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Do you require graphic design skills to function well in your job role? This article provides a guide on how you can develop the skills and include them on your resume.

 

What are Graphic Design Skills?

Graphic design skills are the art of profession of visual communication that joins images, and words to pass across an idea to an audience to produce a special effect. In other words, graphic design is the communication design that conveys ideas through visuals in aesthetic form. Graphic designers create a wide variety of products, such as logos, websites, games, clothing, books, and other user manuals. These professionals usually possess knowledge of color theory, font types, image construction, and other principles that can attract the market. They also utilized computer applications such as Photoshop to sketch designs and also attach the existing brand details to create innovative designs that attract the brand’s target demographic.

The element of the graphic is line, shape, color, typography, texture, size, and space.

 

Principles of Graphic Design

• Balance: Achieving balance in graphic design is done by utilizing symmetry and asymmetry. Balance is very much important to bring about balance in weight- which means shape, lines, and also, ensuring that other elements are distributed evenly.
• Alignment: Alignment entails keeping the design very organized. All the aspects of a design should be very much aligned that is from the top, bottom, center, or sides to create an excellent connection between all the elements.
• Proximity: Proximity creates a visual relationship between all the elements in a design. It minimizes clutter, provides a focal point for viewers, and also increases viewer comprehension. It does not mean that all the elements must be very close but what is important is that they connect.
• Repetition: Once you have established how to use your element, repeat the patterns thoroughly to have consistency throughout the design. The repetition combines all the elements and then increases the strength of that design. It also makes it very organized.
• Contrast: Contrast is used to emphasize certain aspects of the design. Using contrast allows you to showcase the differences between elements by highlighting the key elements of your design to make it stand out.

 

Importance of Graphic Design

• Communication of Information: once you have a business, you need to share your brand story and graphic design helps you to achieve that. Graphic design communicates your brand story to your target audience in form of words, images charts, and illustrations to attract them to your company or organization. This will also differentiate your company from other businesses and make you stand out in the marketplace.
• It builds Trust and Credibility: Consistency in your brand appearance is very much important because it will make you earn trust and credibility from your audience. Through the power of graphics design, ideas and messages can be communicated in a powerful way that will leave your audience impacted for a long period. Utilizing designs like infographics leaves your message memorable in the minds of your audience.
• Creation of Brand Identity: A business needs to establish its image to differentiate itself from other companies. Graphic design can help you to improve your company’s brand identity and also build its recognition. Graphic design is very much powerful because it helps you create a long-lasting visual identity for your company. It allows you to express the values of your company, objective, and other products. You also get to showcase your company logo, color, and your brand’s core message to customers.
• It boosts Sales: Graphic design will help a business to be visible among other businesses which will lead to high sales. Attractive visuals, high visibility, and effective communication of ideas enhance a business’s credibility and bring more foot traffic to a business. Graphic design is a powerful tool that can keep the audience engaged and also impacted by the message of the brand. Companies around the globe benefit from graphic design because it boosts their sales revenue.

 

How to Improve your Graphic Design Skills

• Take online Courses: Enrolling in online courses is very much important even if you are a professional graphic designer. This is one of the ways to improve your skills. Taking an online course can help you to evaluate important design principles, gain other professional perspectives and also get to know more tips about graphic design.
• Join Online Design Groups: there are so many forums online where graphic designers can share ideas and also interact with one another. You can present your work in these groups for other designers to critique your work.  Joining these professional groups can help you expand your network and you will also get to learn new techniques and trends from professionals in the industry.
• Attend creative conferences: creative conferences are professional events for industries with creative skills like writing, advertisement, and publishing. Consider attending these events once a year to collaborate with other professionals and other creative disciples. You should participate in seminars and workshops to learn relevant trends in the industry.
• Enter a graphic design competition: Research online for graphic design competitions which are hosted by top-notch companies in the industry and also other publications. You can follow the guidelines of the competition and then submit your work. Prizes may be awarded in the completion such as money, tools, a laptop, a tablet, or a publishing credit. You can also be hired by a renowned company if you stand out during the competition.
• Keep a collection of images that inspire you: Collect images from magazines, online publications, or real-life objects that inspire your designs. Save these designs so that you can always use them to brainstorm whenever you want to create a design from the scratch.
• Read a Book; Reading a book by other designers can help you to learn new theories and techniques. They can help you to gain fresh insight into graphic design.
• Determine your signature style: You need to reflect in graphic design to adopt a particular style. It can also be very much helpful for you to analyze designs that can stand out by penning down some notes about your likes and dislikes to get your signature style.
• Surround yourself with designers: You need to surround yourself with other professional designers to learn more techniques and also put your skills into practice. Some designers may love to collaborate with your online design project and utilize this as an opportunity to learn new skills. You can also ask other designers to do constructive criticism about your project.
• Critique your previous work: One of the best ways to notice that your design skills have improved is by doing a critique of your previous work. You will get to decide which one is better whether the previous one or the present one. You can even try to recreate a design from your previous designs to develop your skills.

 

Jobs that Require Graphic Design Skills

• Photo Editor: Photo Editorsutilize graphic design skills to adjust and combine images to get the final image. Their work begins after they take a picture, they utilize graphic design to make pictures more beautiful.
• Logo Designers: Logo designers utilize graphic design skills to develop visually compelling graphics or symbols to represent a company’s product, service, or brand. To achieve this, they research the target audience to get a strong symbol that will appeal to and impact them.
• Web designer; web designers utilize graphic design skills to develop a website by creating individual web packages, developing graphics for a website, and designing page layouts. They also determine the content that will be included on the web page to appeal to their audience.
• Multimedia Designer: Multimedia designers create technical animated images and videos by utilizing art and computerized animation programs. They plan out the animation by sketching, creating scale models, and formulating computerized graphics to develop a story. Multimedia designers can work for a Television station, in video game development, and in film production.
• Art Director:  the art director is a high–level executive who is saddled with the responsibility of overseeing the design team vision, guiding the team concept, and also supervising all the design work. They work in a variety of industries such as advertising, print publications, fashion, television, or consumer products.
• User Interface (UI) designer:  the user interface designer is responsible for ensuring that every web page or operational step of the final product allows the user to have an experience of designer content. UI designers utilize graphic design to make web pages, electronic programming, and advertisements for consumers to interact with.
• User Experience (UX) designer:  UX designers make services, products, and websites that are easily affordable to users. They consider the intended use of products and ensure that a product is user-friendly to the consumer. They utilized technologies such as software, gaming systems, automobiles, and computers to develop visual aesthetics and graphics.

 

How to Include Design Skills on Your Resume

• Pick your most Important Work Experience: most employers who want to hire graphic designers are on the lookout for skills. Pick your most pertinent experience to show that you are competent for the job. You can attach your portfolio to your resume or put a link to your online design in your resume so that employers can easily assess it. You should also showcase that you are very creative and you have a passion for learning new skills.
• Demonstrate your biggest strengths: the strength of a graphic designer lies in his passion to learn new designs and also his computerized skills. Demonstrate that you are very passionate about the job and that you are always ready to learn current trends in graphic design.  A graphic designer must also possess excellent computer and technological skills. You need to demonstrate that you have mastered computer and technology that pertains to graphic design.
• Highlight your Skills: at this juncture, you need to highlight the skills you possess. You must know that there are hard skills and soft skills. Focus on the hard skills because it reflects your work as a graphic designer. You can highlight the following skills:
  • Proficiency in computer-aided design (CAD)
  • Computerized sketching abilities
  • Communication and presentation skills
  • Creativity and innovation
  • Understanding of the target audience
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Typography
  • Motion design
  • Business acumen
  • Color theory
  • User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe InDesign

 

Examples of How to Include Analytical Skills on Your Resume

Web Designer Resume Sample

• Oversee UI/UX website designer for a fast-paced design firm. Create an average of four minor websites or one major website  per month
• Oversee and create custom graphics sets for clients, with 99% client satisfaction across
• Organized all composition, color, illustration, typography, and branding for client projects. Turned in projects an average of 5% faster than targets.
• Restored 100+ legacy sites to responsive design. Raised UX scores by 35%.
• Enhanced UX for a website local church

Senior Art Director

• Conducted a multi-functional team of 10+ colleagues to develop creative and effective advertising concepts, from ideation through final projects.
• Organized all productive materials to ensure their smooth transition to other departments.
• Commission artwork, negotiate costs and usage, supervise the completion of the artwork, supervise photo shoots, and review sketches from illustrators.

User Interface (Ul) Developer Resume

• Lead a senior UI developer for a company for 3 years and more
• Formulated new features with 10% higher performance than the historical average
• Labored with cross-functionality to deliver 95% client satisfaction
• Finalized jobs 15% faster than targets on average.

 

How to Demonstrate Graphic Design Skills in an Interview

• Use the STAR Model: Adopt the STAR model to answer a question. Analyze the situation and the task you embarked on and also the action you took to get the final result. Graphic design is more of a practical skill than a theoretical one. You should answer most of the interview questions by discussing your practical experiences and the action you undertook.
• Show that you know Graphic Design. You should know how to explain the concept of graphic design, the elements, and the principles of graphic design. Prove to the interviewer that you don’t just know how to make designs but that you are an expert in the subject area.
• Be very clear and concise: there is no need to beat around the bush when answering questions but go straight to the point in order not to bore the interviewer. Be very brief when answering the questions and focus on the most important point. Be very smart to pick an experience that best showcases your skills as a graphic designer.
• Stay calm and Collected

 

Examples of Interview Questions to Test Graphic Design Skills

• Why did you choose to be a graphic designer?
• According to you, what do you think is the role of a graphic designer?
• What do you think should be the priority of a designer while creating a design?
• What distinguishes a good graphic designer from others?
• Describe a situation where you encountered a tight deadline and how where you were able to deal with it.
• Do you know the different types of graphic design projects?
• What kind of design projects arouses your interest?
• What are graphic design components?
• What is the difference between a crossing polygon and a window polygon?
• Discuss the four crucial graphic design principles
• How are UX, Graphic design, and Visual different from each other?
• How do you measure the success of your design?
• In your opinion, can graphic designers impact society with their works?
• How do you sustain long-term interest in designing for a particular brand?
• How do you get your inspiration as a graphic designer?

Resume Skills