31 Graphic Design Areas to Specialize in
So you are a graphic designer, but what does that mean exactly? Do you design logos, websites, posters or something entirely different? Graphic design has become an elaborate field with many areas and the demand for specialized designers is increasing. Here is an overview of the most popular areas and some more unconventional niches you can specialize in.
1. Lettering
Hand lettering is a very popular area in design where one creates unique text by hand. A solid understanding of typography helps.
2. Photo manipulation
The art of transforming images. Photo editing is often done in Adobe Photoshop and is useful in itself or in other design areas.
3. Logos
Logo design is the process of creating a unique symbol to represent a brand and is probably the most popular area in graphic design.
4. Branding
Brand identity goes further than just a logo and encompasses an entire company’s image, from packaging to advertising.
5. Iconography
Icon design is the process of creating graphic symbols that represent something.
6. 3D design
Creating 3D artwork or full 3D models in CAD software.
7. Motion Design
Create motion graphics and animations.
8. UX/UI design
Despite being two different disciplines, these 2 often complement each other. User experience design is about a person’s entire interaction with a product or company, while user interface design is about the visual interface that a person interacts with.
9. Character design
Create characters for games, anime, comics and even company mascots. It is important to show a character’s personality through different poses and facial expressions.
10. Font / Typeface
Design a set of characters. A typeface or font family is the entire collection of fonts in different sizes and styles.
11. Illustrations
This can be anything and often overlaps with other art and design areas.
12. Infographics
Convey information and data visually.
13. Posters
Designing posters requires sold skills in other areas like illustration and typography. Check out Olly Moss for amazing work in this area.
14. Album covers
Design covers for CD, Vinyl record, DVD or even floppy disks.
15. Packaging
Design the packaging for a product. Often goes with other areas, such as branding or illustration.
16. Web design
Designing entire websites often includes UX/UI design and other design areas.
17. Book covers
18. Advertising
Design for advertising and marketing can be anything from billboard ads to entire websites. This area is wide and requires not only the graphics to be visually stunning, but also functional by sending the intended message.
19. Maps
Cartography, the practice of creating maps, is a very technical area on its own and never really fell under graphic design. However, with easy access to GIS and data nowadays, graphic designers can create visually stunning and still functional maps.
20. Sequence design
Creating storyboards happens in any narrative such as animation or graphic novels. It is important to be able to tell a story through a sequence of images.
21. Technical
A large, rather unknown area is technical design. This includes blueprints, diagrams, technical documents and illustrations. James Provost does amazing work in this area.
22. Shirts & Merch
Create graphics that can be put on a shirt or other merch to sell. Illustrating is an useful skill in this area, but you could also design shirts with simple graphics and text.
23. Stock images
Aside from photography, stock images can also be vectors. Technically any illustration can be sold as a stock, but often stock vector are kept simple and blank so that other people can use them.
24. Product design
Create a new product.
25. Presentation
Yes, you can specialize in presentation design. Companies value a great presentation and would not mind paying somebody to create one.
26. Title design
An essential part of film has always been the title sequence. Art of Title is an amazing site that keeps track of title sequences.
27. Editorial
Editorial design is important in books and magazines to layout the information using text and images.
28. Mockups
Quality mockups can fetch a great price on sites such as Creative Market.
29. Greeting cards
Often includes illustration and copywriting.
30. Signage
The design of signs to communicate a message. Everywhere around you are traffic signs and display signs that somebody designed.
31. Combine and create your own niche
Specializing is great, but you don’t have to choose just one area. Many design areas and skills overlap and complement each other. Generally it’s best to dive deep in one area, while also having some other basic skills. If you have trouble deciding, just keep creating various things and eventually you’ll find your calling.
