Inspire, Design, Draw – Shaping Your Career in Graphic Design

09/12/2021

Inspire, Design, Draw – Shaping Your Career in Graphic Design

Ever had your attention grabbed by packaging in a supermarket, an infographic, a billboard or an online advert? That’s the work of a graphic designer you’ve just noticed. Communicating messaging through media lies at the heart of graphic design, and the career opportunities for a graduate with a graphic design degree are as wide and varied as the work they undertake.

From developing special effects for film to helping to develop a brand identity, a graphic and design career allows you to express your creative side on a daily basis. Graphic designers can work in-house for big brands as they create visuals and content around one core product, or they can work in agencies where they’re working for more than one client at any given time – and any given moment, sometimes.  

Designers have to be skilled across both online and offline content to stay competitive, often designing across a campaign that includes many different types of collateral from point-of-sales pop-ups to web-banners.

Experience Rules

Digital content relies heavily on graphic design, with brands and companies turning to experiential and conceptual content to talk to their customers and stakeholders. What once might have been a written brochure with a few images could now be an app or an immersive virtual reality experience. From gaming to travel and tourism, virtual 3D worlds are brought to life through strong narrative and attention to the finest graphic details. If you’re very technically-minded, you could specialise in UX design which makes sure that digital content is smart, effective and beautiful.

Dedicated to Design?

Great, that’s a good place to start, but a graphic design degree needs more than a ‘good eye’. As any type of designer, you’ll need to have patience and resilience as your work can be critiqued and go through many, many versions before it’s approved. The design process, from concept to realisation, has many stages and many different elements that need to come together. You’ll learn how to work with other professionals, such as the marketing or the IT team, to get the project over the finish line.

Ranked No. 1 in the North West* for Student to Staff ratio, our small classes ensure that you will enjoy quality one-to-one time with teaching staff who will share the benefit of their experience with you. As well as specialist tutors, our technical support staff are also on-hand to support you and help you challenge your creativity.

Industry Connections

One of the most important things that you can do as a graphic designer is to build and develop your portfolio during your time with us. You’ll also be able to create your own network of industry contacts. Many of our graphic design lecturers and support staff have worked in industry. As well as real-world experience, they’ve also got a range of connections that can help you to find your way in the industry.

Hard skills, Software

While some of your time will be spent with pencil and paper getting to grips with sketching, you’ll also develop your expertise on professional design packages, including Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, in our multi-million-pound facilities.

Often, graphic design relies heavily on strong communication skills – this is as important between the productions team as it is when trying to convey the messaging behind your design. You’ll come to understand working to deadline and get an idea of the costs behind the projects that you’ll be a part of.

Our course has been named top in the North West** for Student Satisfaction because at the University of Bolton we put our students, and their needs first; welcome to #UniAsItShouldBe.

Find out more about our courses.

*Guardian University Guide 2022

** Complete University Guide 2022

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