When I decided to go to school for Graphic Design, I would get a lot of blank stares in my small hometown when I tried to explain what I wanted to do. I would hear a lot about “stupid art classes” and get questions like, “What are you going to do with that degree?” There were a lot of misconceptions floating around about what a graphic designer does. As much as you think you know what we do, here are a few things that you probably don’t know about graphic designers.
We will always critique your font choice.
If you use fonts like Comic Sans or Papyrus, we will judge you. But don’t feel bad; I was once guilty of using those exact fonts and thinking they were the bee’s knees. If it wasn’t for my minor in Font Snobbery (why is this not a real minor yet?), I would still be using Comic Sans on everything I could. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun little font. But next time you find yourself in the market for a new font, try one of Google’s Fonts. They’re free to use on anything from your kid’s birthday invite to your business’s website.
We can’t all draw.
“Oh, you went to art school. You must be so artsy and good at drawing.” Even though I went to school for design, which was part of the Art Department at my school, I wouldn’t consider myself good at drawing by any means. The University of Northern Iowa even makes everyone take Foundation courses that involve two drawing classes. At the time, as much as I knew it would help me tremendously in my field, drawing is just not something that comes naturally to me. I struggled through those classes and was happy when they were over. I tend to let my mouse be my pen and my monitor be the canvas.
We don’t need to do free work to add to our portfolio.
As much as we love to design, most of us go to a full-time job that actually pays us everyday to do the work that we do. You wouldn’t ask a doctor to fix your arm pro-bono just so they could gain experience. Much like that doctor, we too went to college, studied, and gained useful skills so that we could one day be paid and make a living.
We can’t just “Design that out quick.”
Design is hard. It takes time. Sure, we could whip something out quick, but you can be sure that it won’t have any real thought behind it and will probably be poorly executed. Design is solving a problem. If you don’t allow enough time to find the best solution for that problem, it will most likely fail.
We probably designed everything around you.
From that billboard you drive by on your morning commute to the business cards you have in your wallet, a designer has touched everything around you. Yes, some design is better than others, but design is design. It is all around you whether you notice it or not. The websites you know and love like Facebook and Twitter were designed by a designer. The logo you see everyday on your coffee cup was designed by a designer. It’s amazing to stop and think about the many avenues that designers can take in this line of work.
Do you have any burning questions about graphic designers? Ask us in the comments!
