by Kelly Nickless -

First off, A stands for art skills. Admittedly, all graphic designers are artists in themselves. However, what sets apart a successful graphic designer from a not-so-successful one is the ability to use color, composition and design to great effect. Basically, you must be able to convey the right message to the right audience using your kind of art.

You will be asked to produce art presentations from printed materials like charts and logos to moving images like television advertisements. As such, you must possess a strong foundation in the arts, thanks to your excellent education and extensive exposure to creative graphic design.

And then there is the B side – business, that is. Whether you are working for an independent company or you own your own graphics design company, your sense of business must be strong, too. Keep in mind that graphics design is also meant to reach out to a specific audience in order to encourage them to take appropriate action, which can either be to purchase a product or patronize a service. It will all boil down to serving the bottom line – profit.

As a graphics designer, you also need to work within time and budget constraints. Again, business sense comes in precisely because you have to create a graphics art campaign that is on track, on budget and on target where the overall goals are concerned.

Now, C stands for two things in creative graphic design – cognitive and communication skills. Cognitive skills pertain to your ability to balance between your creative side and your logical side. Yes, you have to be very creative in order to convey the message and encourage the desired action. You must be provided with time to come up with said creative ideas.

However, you must also work within a set time limit. Now, your ability to perform multiple tasks for a project will be tested. Do you have the cognitive ability, organizational skills included, for it?

Communication refers to your ability to maintain good communications between the members of the team. (Yes, indeed, you must work as a team) You will also be tasked to communicate with the clients, vendors and managers along with your fellow designers from start to finish of a certain project. If and when communications somehow breaks down anytime during the duration of the project, then your budget and time limits for the creative graphic design project can be adversely compromised.

Last but not least, T stands for technology. In the olden days, the pen and paper were indeed mightier than the sword. Nowadays, successful graphic designers must be constantly updated about the latest in imaging, layout, design and multimedia software that allow for faster and easier work, along with the fact that technology does make for a more fulfilling viewing experience for many audiences.

In conclusion, it takes more than just art skills to be able to compete in the highly pressurized world of creative graphic design. You must possess business savvy, effective communication skills and updated technology, too.

Kelly writes for a number of arts oganisations about the Graphic Design School and Graphic Design Courses