique designs, and will also work with formats like PowerPoint, Keynote, and Prezi depending on the task to create their presentations and slides. They will create presentations that are easy to understand, aesthetically pleasing, and purposeful. Additionally, they use skills to incorporate brand identities within their presentations which include typography or fonts, color palettes, and company slogans.

Presentation designers will create a compelling narrative throughout their presentation by combining a good story and a good slide design. To become a presentation designer, companies generally require one to two years of graphic design experience as well as a degree in graphic design or illustration as well as any other related field. Companies also prefer designers with skills in Adobe Creative Cloud products like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, in addition to PowerPoint and Keynote. Presentation designers are expected to have excellent communication skills as well as a good eye for visual aesthetics and typography.

2. User Experience (UX) Designer

Moreover, graphic designers can become successful and well-paid UX designers. UX designers have been more wanted by companies each year thanks to technological advances. Almost everybody in the U.S. has a smartphone with access to the internet, and can easily be discouraged by poorly designed apps, websites, products, and more. They will generally work on product research for a company or brand, which provides them with the necessary info on who their users are and what the industry’s standards are.

Moreover, they will create personas and scenarios for them as well. This will result in identifying key groups of users that have similar tastes and represent their client base—these are the people they are designing for. They will create scenarios for these people that will serve as explanations of why they need the product they’re designing for. During this step, they will basically be storytelling to sell a product or service. They will usually go on to create other things like information architectures (IA), wireframes, and prototypes for these brands. They will then go on to test their prototypes and continually make improvements to increase customer satisfaction.

3. Marketing Specialist

Lastly, graphic designers can make a career as marketing specialists. A marketing specialist will design for or manage a marketing project. Marketing projects can include campaigns, promotions, ads, and sales. Additionally, marketing specialists can wear different hats depending on which product they focus on—email marketing, digital marketing, and SEO marketing, among others. Marketing specialists work with other teams to create marketing messages that will create awareness of the company’s brand identity among their clients and potential clients.

They work with different marketing KPI metrics such as sales revenue, new contract rate, conversion time, and cost per lead. These KPIs will help them produce effective marketing content for their audience. Marketing specialists can make an average of $70,000 a year in the U.S., and must possess the ability to create, analyze, collaborate, and proofread their work as well as have a degree in graphic design, marketing communication, or business administration.

These three careers are some of the most rewarding and top career paths for graphic designers.