5 July 2021

Become a Graphic Designer: Why Graphic design is the best choice for your career path

In previous editions of the seek social blog, the staff at our digital marketing and graphic design agency have shown you a number of things relating to graphic design. We’ve covered the emerging graphic design trends in 2021, we’ve explained just why graphic design is such a powerful tool and asset for digital marketing, and we’ve even shown you a few great graphic design hacks that will help you take your next batch of designs to the next level. Now lets talk about why do you need to become a graphic designer?

It, therefore, feels most remiss of us to not have covered the topic of just why you want to be a graphic designer in the first place. Well, that changes today, as in this blog we’ll walk you through some of the biggest advantages and factors to consider if you’re thinking about a career in graphic design – as always with first-hand insight from the great creative minds working right here at Manchester’s best graphic design agency. Are you ready? Then let’s get started!

Career Path to Graphic Design: Why become a graphic designer?

So why do you want to become a graphic designer? Before answering this question, we first have to ask the question of why graphic design is important? With the booming digital marketing industry, there are many scopes to flourish your career as a graphic designer. The opportunities are a lot. For you, We have combined four reasons to become a freelance graphic designer.

Reason 1: Freedom & Flexibility of Time and Place

Even if you decide to work for a graphic design agency, if you choose graphic design as a career then you’ll be entering an industry that offers a high amount of flexibility and freedom in terms of when, where, and how you work.

No matter whether you need peace and quiet and a dedicated space somewhere to be at your best if hanging out in the local coffee shop and watching the hustle and bustle is what gets your creative brain going, or anything in-between – whatever environment works for you, you can do graphic design under those circumstances.

Physical location and time differences are not really a problem either. The world is always online these days, and that definitely includes graphic design agency staff and freelancers. Speaking from experience within the Seek Social team, we’ve worked with creatives who – by their own choice – have been online at 3:30 AM local time to work at the same time our UK office is open.

By the same token, we’ve had others who wanted a brief sent to them at the end of our business day so they could work on it during theirs (overnight for us), and we’d have something waiting in our inbox for feedback the next morning.

The point is, it doesn’t matter where, how, or when you work – whatever works best for you, there will be someone looking for a creative graphic design be it an agency or freelancer to meet their digital marketing needs at that time – and speaking of being a freelancer, that offers yet another layer of freedom in your career which we’ll look at now – but with that freedom, comes a bit of risk too.

At a graphic design agency, you’ll have a boss and a task list that said boss needs you to work on, whether you actually want to or not. You might not always enjoy that work, but with a graphic design agency you are almost certainly guaranteed to always have a project to work on, and money coming in. However, as a freelancer, you are your own boss.

If you don’t like the sound of a project, then you can politely decline the work and look for something else – with the drawback being that if you’re not working on something, then you’re not earning money. It’s the ultimate in freedom, but freelancers need to balance that freedom against the need to make a living and pay the bills.

As a result, just like in many other trades and professions, graphic designers have to weigh up the pros and cons of both situations for themselves. In some cases, that’ll mean the regular paycheck and security that comes with a position at a graphic design agency is the better option, while others will thrive on the independence and sheer freedom that comes with life as a freelancer. The important thing though, is that you do what feels right for your unique circumstances.

Reason 2: The Chance To Make A Difference

Sometimes design is more than the staff at a graphic design agency creating something that looks good. In the UK we might think about ‘KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON’, or more recently ‘STAY AT HOME > PROTECT THE NHS > SAVE LIVES’ – in America, there’s the famous ‘Uncle Sam’ poster, and countless other examples of things just like these.

Posters, images, adverts, PSA’s – whatever they may be, these are things that have made a big difference, served an important purpose, or conveyed a vital message at the time they were in use. The key thread that connects them back to what we’re talking about today is that at some point, someone had to design each of these Uncle Sam Iconic poster layout.

Someone had to create that familiar image of Uncle Sam or General Kitchener. Someone had to draw those eyes and make them follow you around the room. Someone had to decide on ‘that font, in white, with that shade of red as the background, and that crown right at the top’.

That person, of course, was a graphic designer – and no matter whether they were on staff at a graphic design agency or a freelancer – they created something that still lives long in the memory, that still means something to people and reaches their feelings even today, decades after the designs we’ve alluded to here were in use.

So, if you’re looking for a chance to make that kind of impact on society and culture at large, and you want your artistic, creative side to make that impact, a graphic design agency or freelance position could be the opportunity you’ve been looking for!

Reason 3: Always Be In Demand

As we mentioned in a previous blog, most of the information that your brain processes – and the information that it makes sense of before anything else – is visual information. Images are what stand out to our instincts, and that makes those images (and the people that create them – whether a freelancer or a graphic design agency like ours) very important.

We explored exactly why that is in a previous blog, but the other thing to think about with relation to a possible career as a graphic designer is this: That ‘instinct’ to look at images first has been essentially hard-wired into the human brain ever since prehistory. It’s one of the things that helped us survive ice ages and stay safely out of the way of predators, dangerous plants, and other such things.

Why is that good for your career prospects as a graphic designer? Well, because something that’s been part of how our brains work for as long as that instinct has, is REALLY hard to un-learn. It’s just something we do, and we can’t help it. That means that it isn’t going away any time soon, which in turn means that quality imagery is going to be eye-catching for centuries to come. That need for quality imagery then means that the services of a top-quality freelancer or graphic design agency will always be in demand!

Reason 4: Never Be Bored At Work!

If you become a graphic designer then you will never feel boring at work. Some people go to work and do the same thing day in, day out. However, a position at a graphic design agency or as a self-employed designer just isn’t like that. Even if you end up ‘doing the same thing’ regularly – let’s say, creating images for social media posts – chances are you’ll be doing that task for several different clients. Each of those clients will have their own design briefs and branding guidelines to work to, presenting a slightly different challenge each time.

And even if you’re working with a client you’ve teamed up with before, on something that you’ve done before – that doesn’t mean that this job can’t be different. After all, it could be that they’re coming back to you not because they want ‘more of the same’ – quite the opposite in fact. It could be that they want a whole new eye-catching look, but they want a designer or a graphic design agency that they’re already familiar with to deliver it.

It truly is the case that no two projects are ever quite the same in this line of work, and that means that whether you choose to be a freelancer or work at a graphic design agency – every day brings new, exciting challenges and opportunities as business owners and entrepreneurs are looking for graphic services to establish their brands!

The Final Word From Our Graphic Design Agency

So there you have it, folks, four great reasons to become a graphic designer, or join forces with a graphic design agency just like ours! We know from experience just how rewarding and varied a career in graphic design can be, and our designers – as skilled, talented, and experienced as they are – never stop learning. So, if you’d like to tap into those years of experience and expertise for your next graphic design project, why not get in touch with us today? And don’t forget to check out our Google My Business and Instagram pages (as well as elsewhere on social media) to see some great examples of our work!