The following essay is about my dream of becoming a successful graphic designer which is something that I have to accomplish. Also, this essay mentions the most important information related to this field, all the courses that I have to take, and the requirements that I have to meet to become what I have always wanted to be.
All of us at some point in our lives have heard demotivating phrases that make us believe that we will not achieve our main dream. I've been one of the people who have heard phrases like this: “You can’t make a living in art”. As a result, you have two options if you hear this: the first one is to give up and look for another dream, or the second one is to do everything to be able to achieve what you have always wanted. I am the type of person who chooses the second option, and that is why in the following lines I will talk about what it is, what it does, and what a person needs to be a graphic designer. And the most important thing is to let know all the people who have ever told me that I will not succeed, I will say “Watch how I do it”.
First of all, a graphic designer is a person who orchestrates type and visuals to communicate, sell, generate a response, inform, or educate a mass audience through the use of typography, symbols, and images. When graphic design is chosen as a career, society tends to have a stereotypical image of a group of people dedicated to drawing, or if not, then an image of a person behind a computer doing photoshop and trying to make you look a little better in the stereotypes of our society. They are all wrong. Graphic design is so much more. The work of a designer consists of meeting with clients to determine the scope of a project, advising clients on strategies to reach a specific audience, determining the message the design should portray, creating images that identify a product or convey a message, developing graphics for product illustrations, logos, and websites, presenting the design to clients or the art director, incorporating changes recommended by the clients into the final design, and reviewing designs for errors before printing or publishing them. In addition, most graphic designers work full time, but schedules can vary depending on workload and deadlines, and they are employed by large advertising, publishing, or design firms. One of the aspects that may be distressing for a person who lives in art, including me, is salary. According to the BLS, the median annual salary for graphic designers was $50,370 in May 2018, but career opportunities in graphic design are predicted to grow by 7% from 2018-2028. These opportunities will most likely be associated with interactive media and professionals who can design websites may have the best chance of employment.
In order to fulfill my dream career, I need a bachelor’s degree in graphic design or a related field. One of the first things I did when looking for the career that I wanted to dedicate, was to look very well at the classes that I should take, and I found a lot of interesting and creative classes that fit in what I wanted, some of the seating classes are Figure Drawing, Art History, Desktop Publishing, Computer Art Applications, Digital Imaging, Communications, History, Marketing, CAD, Interactive Media, Principles of Design and Color, 2D and 3D Design, Graphics for the Web, Digital Photography, and Multimedia and Animation. The previous classes are a compilation of the 4 years colleges that offer this major, these colleges are the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Florida, Boston University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Miami, Rhode Island School of Design, Rochester Institute of Technology, Maryland Institute College of Art, School of Visual Arts – NYC, and the University of Minnesota. Furthermore, when I was looking for the graphic design program, I looked at the requirements that I must meet to apply to the program and I should not take a language course that helps me in this career, but in my case, English is not my native language, so I have to take English classes to improve and practice it because I still feel that I have more to learn. Finally, I will say that I choose this career because when I worked in Colombia for one year in an advertising agency all that I did was related to graphic design. I find it interesting that a graphic designer has an incredible role to play in creating solutions for social impact. And it's what motivates me to be a graphic designer, wondering about what I can do to make the world a better place. It’s a powerful way to apply my skills like artistic sensibility, technical skill, creativity, organization, and problem-solving ability.
To conclude, I'm going to end by saying that I don't just leave this in a paper, I don't leave my dreams in an assignment, I'm going to be the designer that I've always wanted to be because in 5 years I see myself working in a company or a non-profit organization that works for equality and human rights and at the time of taking any cause, and good design can probably take that mission further than ever.