Graphic Design

So I'm a Graphic Design major going to Iowa State University (who would have guessed). Just wondering if there are any other Graphic Designers in here? What do you do for a living?

Yup.

Graphic designer for 10 years now. I do print (brochures, icons, etc) in an in-house creative services team for a fortune 500 company. I love print design, I like be able to hold my creations. Web/electronic is flashy and cool, but you can't physically touch your work, and work with die cuts and creative folding techniques. Different inks, different varnished, spot UV gloss varnish over spot UV dull, awesome.

Some of my work: http://www.wdesignstudios.com/portfolioprint.html

Dropped out of graphic design school in 1995. I decided to get into healthcare instead. Bad decision.

Graphic artist/web designer for 14+ years... Found my niche recently in online marketing.

Comes in real handy for designing labels and tap markers!

IowaState said:

So I'm a Graphic Design major going to Iowa State University (who would have guessed). Just wondering if there are any other Graphic Designers in here? What do you do for a living?

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Don't know about Graphic Designers, but there are other ISU grads.

I know 2. One works for the local paper, the other....well she was my wife's permanent sub during Maternity leave.

I am not a designer, but I am married to one! My wife currently does motion graphic work for Disney. Her passion is print work, but it is a slowly dying industry. She decided to learn up on Flash, AfterEffects, and even advanced Keynote.

It was the best professional choice she ever made!

That's awesome cimirie

I'm a graphic and web designer. Been running a small design studio in Ontario for almost 8 years now. I do a bit of print, some branding and marketing as well. It's an enjoyable industry to be in.

Graphic/web/UI designer here. Graduated in May and have been looking for an industry job ever since, but I've been doing freelance work in the interim.

Graphic and website designer.

http://www.alleydude.com/

My daughter will be heading off to UW Stout for Graphic Design next fall. I hear (and hope it's true) they have a very good placement rate. My self I'm in health care. Unlike a previous poster I think it's the best career decision I've made. How do you like ISU and the area? I built a couple of houses down in that area back before my current career track.

I'm a web designer with a degree in graphic design.

Graphic Designer here. Graduated with a BFA in graphics only a couple years ago. Social media is part of my job, which includes HBT. I'm not complaining one bit.

<--- Working for this company

tbel said:

My daughter will be heading off to UW Stout for Graphic Design next fall. I hear (and hope it's true) they have a very good placement rate. My self I'm in health care. Unlike a previous poster I think it's the best career decision I've made. How do you like ISU and the area? I built a couple of houses down in that area back before my current career track.

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Love Iowa State, I grew up in Des Moines and have always loved this college. I've heard there is a pretty good placement rate for designers, however you might have to go to a big city to get a job. I hear that freelance work is sometimes the better option.

I might take journalism as well and try to get a job with a newspaper as a photographic journalist. But I'm not sure yet.

YUP, GRAPHIC DESIGNER here as well. Graduated in 2005. Laid off last year from a great Senior Level graphic/web designer position. Right now I work for a major Northern California magazine as an Advertising Designer. I love what I do even if I'll never get rich from doing it.

I also own a wedding/portrait photography company with my wife who is also a graphic designer, and I teach intro level digital art & photography classes at one of the local community colleges. Still do a lot of freelance work.

What sucks about trying to be a freelance designer in most places is people want to pay you what they think they should pay you, not what your going rate is. Clients always have a cousin or neighbor who knows the Adobe or the "internets", or "has an eye for this kind of stuff". ARRRRRGH!

You graphic designers in here would love this: www.clientsfromhell.com. And yes, I've submitted a few of my own horror stories through the years.

My wife's been in the business for probably 10-15 years. She's worked in print predominantly. She started out designing packaging at a manufacturing company. Then she worked for a newspaper designing and placing ads. She hated that job. Then she worked at a magazine publisher and ultimately became the creative director there. Then she went to work for a regional fast food chain in their marketing dept. developing the marketing and advertising for the brand. Now she works for a catalog company as an art director. We've moved around a lot for various reasons. The key I've found is that you can always find a job, it just might not be in a place you want to live.

IowaState said:

Love Iowa State, I grew up in Des Moines and have always loved this college. I've heard there is a pretty good placement rate for designers, however you might have to go to a big city to get a job. I hear that freelance work is sometimes the better option.

I might take journalism as well and try to get a job with a newspaper as a photographic journalist. But I'm not sure yet.

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I don't think she'll care where she gets a job. Seh seems to do well in any environment.
She's doing an internship/mentor-ship @ the local newspaper this last semester of her senior year. She's actually looking to do a masters eventually, maybe teach.

gregger said:

What sucks about trying to be a freelance designer in most places is people want to pay you what they think they should pay you, not what your going rate is. Clients always have a cousin or neighbor who knows the Adobe or the "internets", or "has an eye for this kind of stuff". ARRRRRGH!

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As I'm sure you know, Graphic design isn't the only field that happens in. Photography has experienced a lot of that since the advent of the DSLR.

I've had people who've seen some of my work ask me to do shoots for them. Unlike many other amateurs, I have no delusions I can provide them with professional quality work. I rarely take on anything except maybe a senior portrait type thing where they could have them redone if they aren't satisfied. Pretty much limit it to Family.

I've been in the graphic design field for a little over ten years. The worst part is definitely the clients. Why everyone thinks that developing a website is easy, is beyond me. What irritates me the most is when someone asks me to take a couple hours on an afternoon and teach them how to make changes.

www.portergraphics.net

tbel said:

As I'm sure you know, Graphic design isn't the only field that happens in. Photography has experienced a lot of that since the advent of the DSLR.

I've had people who've seen some of my work ask me to do shoots for them. Unlike many other amateurs, I have no delusions I can provide them with professional quality work. I rarely take on anything except maybe a senior portrait type thing where they could have them redone if they aren't satisfied. Pretty much limit it to Family.

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Kind of how my wife and I got started. But then we somehow got recommended to do a christmas party for a huge local business. And me feeling intimidated when they cut me a check, I told them to write it to our business name which didn't exist yet, neither with the state nor a bank. So we had to get a business license in order to open a bank account so we could deposit it. Best move ever... our first year of real legit business we did 8 family portraits, 9 weddings, 4 newborn portraits, and 3 maternity portrait sessions.

You should do what we do if you're interested in broadening your scope. Advertise yourself like we do. We are graphic designers by trade, and we do this on the weekends/in our free time. We provide an affordable option to those who can't afford to pay $2500+ for a critically acclaimed photographer. We don't consider ourselves competitors of them since we can't offer most services like they do (prints, albums, books). We aren't on the hunt to get the biggest and greatest equipment out there like they do (since normal folks don't know the difference anyway), and we aren't doing this to make a living. So we can actually be in touch with what people are really looking for, instead of being all *****ebaggy like the rest of these elitist type wedding photographers out here who do this and charge top dollar to pay for their house. Those types of photographers HATE me.

And.... yes I realize the hypocrisy of it with how I view amateur graphic designers who do decent work for dirt cheap. Weird world right?

I might put up some of my drawings, they aren't the best, but critique is welcome.

IowaState said:

I might put up some of my drawings, they aren't the best, but critique is welcome.

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"Most" folks in any related creative industry know how to give constructive criticism. I say go ahead and start a thread called something like "personal creative creations" or something like that and open it up for people to critique each others photos, drawings, paintings, sculptures, digital creations, etc. I'm sure most of us have an outlet like that and would love to show faceless beings our work on the internets without being fearful no matter what our level of skill is.

Alright it shall be done later tonight.

Could be popular, could die a quick death, who knows. I'd be in on it.

I'd love to see some work.
As far as sharing with other creative people, my daughter post lots of stuff to deviantart For photography I love Photozo Nhotozoot that I want to send anyone away from HBT, but I know my daughter likes Deviant, and the people on Photozo will give great critiques and treat you like one of the family.

Graphic Designer in Cincinnati. I've worked for a Brand Identity/Packaging firm here for 18 years! I currently work more in the design refinement/execution end of the creative process, but try to keep the skills sharp with some conceptual work here and there.