Is Studying Graphic Design Still a Relevant Profession for Students?

Is Studying Graphic Design Still a Relevant Profession for Students?

Graphic design is a career that has proven to be profitable and popular. 

However, many have recently questioned the value of this degree. 

Some professionals claim that experience outweighs education in this field, while others believe any degree can contribute significantly towards success – even outside graphic design alone.

In this article, we discuss whether or not high school students should pursue higher education in studying graphic design and its relevance.

What do Graphic Designers Do?

The primary task of a graphic designer is to communicate messages through art visually. The result could be anything from sales to informational or educational designs; the specifics vary across different industries.

Here are just some fields where having an in-house graphic designer is essential:

• Marketing
• Advertising
• Product packaging
• Publishing
• Web design
• UI/UX Design

However, it was noticed that graphic designers' work process is generally similar regardless of whether one is advertising, to write research paper for me or designing a poster for a band’s tour. 

It always begins with a sketch – done on a computer or by hand – then you create a layout of what the picture will look like and fill it later with elements; it is more like writing an outline first and then filling in sections with text.

As such, here are some of the things that may be included in your job description as a graphic designer:

• Meeting clients to discuss branding strategy; what should be communicated; which image needs to come out?
• Using software programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator among others for creating images
• Revise your work based on the client’s needs.

Pros of Studying Graphic Design

Studying graphic design at a college or university has advantages, such as future employability and depth of understanding. Let’s take a closer look.

Exhaustive curriculum

The most significant benefit of taking design as a major is the wide range of courses. 

Design history, technical skills, and different styles are just some things you will learn during your four-year program. 

To know if this school is right for you, try looking through graphic design lesson plans for high school or college online – it will give you an idea about what will be taught there.

Professional teachers

There’s nothing better than being taught by someone who does this thing professionally. 

And when these professionals are certified teachers with years of experience – lucky us! 

They can tell much more about current trends in markets and industries than any book or blog post could ever do. That guidance would only be possible if we chose self-education over formal schooling.

Those guys will push your limits, assigning tasks that seem repetitive and useless at first glance. But don’t worry – all those puzzles have one solution: they make us versatile specialists!

Teaming up with other students

Networking is a big part of university life – people from different walks of life come together, bringing their dreams and aspirations along with them. 

Many students switch cities (if not countries) to attend college, which might result in life-changing experiences! Meeting peers who share similar values/goals can improve motivation levels.

On top of that, such an environment breeds competition among students, often leading to outstanding results within groups.

And remember, these folks won’t leave our lives after graduation either: they can become our colleagues someday, too! 

Starting business ventures together post-graduation could be cool since everyone’s got the same educational background + lots of shared memories => deeper understanding & better group dynamics overall!

Constructive criticism

Receiving critique from someone working in the industry comes with many benefits, as they’ve seen it all before. It may seem harsh sometimes, like they’re trying to kill our creativity, but trust me, they know what’s best for us! 

The ability to handle harsh feedback would serve well in future business endeavours. Plus, not all comments about our works would be harmful – sometimes professors might praise them, which is inspiring, too!

Learning different things

Education is a melting pot – everything gets thrown together there so that we can scoop up as much knowledge as possible within limited timeframes. 

Apart from learning to draw nice pictures, we’ll also study typography, colour theory, professional software programs, advertisement composition techniques, etc.

It might sometimes feel overwhelming with all these new terms being thrown around left, right & centre.. but bear with me here: having a broad understanding of various areas within the design field will pay off later on when we least expect it!

Making a portfolio

The best thing about finishing college is that you will have much different work to show for it. While you are there, collect anything that you made. 

You won’t use all of them; some will be garbage. But you should add some things to your portfolio.

This will save so much time for people looking to hire you in the future and give you an incredible bargaining chip when job hunting. 

Instead of creating something from scratch like everybody else they’re considering, they can just look at what you already have. Another way to beef up your portfolio with high-quality work is to hire WritePaper to write a paper for me.

Certification

There's nothing more powerful than official recognition. 

If someone says they completed a particular course or program, it carries more weight than saying they attended some school without showing the diploma. 

This may be necessary for governmental positions or other jobs requiring higher responsibility; otherwise, applicants might get overlooked despite their experience and revolutionary methods because they lack qualifications that would’ve been provided through higher education.

Cons of Studying Graphic Design

Today's most significant problem with the education system is that students are often taught with outdated materials. 

This happens because updating the yearly curriculum is difficult, especially if the school has little money. 

If you can’t afford to go to college with the newest technology, you should probably just take a couple of classes somewhere else. 

Some offline courses imitate the college experience and teach similar skills with updated techniques and notions, wasting your time.

Subpar programs

Not all college programs are created equal. Some might provide the newest technology and every app a designer could ever need; others might teach you how to use computers running on Windows 95.

Without talking to people who’ve graduated from them, it’s hard to know which college programs are worth it and which ones will just waste your money. They could even lie on their website to get more students in.

You never know if you’ll get a professor who works in his industry and knows what’s happening in the market or a theory professional who’s never talked to a client. 

You might get both, just in different disciplines. With online courses, this is an impossible scenario if they take your money and then don’t give you enough relevant information so you can sue them for $100K minimum.

High cost of studying

Education after high school is costly in the US. 

Not everyone qualifies for student loan forgiveness programs (which not everyone knows about) because half require ten years of working for non-profit organisations that typically don’t pay very well anyway (also not common knowledge). 

And not everybody wants to graduate with ~$30K debt hanging over their heads for decades afterwards.

An online or offline course will never put you in that much debt, though some courses like Shillington School can cost you up to $15,000 for a 3-month program. 

But it’s more reasonable to start with a cheaper course on Coursera to learn the basics.

If you’re moving to cities for college, you must also pay for housing. Student housing is expensive and of low quality. But renting an apartment near campus is even more challenging — now you’re paying rent and commuting daily, too.

Significant time investment

A college degree will take you an average of four years to finish. 

That means four years of being unable to work full-time and support yourself like an independent adult (unless your parents are cool enough to help you through that period, in which case, congrats). 

Unfortunately, this isn’t true for many students out there. They have to work while studying, leaving them less time to focus on learning.

A course will take you an average of two months, and after that, you can start looking for relevant jobs immediately. Even if it takes you a year to study various courses and create your portfolio, it’ll still be more efficient than four years studying one thing.

Not enough real-life practice

College removes you from the job market for four years, fills your head with obsolete knowledge, and then sends you back into the job market with no experience and often outdated knowledge. 

Congratulations if you’ve managed to work and keep up during those four years. But most are in for a rude awakening upon graduation because they were not given what they needed.

Courses, on the other hand, are usually relevant and current to the industry. Most of them are designed to give you skills that can be used immediately.

Lower employability rates

Many people do not find a job in their field until years after graduation. Some have already graduated college and must take additional classes with more applicable curricula to learn current skills.

This happens because college education takes a holistic approach. Usually, courses will target one aspect of design that you want to learn about. 

When deciding between the two, consider whether you need broad knowledge of many different elements of design or deep knowledge about one or two aspects.

Stress

College is stressful as hell. Four years of constant deadlines, projects and ruthless critique from professors is too much for most people. They googled graphic design project ideas for high school/college to lighten their workload. 

And yet, these same professors — who know exactly how stressed their students are — seem like they don’t care. Many have an attitude of “I was stressed out in school; so should you”.

An online/offline course is also going to be stressful. Many of those courses push you quite hard; some even function as boot camps. But when is it going to last only a month or three? It's much easier to swallow.

College VS Courses: How To Choose?

Whether to choose classic education or courses is entirely up to you. 

Knowledge about the benefits and disadvantages is necessary to make this decision. 

You could contact people who have finished college or taken some courses. Inquire about their career and employment opportunities and how studying affected them overall.

Here are a few things to consider when choosing between traditional higher education and alternative:

• Your goals
• Your learning style
• Financial situation
• How much time can you put into learning?
• Reputation of the educational institution

College might be your best bet if you want a stable career with excellent growth prospects. 

Some employers only look at candidates with diplomas not because they need the knowledge but just to have one. It shows that you are willing to go through hard times and have what it takes to finish something.

If you need specific design skills relevant to your current job or another particular role, then courses will do just fine if freelancing is the goal, again courses.

People who like structured ways of acquiring new knowledge, teamwork, and deep immersion into a topic should choose college. 

In contrast, those preferring individual work in a flexible schedule should go for courses. Depending on the type of course, one may or may not get feedback and critique; thus, this should also be considered before deciding which path to follow.

As mentioned earlier, colleges will likely put students in serious debt, but this isn’t so applicable when talking about taking up single or multiple short-term programs.

A person needs at least four years if they’re going to undertake full-time studies each day non-stop, otherwise known as ‘intense’. 

This kind requires total dedication from individuals involved; however, once completed, such a course will produce highly skilled graduates who know what they’re doing, having been thoroughly trained over an extended period. This can be pretty stressful but also very rewarding at the same time.

On the other hand, one could go through a few different courses while still being employed or raising children full-time. 

These would not take up all their working hours, though they will still have to take some hours out each week to complete assignments, projects, etc., but overall, not too much commitment is required, seeing as it’s on a part-time basis after all.

When choosing between these two options, make sure research is done into reputation and accreditation on both sides so that everything is evident during the selection process.

Skills You Need To Become A Graphic Designer

Creativity is not the only thing you need to become a graphic designer. This job demands many different hard and soft skills. 

Let’s take a closer look at some of them.

Hard Skills

A designer’s work is not just about Photoshop, even though you have to know this tool perfectly. But if you want to broaden your skill set and increase the chances of finding employment, learn other tools.

1. Illustrator
2. After Effects
3. Figma
4. CorelDRAW
5. Sketch
6. Blender

Also, basic web design knowledge will come in handy. HTML, CSS, and the basics of UI/UX should be known for your career convenience. 

Even if you don’t plan on working with website creation directly, understanding how and where elements should be placed won’t hurt anyone. 

However, ruling out completely web design from your career options is unwise. 

And even then – you might create ad banners that will end up being placed on some websites. Therefore, knowing how an online advertisement is constructed is crucial.

Soft Skills

Creativity

Of course, one must possess creativity to become a designer. But it’s not enough. 

Keeping your hand on the pulse of current trends and world events would be best. 

Whatever happens in the world determines what people want to see or be attracted by. Beauty standards change faster than ever before – reflect it in your work.

Innovation

The ability to innovate/imagine outside the box matters, too. 

Many artists claim that we’re already at that point when everything has been done before – whether it’s a movie plot, musical production or poster – lots of things seem repetitive both online/offline-sphere. 

If you want others to hear/see what was created by you – strive for novelty combined with a strong voice behind it.

Communication

Much negotiation happens between designers and clients; discussing branding strategies requires strong communication skills. 

Talking about what should be done with somebody’s logo or website, who that person is, and what he wants from it requires good communicative abilities from both sides involved in such talks. 

Sometimes, clients have outdated visions of things that no longer matter. Explaining this fact gently but firmly and offering an alternative idea might save the project’s future.

Negotiation

Very often, the client asks for some changes made toward the final version of a project; sometimes, these alterations lay beyond the initial instructions they gave. 

In this case, troubleshooting or solving skills come in handy again: after a few more rounds were held between the parties involved, you will either make them see the light according to your vision or get paid extra money for doing so

Time management

This type of work needs time management. For a graphic designer, no matter how urgent the deadline is, they must meet it. 

As a freelancer, your reputation to employers depends on this. Failure to complete a project on time will make them not want to hire you again. 

This comes back to communication skills; you must discuss what suits both parties, including giving yourself enough time.

Business acumen

Knowing the trends in your market and negotiating well is vital if you’re self-employed, especially. Good business ethics will enable one to keep current customers and attract new ones. 

Every step, from confirming orders ethically through accurate billing done up-to-code to final revisions, should be considered while doing any business, even with oneself, so that all bases might be covered; likewise, one should file taxes correctly, too.

Empathy

We must sometimes put ourselves in their shoes to communicate effectively with clients. 

When someone asks for an old-fashioned design, what could easily escape our notice is that such styles appeal exclusively to their target audience members. 

Some people may not have enough money, but they can’t admit this openly because of fear or shame; therefore, detecting these signs and suggesting cheaper options would be helpful in most business settings.

Final words

It is a great responsibility to choose whether one should go to college or take a course in graphic design, which will shape their future. 

However, this decision could be postponed if it is considered urgent. For instance, abandoning such a plan midway through it is possible.

You may also temporarily interrupt your studies or even drop out of university because you are disenchanted with the program or overwhelmed by stress. Another example would be noticing that the course doesn’t meet your needs and joining a college as soon as possible.

Many young people with artistic talents dream of becoming graphic designers; this profession is excellent. 

Look into what skills are necessary for working in this field and evaluate your personality accordingly.

Check whether you possess the qualities required for creative jobs; if yes, then best wishes! If you go down this educational path, don’t forget to research college rankings to find a good school.