Graphic designers endure a particularly frustrating existence in workplaces, forever underachieving in the eyes of their bosses, while overworking in the eyes of everyone else.
Whether you’re sitting there with little or no direction, overloaded with unusable content or merely a sounding board for your boss’s constant “two-minute” projects, it can get tiresome.
You are often given a brief that’s not worth the paper it’s written on, or more likely, the air it’s spoken through. Yet you prevail, constantly “making it pop” as you’re told to “make the logo bigger”.
The battle with sales can be particularly unenjoyable as you are relying on people who could not be from a more opposing field, hoping against hope that their copy arrives when they promise, and that the deadline you’re given is actually sometime in the future, rather than in the recent past.
What they do: Graphic designers try their best to convey the mad ramblings of their clients into something others may find attractive.
What they don’t do: Get to do the above with particular ease or extensive time.
Educational requirements: In the case of graphic design, good schools of art and design are places you should be aware of, but there’s an awful lot of upskilling required too.
Not just that, if your portfolio is not up to scratch, then in many cases you won’t be perceived up to scratch either.
Required skills: So much patience. So much Photoshop.
Here are some bits of humour found around the web that graphic designers should get a kick out of, and a couple for the likes of me, too.
The second comes from graphic designer Tom Gabor, while six and seven are from a project by Sara Heffernan.
Graphic design image, via Shutterstock
