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While designers are essential for marketing and create amazing work seen by the world, there are some common misconceptions about the career of graphic design. Below, some of these misconceptions will be discussed, as well as showing that graphic design has no limit and there are many ways a graphic designer can help your business.
1. Designers specialize in branding
Designers have many and varying skill sets and expertise. Branding might be one of the more popular associations to graphic design, but not all designers provide branding services. Whatever service your designer provides will impact how people perceive your business or brand, but a designer’s job is not limited to logos, business cards and stationery.
Some other areas a designer can specialize in are illustration and developing visual assets, designing social media posts or social media templates, print layout and design, product packaging and user interface on apps and websites to name a few.
As you can see, design encompasses a whole world of creativity that is not limited to the examples above. One designer might dabble in as many areas as they can, while others might wish to specialize and focus on one skill and expertise.
2. Design is art.
This statement is not black and white, many people including the design community have varying opinions and perspectives. Some people view design as solution-based thinking. There is a problem and design can fix it, whether that problem is a chair needs to be sturdier or there needs to be more viewers on a social media page.
Both these examples include design thinking and approach, but the results will be different, and they will serve a different function in our lives. Additionally, these solutions are not perceived as art, because they aimed to solve a problem instead of creating a work with emotion and expression. Art usually has the intention of provoking thought and questions in the minds of their audience.
That being said, design and art can be combined to create an equally impactful result and become a collaborative act. For example, the wine brand, “Château Mouton Rothschild”, has been collaborating with artists since 1924 to create hybrid wine labels. These wine labels are split in two, the top half displaying an artist’s work, while the bottom half displays their wine’s label design.
William Kentridge’s collaboration with Château Mouton Rothschild, taking inspiration from the “Triumph of Bacchus”
To present a beautiful example, South African artist, William Kentridge, collaborated with Château Mouton Rothschild to create silhouetted illustrations. In his work, The Triumph of Bacchus, he portrays the silhouetted figures in joyful procession inspired by Bacchic characters. While the style Kentridge has chosen to work in is different to Château’s personal branding, putting these two works together creates a new meaning to packaging, branding, art, and design. The focus is now on collaboration and combining two acts of creating into one.
3. You need to be talented to be a graphic designer.
There are people who at 5 years old knew they were going to be a designer and grew up working towards this goal and practicing their skills. But for a lot of people the desire to design only came later in life. This could be for many reasons, one being not a lot of people know about graphic design before applying for university. When searching for their place in the world, graphic design became an option through research and curiosity.
Design like many other careers takes patience, practice, and hard work. It doesn’t have to come naturally or early for you to pursue a career or hobby in graphic design. Design can be taught and learned, regardless of your age and stage of life. This means regardless of when your graphic designer started, their passion for the craft is the same and hard work was put in to get them where they are.
While this is a short list about debunking graphic design myths and showcasing a graphic designers’ talents, there are more. The act of designing and being a graphic designer is like putting together a puzzle. It takes time and sometimes you can’t find the right puzzle piece. But after some time and perseverance you’ll be able to see the big, beautiful picture that is design, creativity and community.
