Is Graphic Designer a reasonable career goal?

I'm trying to help my daughter (starting college next fall) with some career planning. She just won a half-tuition scholarship to a state school with her art skills and doesn't really know what she wants to major in, knowing art is kind of a tough field to make a good living. She mentioned maybe something like Graphics Designer, but honestly I have no idea if it is a reasonable career path with decent employment prospects. BLS handbook says pay and growth are about average. I was thinking maybe if she combined it with web development that might be fairly valuable, but I can only nudge, you know.

I figured there must be some type of media professionals around here that would have some career advice for someone with excellent artistic skills wanting a reasonably optimistic career path. Any advice you could give me to pass on would be welcome.

Pour on the CGI skills and point her toward Pixar!

How about Industrial designer? It combines the artsy crafty with a bit more science like ergonomics? Maybe I am wrong but my guess is that there are are lot of Graphics designers out there without degrees doing awesome work. Most industrial designer will need a degree, I think.

Graphic Arts is often the bottom of the barrel career wise. It's a great starting point but you're never going to make good money at it. Jay's advice is good, as she should definitely specialize if you want to make money.

I'm switching my major from photography to graphic design because honestly they're taking over the photography world and sooner or later we'll have to do both.

H&M magazine doesn't even use real models anymore, all the bodies are completely CG. In that area a graphic designer can replace both a photographer and a model. I can see more and more companies leaning towards GD since they can save a buck, and there's some incredibly talented ones out there.

If she's good at math, you can also point her towards Architecture.

--Evan

Thats what I do. I recommend pushing towards web design and not print. Thats where the money is if your talented!

Thanks for the ideas, I'll run some of them by her and get the gears turning. Picking a major was brutal for me, too, and college is so expensive these days you can hardly afford to switch.

Todd Lambert wrote in post #15830225
Graphic Arts is often the bottom of the barrel career wise. It's a great starting point but you're never going to make good money at it. Jay's advice is good, as she should definitely specialize if you want to make money.

This. The couple of people Ive known that graduated with BA in graphic design were only able to find jobs paying a little above fast food pay, at least right out of college.

Have her get a business degree and focus on Marketing....

tkbslc wrote in post #15830197
I'm trying to help my daughter (starting college next fall) with some career planning. She just won a half-tuition scholarship to a state school with her art skills and doesn't really know what she wants to major in, knowing art is kind of a tough field to make a good living. She mentioned maybe something like Graphics Designer, but honestly I have no idea if it is a reasonable career path with decent employment prospects. BLS handbook says pay and growth are about average. I was thinking maybe if she combined it with web development that might be fairly valuable, but I can only nudge, you know.

I figured there must be some type of media professionals around here that would have some career advice for someone with excellent artistic skills wanting a reasonably optimistic career path. Any advice you could give me to pass on would be welcome.

My husband studied graphic design in college (back in the stone ages when they didn't use computers and it was called ad art.) He worked at ad agencies, got into the web during the dot com boom and then when that bubble burst he moved into casual gaming. Currently he works for a company that makes smartphone apps. He's worked at every level from entry level to upper management.

This is not a field to get into right now if you want to make a lot of money. While creative directors are paid fairly well, those jobs are more difficult to get and of course take time to work your way up there. Programming is where the real money is when you get into web design and game design.

All that said, my husband makes a respectable middle class wage. We own a modest house and drive nice, economy cars. He makes enough so that I was able to stay home with both our kids until they started school and he's supporting me as I go to school now. And he doesn't hate what he's doing, which in my book is more important than making a big pile of money.

I'm far away from the field. One guy graphic designer is servicing cellphone antennas.

The two women I know that went into it are employed.

Mavgirl wrote in post #15835456
This is not a field to get into right now if you want to make a lot of money. While creative directors are paid fairly well, those jobs are more difficult to get and of course take time to work your way up there. Programming is where the real money is when you get into web design and game design.

All that said, my husband makes a respectable middle class wage. We own a modest house and drive nice, economy cars. He makes enough so that I was able to stay home with both our kids until they started school and he's supporting me as I go to school now. And he doesn't hate what he's doing, which in my book is more important than making a big pile of money.

Thanks for the real-life experience, I appreciate it.

Numenorean wrote in post #15835373
Have her get a business degree and focus on Marketing....

Worth considering, although business majors are a dime a dozen, aren't they? (not trying to offend, but it was the #1 major at my college)

I'm a graphic designer graduating in a month, and contrary to what Mavgirl said, it *is* a great field to get into right now, assuming you're willing to bust your ass to make it. My school (Arizona State) is not well known for its design school, but its the best in the state and curriculum and faculty wise, our program can hang with some of the best in the nation (Carnegie Mellon, etc). It just depends on how hard you are willing to work. A graphic designer is forced to wear many hats these days (which is the fun part of it all), including designer, producer, developer (for web and interactive applications), photographer, researcher, etc. While web design is a major part of our curriculum, I took it upon myself to really hone my HTML/CSS/JavaScript coding skills to allow me to translate my designs from identity to print to interactive. It's this multi-faceted nature as well as the drive for success that separates the men from the boys in our industry.

I came from a similar history where I was very rooted in art (visual art + photography + music) but didn't really want to pursue either of the three because there isn't a whole lot of money in any of it or were too bohemian for my liking. Commercial arts were the obvious choice, and there I landed in graphic design.

Though I am graduating in a month, I just accepted an offer for an integral position at a *very decent* wage (more than any business/marketing/com​munications/whatever student i know) at a leading digital design consultancy in New York City, and received numerous offers from other leading design consultancies as well as very well known digital start ups. If you have the drive to succeed and design is something you find a passion in, it is very doable. If she is skilled at art and loves to make things, there should be no difficulty in translating over to design – it's the same thinking. Business/marketing/com​munications majors are a dime-a-dozen and NONE of those degrees are going to make any money (or have any luck being employed) directly out of school. Architecture is also very hard to break into these days and you will spend 40 years working on other peoples ideas before you can create your own stuff. Obviously you get out of it what you put into it, but if you work hard enough, the opportunities will be endless.

If you'd like to continue our conversation please please PM me or email me… I'd be happy to talk more.