Graphic Design Careers
All students will explore different careers in the field of graphic design including the following:
Art Director
An art director is a supervisor responsible for generating effective visual branding for clients. This role may include creating or improving the look and feel of a magazine, Web site, and related products. Art directors are expected to strategize, design, and coordinate a team of designers to produce high-end results. Skill set requirements vary depending on the job, but include strong leadership experience, solid communication skills, and an excellent portfolio.
Game Designer
Game designers use graphics, 3D modeling, animation, and coding techniques to bring interactive games to life. Skill requirements vary depending on the role (such as texture artist or character designer), but an eye for current game trends, ability to plan and conceptualize, and strong communication skills are essential.
Graphic Designer
Graphic designers use visual elements to convey specific messages. A graphic designer may be responsible for developing presentations, brochures, advertisements, or print interactive materials. While specific skills vary by field (such as branding or print production), an artistic eye and solid composition skills are required to create mockups, and excellent communication skills are needed to work with a team of designers, editors, and directors.
Illustrator
Illustrators conceptualize and create new images to be used in publications and on the Web. Some illustrators combine traditional art skills, like drawing and painting, with digital media, and some work solely digitally. Artistic talent and an eye for composition are essential, as are communication skills and ability to work within a team setting.
Logo Designer
A logo designer captures the essence of a company in a single element. Logo designers must be able to distill complicated concepts to simple and elegant forms with solid design and composition skills. Strong experience in branding, digital illustration and typography experience, and understanding of marketing are key to logo design success.
Marketing Manager
Marketing managers are responsible for conducting and evaluating market research for a product or service. Marketing managers may be responsible for conceptualizing, writing, and overseeing the design of materials such as catalogs, brochures and flyers. Excellent communication skills, understanding of marketing trends, and general design skills are necessary.
Packaging Designer
Packaging designers create effective three-dimensional designs to promote brands on the shelves. An eye for trends and presentation, as well as a mind for the print production process are essential. A strong design background is necessary as well as experience working with logos, brands, and marketing.
Web Designer
Web designers are responsible for the layout and look-and-feel of a company's Web site. Web designers work closely with a design team to create and maintain a consistent presence on the Web. A solid graphic design skill set and an interest in current Web practices is necessary in this position, as well as excellent communication skills and knowledge of HTML and CSS.
Students will learn about pioneers in the field of graphic design including:
1. Frank Mason Robinson
Frank Mason Robinson (1845 in Corinth, Maine – 1923 in Atlanta, Georgia), was an important early marketer of what became known as Coca-Cola.
As a young man he was in Iowa where he married Laura Clapp. In 1886 Frank Mason Robinson settled in Atlanta, where he was secretary and bookkeeper for the Pemberton Chemical Company.
Frank Mason Robinson gave the formula the name Coca-Cola writing the name in Spencerian script which was popular with bookkeepers of the era.
2. Rob Janoff
Rob Janoff is a graphic designer of corporate logos and identities, printed advertisements and television commercials. He is probably most famous for his creation of the Apple logo.
In 1977, he worked for Regis McKenna as an art director and was tasked to design the logo for Apple Computer, creating an apple with a bite out of it. He also created ads and printed materials for Apple. Later he also did design work for both IBM and Intel.
3. David Shen
David was the Vice President of the User Experience and Design Team at Yahoo! for almost 8 years and has been involved in almost every product and service Yahoo! has built in the U.S. and internationally. As an early employee of Yahoo!, he lived the startup life of working long, committed, and satisfying hours and embodied the “do what it takes” attitude required for success in entrepreneurism.
The original logo of Yahoo! , known as the “Jumping Y Guy,” which featured a blue circle representing the Earth, and a yellow Y-shaped stick figure leaping from the Earth, backed by a purple shadow was designed by David Shen,
4. Ruth Kedar
Ruth Kedar is an artist and designer, best known for designing the Google logo.
Born in Brazil, she moved to Israel where she received a degree in Architecture from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. She moved to the US to attend the Stanford University Masters Program in Design.
Her master thesis was on Playing cards design, and she was commissioned by Adobe Systems to be one of the designers of the Adobe Deck. She went on to design the award winning Analog Deck and Duolog Deck.
5. Paul Rand
Paul Rand (August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was an American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, UPS, Westinghouse, ABC, and Steve Jobs’ NeXT. He was one of the originators of the Swiss Style of graphic design.
Although his logos may be interpreted as simplistic, Rand was quick to point out in A Designer’s Art that “ideas do not need to be esoteric to be original or exciting.” His American Broadcasting Company trademark, created in 1961, then used by ABC-TV in the fall of 1962, epitomizes that ideal of minimalism while proving Rand’s point that a logo “cannot survive unless it is designed with the utmost simplicity and restraint.
6. Walter Landor
Walter Landor (9 July 1913 – 9 June 1995) born Walter Landauer was a brand design legend and the founder of Landor Associates. He is a pioneer in the field of branding and consumer research. Landor Associates, the company he founded in 1941, has brand consulting and design offices all over the world today.
Probably known mostly for designing the Fedex logo.
7. Milton Glaser
Milton Glaser (born June 26, 1929) is a graphic designer, best known for the I Love New York logo,[1] his “Bob Dylan” poster, the “DC bullet” logo used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005, and the “Brooklyn Brewery” logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968.
8. Alan Gerard Fletcher
Alan Gerard Fletcher (27 September 1931 – 21 September 2006) was a British graphic designer. In his obituary, he was described by The Daily Telegraph as “the most highly regarded graphic designer of his generation, and probably one of the most prolific”.
Much of his work is still in use: a logo for Reuters made up of 84 dots, which he created in 1965, was retired in 1992, but his 1989 “V&A” logo for Victoria and Albert Museum, and his “IoD” logo for the Institute of Directors remain in use.
9. Saul Bass
Saul Bass (May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker, but he is best known for his design on animated motion picture title sequences.
Saul Bass designed the sixth AT&T Bell System logo. He also designed AT&T’s “globe” logo after the breakup of the Bell System. Bass also designed Continental Airlines’ 1968 “jetstream” logo which became the most recognized airline industry logo of the 1970s.
10. Herb Lubalin
Herbert F. (Herb) Lubalin (pron. “loob’-allen”; 1918 – May 24, 1981) was a prominent American graphic designer. He collaborated with Ralph Ginzburg on three of Ginzburg’s magazines: Eros, Fact, and Avant Garde, and was responsible for the creative visual beauty of these publications. He designed a typeface, ITC Avant Garde, for the last of these; this distinctive font could be described as a post-modern interpretation of art deco, and its influence can be seen in logos created in the 1990s and 2000s.
