What kind of designer do you want to be? Read through the following career options and compare:
Graphic designers design magazines, books, packaging for products, logo’s for companies, brochures and marketing materials. Graphic designers bring products and businesses to life using beautiful photographs and images to inspire the user. They use shape and colour and proportion to layout content on the page. Print designers focus on printable items. However, as technological advances are being made more and more design is moving online and digital media skills are required to produce websites.
Skills: Adobe Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator), HTML, CSS, Java Script, WordPress
Digital designer’s combine creativity with technical skills to produce visual material for various electronic media, such as websites, computer games, movies and virtual reality programmes. Digital designers create, illustrate and manipulate digital images using special software. In addition, and depending on their skill level, they create 2- or 3-D graphics that in most instances include animations.
Skills: Adobe Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator), HTML, CSS, Java Script, WordPress, Computer Assister Drawing (CAD), software for 3D design and modelling.
Web designers use a combination of design and IT skills to produce web pages for the Internet. In order to create a website, a web designer starts with the end user in mind. The most successful sites allow people to travel around them with ease. User experience (UX) and User interface (UI) tools help the designer to explore the experience the user has when navigating the site or app.
Skills: Adobe Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator), HTML, CSS, Java Script, wireframing, WordPress
An animator is an artist who uses technology to give life and movement to inanimate or created characters. They also create the backgrounds and environments in which these 'characters' live and interact and work closely with voice artists and musicians. Animators create films for production companies, major animation studios and computer games companies. They create designs which can be two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D).
Skills: Photoshop, Flash Autodesk, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Houdin, Pose, iClone, Aladdin 4, Autodesk May, Blender.
An architectural model maker draft plans for houses, work spaces and recreational areas and then builds scale models of the plans showing how the building will look when it is finished. Most of the work plans and models and drawn on computer and can be shown in 2 and 3 dimensions. Scale models and designs are necessary for obtaining practical information with regard to what the building will look like when finished, how much sunlight will come in the windows and how the building will fit in with its surroundings. They translate concepts from engineers, architects, and clients into drawings and 3D models. They use software such as AutoCAD and Revit and are familiar with building codes and construction materials.
Skills: Photoshop, Illustrator, AutoCAD, 3ds Max Design, Rhino, Revit, ArchiCAD.
Fashion designers are commercial artists who design clothing and accessories, creating original designs or adapting fashion trends, and designing clothing advertisements for newspapers, magazines and television spots.
Skills: Tuka3D, MarvelousDesigner, Browzwear, Roman. 3D modeling software that are not exclusively for fashion: Maya, Rhino, ZBrush. 3D printing is well used in the fashion industry. Additive manufacturing appears to be a good solution to create the complex designs of clothes that we can see during fashion shows.
Interior designers plan attractive and functional domestic and commercial human environments in buildings, taking into account the function, space available and space required by their clients. They transform spaces to make them aesthetically pleasing using furniture, lighting, colour and accessories based on the client’s needs and preferences.
Skills: Photoshop, Illustrator, AutoCAD, Revit.
Industrial designers design consumer articles in response to a recognized need for a new product, or may improve on an existing product. They specialize in any one of many fields, ranging from household equipment such as utensils, appliances or furniture, to more specialized equipment such as cars, construction equipment. the interiors of aeroplanes or medical equipment. Industrial designers bring products to life through drawings and models created on computer. They also consider the function, form, and ergonomics of a product when designing.
Skills: AutoCAD, 3ds Max Design, SolidWorks, AcceliCAD, MathCAD, Revit, Ansys
Read up on other careers in design, here: