Top 5 Skills Required to Become a Successful Graphic Designer

These days when it comes to online content and online marketing, people do not prefer pure text anymore. Visual content is considered far more engaging than its written counterpart. In such a situation it is imperative to have a designer in your content team who can actually come up with excellent designs and boost your marketing sales.

With this, there has been a huge demand for graphic designers and graphic designer jobs. Several employers especially in the digital media domain are constantly on a lookout for good and talented designers.

However, have you ever thought what it takes to be an expert web designer? Well, except a degree or a diploma in the field, what are the required skills that one needs to have in order to succeed in this job?

Here’s a look:

1. Creativity

First and foremost, designers need to be highly creative. You need to have creative ideas and imagination so that you can come up with vibrant and innovative ideas every time you are given a project. A general understanding of artistic skills are essential in order to become a successful graphic designer.

2. Typography

While in present times typography may be an underrated skill, it is one of the main skills that employers look out for in a graphic designer. Skills in typography differentiates and good designer from an excellent one. Typography requires a firm understanding of font families, appropriate use of line-height, kerning and tracking.

3. Print Design and Layout

Another significant skill that all employers look out for in a web designer is sound knowledge of print design and layout. Understanding of digital print production is essential and every designer is expected to have a sound knowledge of desktop publishing. Print design also requires an understanding of concepts like color separations, grid layout, and master pages.

Every professional designer should possess thorough knowledge of the printing process. One shouldn’t take it as far as knowing how to operate a printing press, however being familiar with the process is key. The most basic printing knowledge involves an understanding of color space.

4. Software and Web Design

Most of the action in the web designing segment takes place on a computer screen. Therefore a candidate must have a good understanding how to use industry standard software. The most popular and well-known design software comes from Adobe, with an entire creative suite including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Along with this, a sound knowledge of web designing is also essential in order to land up with your dream job as a graphic designer.

5. Communication

Last but not the least, a graphic designer is also expected to be good at communications as one will have to deal with multiple clients, understand their requirements and then develop the required content. It might be hard to talk to clients who don’t understand limitations or the right terminology, so you will have to be patient and learn how to really understand what a client wants for their design.

A graphic designer’s job is all about creativity and innovation. Therefore, it goes without saying one has to have a creative bend of mine in order to excel in this domain.

Author Bio: A digital media professional, Sampurna Majumder has been lending her expertise by penning articles and blog posts on jobs, career, HR tips and the recruitment industry.