Graphic design vs illustration
2 Comments to “Should I become an illustration or a graphic design major? How is the job market? What are the pro and cons?”
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Graphic design vs illustration
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Hi,
I have been a designer for nearly 20 years, freelancing for the last 6. The industry definitely slowed last year but now seem to be picking up. By the time you have finished a degree hopefully things will have picked up even more.
I think you should concentrate more on whether its what you want to do or not. If it is, go for it – talented people will always find work. If you are not sure whether it’s what you want to do do some more research, read some graphic design and illustration blogs, maybe contact the blog owners and ask them a few questions about what its like – their average day etc.
Good luck
Tara
The job market is very similar as both can be done freelance or at a firm. Right now not much is looking good in the economy but business is picking up again so that shouldn’t be a problem in the future, hopefully.
Like any discipline in the arts you either have to be extraordinarily talented or find your own unique niche. One can lead to the other but basically if you’re not the absolute best at design, more important in illustration, you have to find or create a style that is going to differentiate yourself from the other artists out there.
Graphic design is really too broad of a spectrum to cover, there are so many facets of design that it isn’t fair to lump them together in one category. EVERYTHING we use in life has been designed by someone or most likely a group of people, so there are a lot of avenues to chose from if you want to do design work. The most popular field today is the web. Web design and programing are greatly in demand and your best bet for getting a good job, fast. Print media and even worse fashion design are becoming more scarce or are really difficult to get into and be successful.
Design also has a “ladder to success” model: internship, junior designer, senior designer, art director, creative director, partner/owner. Not to say that this is the case for every designer or design firm but it is most common especially at the larger firms. Design work can also be done as freelance work, which really can give you a lot of freedom to choose what you want to do and when you want to do it. But you don’t have a steady income or benefits that would come with working in a large firm.
Illustration can also be done “in house” but the common trait nowadays is designers/companies hiring freelance illustrators for particular projects. In illustration if you exclude materials and media, illustration is the same across the board-visually representing your subject artistically. An advantage of illustration is that regardless of if it is going to be on a billboard, on a website or on a T-Shirt you don’t have to re-learn illustration whereas in design if you wanted to switch fields you’re going to have to learn new computer programs or processes to get the job done. Like I mentioned above about freelance design the same applies even more for illustrators. If you’re not working you’re not getting paid, if you get sick you’re not getting paid, if you’re hurt you’re not getting paid, but your office is where you want it to be and you can work at 2 a.m after you’ve gone snowboarding all day.