- Product
- Place
- Price
- Promotion
What skills do I have, and who needs them?
As an emerging graphic designer, I have always tried to visusalise where my place will be in the world after education. I have never quite been able to see that place, though it is certainly becoming clearer. My skills as a designer are broad at the moment, though very unrefined. My interests lie with print finishes, the one-off/handmade, typography (to a certain extent), the ability to convey a message through image (specifically with branding and identity in mind) and packaging. These are the areas I will be concentrating most in, and therefore the areas I hope to find work in when I graduate. My skills do not include web-based design, or animation. This would be a major disadvantage in the competitive industry, especially with many clients wanting websites and moving image, my lack of skills in these areas will limit my opportunities for work.
It seems a risk to try and master web-based design or moving image with the possibility of sacrificing my skills in other areas...
Another area of interest, which I have yet to mention, is that of all things sustainable and ethical. For me, reusing something in a innovative and interesting way is what design is about. It is a little harder to apply this to graphic design, though a quick look through my design context blog should iron out any confusion. Our job as designers is to make the world a better, more visually engaging place. We should feel a responsibility to design for a better world, and try our best not to contribute to the world's ever growing list of problems. Fred asked us in the first few weeks of this course "would you work for MacDonald’s?" and since then I have been pondering whether or not I would be able to design for a company whose ethics did not adhere to my own. It has taken me an entire year to realise the answer to his question is no.
Another area of interest, which I have yet to mention, is that of all things sustainable and ethical. For me, reusing something in a innovative and interesting way is what design is about. It is a little harder to apply this to graphic design, though a quick look through my design context blog should iron out any confusion. Our job as designers is to make the world a better, more visually engaging place. We should feel a responsibility to design for a better world, and try our best not to contribute to the world's ever growing list of problems. Fred asked us in the first few weeks of this course "would you work for MacDonald’s?" and since then I have been pondering whether or not I would be able to design for a company whose ethics did not adhere to my own. It has taken me an entire year to realise the answer to his question is no.
