What Skills do you Need to be a Graphic Designer?

Graphic designers use visuals to communicate and make visual notions by hand or with computer tools. Through both real and virtual art forms, they can provide suggestions for inspiring, motivating, or enhancing consumers. Professionals in graphic design work on various projects, including brochures, print ads, and logos.

Evolution of Graphic Design

It isn’t easy to envision life in the present era without graphic design because society encompasses so many aspects of it. Though it has been a long trip from stone tools to digital tablets, visual communication is roughly as old as our opposable thumbs, so in some respects, we never have lived without graphic design. In summary, the history of graphic design is a narrative that spans all of human history and can both inform and inspire contemporary graphic artists.
Graphic design has evolved starting with cave paintings, then the origin of the printing press, the pre-digital era, and now the digital age. Graphic design has come a long way. As it evolves over time the skill sets are also changing.

Skill Set of Graphic Designers

In today’s fast, ever-changing world, graphic designers need technical and soft skills. Your industry-specific professional knowledge and competencies are the foundation for your technical skills. Technological requirements are constantly changing; your current technical abilities might not be enough for the work you’ll be requested to complete tomorrow. That’s where soft skills come into play. Teamwork, effective communication, problem-solving, leadership, decisiveness, time management, and flexibility are examples of soft skills that are highly valued.

Let’s look more deeply into the technical and soft skills that graphic designers need in today’s world.

Technical Skills

Employers seek out adaptable graphic designers with the necessary technical know-how to start immediately. Some of the most sought-after technical abilities for a graphic designer are the following:

Typography skills

The visual representation of words and phrases is known as typography. The actual job of a graphic designer is to arrange words and letters in a visually appealing way. Typography skills work to combine the principles of visual design, font, lettering, color, and several other aspects of print writing to create banners, billboards, signs, magazine articles, website content, letters and letterheads, and many other print and writing applications

Font selection

The graphic designer must be able to select the right font for each project. You must be able to choose the right font for each project, considering font style, size, and weight. All affect how your designs seem and may change how readers interpret your content.

Design principles

Knowing the design principles is a must-have trait for a graphic designer. Successful graphic designers understand how to balance designs using white space, color, hierarchy, and other design elements. For instance, during each project, a graphic designer must be able to select the appropriate color scheme. In contrast to RGB, which is frequently used for digital designs, CMYK is best for print projects.

Along with design principles, standards used to decide how a brand will be presented to audience members are called branding guidelines. You must be able to adhere to these rules strictly if you want to excel in the field.

UX design

UX design is the bridge between design and the front-end development team. The user interface, or UI, is a term that is generally understood. The screen that a person interacts with, such as while using a website or app, is most frequently the user interface. UX refers to the overall experiences a customer gets when utilizing a product or service, including UI. Graphic designers with UX experience know how to produce straightforward layouts that are practical and adhere to recognized accessibility standards.

Digital technology (HTML, CSS, JS)

This skill is not required but is an optional one. Knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is included in this. You should be familiar with well-known JavaScript libraries like React. Testing, debugging, build tools, and dependency managers may also be included.

It is significant to highlight that the position necessitates in-depth CSS knowledge. This might include using preprocessors like Sass and Less or the CSS architecture. Experience with CSS-in-JS libraries like Styled Components and Emotion is advantageous.
These skills will definitely help you if you plan to design websites or work as a graphic designer.

Photography skills/photo editing

It’s crucial to know how to edit stock pictures or take excellent photos because you might need to include photos in your graphic design work.

Soft Skills

No matter how strong your technical abilities, if you lack the soft qualities that companies value, it will be difficult for you to thrive in the design industry. Soft skills are character attributes that, as previously mentioned, can help you thrive in any industry. You can collaborate with others, communicate clearly, and establish a good rapport with clients and coworkers if you possess these qualities. The following soft skills are necessary for graphic designers.

Collaboration skills

Working with people to achieve a shared objective is simple when one possesses strong collaboration abilities. A good collaborator pays attention to others, communicates well, and accepts responsibility for their errors.

Emotional intelligence

Individuals with high emotional intelligence are masters at controlling their feelings, which enables them to solve problems and relieve stress from their team members.

Communication skills

Effective communication with coworkers, clients, and other stakeholders is essential. Graphic designers with good communication skills who can articulate their ideas concisely and consistently are always in demand by potential employers.

Time management

Since deadlines are a big part of graphic design, time management skills are necessary.

Creativity

The potential to come up with fresh notions and apply them to problems or interpersonal communication is referred to as creativity. Successful graphic designers have a strong sense of creativity and originality.

Storytelling

Storytelling is a terrific approach to learn what your audience needs and how your organization may meet those needs if you’re attempting to appeal to a particular demographic. The ability to tell a story is extremely useful for graphic designers tasked with creating enduring brand identities.