Longevity in Graphic Design

[Shax]

I work as a Typesetter / Graphic Designer / Light Developer at a little place downtown. Long story short the company I work for had our parent company borrow a very large sum of money from us to stay afloat. I no longer see a concrete future with this company as we have already started to see the parent company's failings effect us (lot's of cuts and being very very critical of our need for new and updated equipment as well as postponing yearly performance reviews for a few months).

I have a Certificate in Multimedia Web Design and Development which while I understand that it isn't the strongest education I still have it. I am very confident in my skills when it comes to anything Graphical (raster/vector) as well as pretty confident in my skills when it comes to print and print practices. I have been working around and in the industry for a few years now and have a good grasp on good design practices.

Where I lack skill is mostly on development, I am comfortable doing website maintenance as well as light modifications and page creation but I am very much not equipped to handle code implementation and creation from scratch.

Now my question, what are your feelings on being able to land a new job (by choice or necessity) with the skills I have? Should I be seriously looking into furthering my education to cater more to the development side of things or do you think that I will be able to fly by with what I have? I hope to have a completely revamped portfolio by the end of this month which will hopefully help me out.

As for wage: I won't say I make tons of money now But I would have to be making about 35k a year to stay afloat. From what I understand that isn't terrible for my education/skill level but correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyways thanks for the input and discussion.

[Kloubek]

I have a fair amount of knowledge in the area. I've been a developer, a designer, and now a project manager where I do a little of both but neither too deeply.

The issue with design is that in itself, you're not likely going to make much money until you pay your dues. 35k a year is certainly reasonable even without experience but you'll never make "good" money in the field until such time as you manage a team or happen to be successful with your own company. Luckily, the amount of design positions out there is pretty decent so keep that in mind as a factor; there are many places you could work so it shouldn't be difficult to get your foot in the door.

There is a lot more money in web development, and there are plenty of positions available there too. Only there, you're likely to start some 10k higher right off the bat. However, there are lots of developers out there and you'd have to increase your skillset if you feel that is what you want to do.

Unfortunately, there aren't as many positions out there for someone who has skill in *both* areas. It might be a plus, but the majority of positions are either for a designer OR developer. So unless you are planning on moving into the developer side, you might just want to get on the career path of a designer and see what you think of it. Without having lofty salary requirements or goals, it might just be a good fit.

[lint]

Any good with 3d modelling? Make hats for Team Fortress 2

[Shax]

Thanks for the reply. I completely understand having to pay your dues, that would be the position I feel I am in now. I am somewhat new to Calgary and haven't built the greatest base of contacts yet so that is always something in the back of my mind. Where would you recommend someone without a ton of contacts look for positions? I am on the usual Kijiji scour and the odd LinkedIn lead but I'm always open to advice.

Another question is how do you feel about the whole completely freelance argument in Calgary's market? Of course I do work on the side now but I hadn't really thought about going completely on my own.

Originally posted by lint
Any good with 3d modelling? Make hats for Team Fortress 2

After seeing some of the prices people pay for hats it's seems like a pretty good option.

[Modelexis]

You could take a quick autocad course, get into an oil company and offer some graphic design on the side and try to make a name for yourself in the industry, maybe evolve from an autocad designer to a graphic designer.

Just one option to consider.
All else fails you could just continue in autocad and do whatever you want on the side until it's enough to do full time.

[lint]

If your hat is approved and gets sold in the game, you get 25% of the revenue. Maybe not as applicable if you want to stay in Calgary, but a perspective from the gaming industry is that a great designer is gold.

[ercchry]

do you have more of an eye for creating actual designs, or more of the technical work around putting up a website?

[pheoxs]

Doesn't necessarily even need to be in Calgary. You can freelance online anywhere nowadays with Skype and shared desktops. That being said then you have to compete with overseas people charging a couple bucks an hour for half assed work so maybe local is better.

My advice would be to try and do as much side work as you possibly can while keeping your job. Once you've managed a few grand a month on the side then consider doing it full time.

In the mean time you're doing both so bank a bunch of coin to help carry you along if you run into a slow month. Freelance can be good but you have to be smart about your month. You could have a 5-10k$ month followed by a 500$ month so you need sufficient month to stay afloat and running.

[Shax]

Originally posted by ercchry
do you have more of an eye for creating actual designs, or more of the technical work around putting up a website?

I would say I have more experience and am a lot more comfortable with the actual design process. I have done a handful of start to finish freelance gigs but nothing too serious technically.

Originally posted by pheoxs
My advice would be to try and do as much side work as you possibly can while keeping your job....

...You could have a 5-10k$ month followed by a 500$ month so you need sufficient month to stay afloat and running.

I completely agree, I will start looking into doing freelance work more reliably rather than the odd "bonus" paycheck here and there.

The AutoCad idea seems interesting as well. I took a class on it in High School and never hated it so that's something to think about.

[Kloubek]

Don't go with what you "don't hate". Go with your passion. Money only carries you so far and having a passion for your occupation accounts for a LOT once you've been doing it for decades.

You certainly could freelance; I think the market is there. Personally, I like the security of a 9-5 but you're new and young and there is something to be said about not being tied down as well. You just have to be ok with working your ass off one moment, then struggling to get a job another. Should you be able to maintain regular work, the money would be better for certain.

My advice would be to get a job though and not freelance quite yet. You're just out of school and there are details to the job that you will learn working for someone else. Those details may potentially prove to be invaluable when you do decide to branch out on your own.

[Shax]

Originally posted by Kloubek
...My advice would be to get a job though and not freelance quite yet. You're just out of school and there are details to the job that you will learn working for someone else. Those details may potentially prove to be invaluable when you do decide to branch out on your own.

Personally I would rather be in a 9-5 as well. I've been with this company for a year and other than the parent company showing me that there most likely wouldn't be a future here it has been great. I do think I will ramp up the freelance work I am doing as it can never hurt to have a little extra in the bank.

[ercchry]

i kind of went that same route, loved graphic design but ended up as a structural designer since its a similar concept where you need to be able to visualize things and work in a 3-D environment... but then again, i always had issues just coming up with cool designs off the top of my head without having a scope of work to begin with.

i'd totally look at the royalty thing, toss up some web templates on wix, some original artwork on other sites... maybe get a vinyl cutter and once you master how to use it and come up with some cool original work put together a website, stuff like that, lay the base work for more passive income so you have something to get you through the slow times in the industry or if you go freelance

[pheoxs]

Originally posted by Shax


I would say I have more experience and am a lot more comfortable with the actual design process. I have done a handful of start to finish freelance gigs but nothing too serious technically.



I completely agree, I will start looking into doing freelance work more reliably rather than the odd "bonus" paycheck here and there.

The AutoCad idea seems interesting as well. I took a class on it in High School and never hated it so that's something to think about.

Also another option, though harder to do freelance is to do HMI design for control systems.

It's basically graphic design with a really really shitty stripped down version of Photoshop that is missing every hotkey you wished you had (yes I'm bitter about the programs I have to use) and toss a tiny bit of visual basic / C++ programming in the background.

As to how you get into that, hard to say but if you have a graphics background you might be able to get a foot in the door.

[ercchry]

Originally posted by pheoxs


Also another option, though harder to do freelance is to do HMI design for control systems.

It's basically graphic design with a really really shitty stripped down version of Photoshop that is missing every hotkey you wished you had (yes I'm bitter about the programs I have to use) and toss a tiny bit of visual basic / C++ programming in the background.

As to how you get into that, hard to say but if you have a graphics background you might be able to get a foot in the door.

like for audio/visual systems? programming the control pads for boardrooms and what not?

thats a cool one too, need to know how to program, then of course coming up with appealing designs and working with dummies that your clients provides that give you terrible company images

if you want to look at that, take some crestron courses. i know of at least one big player thats ALWAYS looking for programmers with at least a crestron level 2 under their belt

[thrasher22]

I'm a web designer and was in the exact same position this time last year. I was pleasantly surprised to find there was tons of decent paying work out there for intermediate designers (5+ years exp). So definitely get out there if you're unsure about your current position.

I'm much more on the web/front end side of things (CSS, JS, PHP), but my recommendation is to focus on your web skills, even if you want to keep your focus on the print side. Its rare to see a posting that doesn't want front end development skills. I'd been applying casually for jobs without much luck, then spent some time learning drupal and really focusing on my dev skills and started getting tons of calls back, and a couple job offers.

Being able to say you're comfortable designing a website and developing it with a CMS (without using templates) shows you're comfortable taking on projects with a bigger scope, which sets you up for the bigger $$ jobs. If you don't have a portfolio website, this would be a great opportunity to get your hands dirty.
If you don't' have a portfolio site, create one! Nothing is more important for a designer IMO.

If there are skills you see in job posting, try and steer what you're currently working on to work on them. Then you can make yourself more marketable while you're getting paid, and give your current employer a better product

Hope that helps, it worked for me! Feel free to PM me

[nickyh]

my husband worked in the print industry as a typesetter / graphic artist until his company was sold and the new buyers got hit by the recession in 2009, he was the first to go. He had been saying for a while that he could see the demand for his work / industry declining but needed that push out the door to get him to move on.
In 2010 he took an accelerated Autocad course and finally found full time work in 2011 after looking long and hard after school. It was tough for people to want to hire him because he had no pior Autocad experience but he found his break and has been working for a manufacturing company now for a while. Getting into Oil has been very very difficult for him.

[pheoxs]

Originally posted by ercchry


like for audio/visual systems? programming the control pads for boardrooms and what not?

thats a cool one too, need to know how to program, then of course coming up with appealing designs and working with dummies that your clients provides that give you terrible company images

if you want to look at that, take some crestron courses. i know of at least one big player thats ALWAYS looking for programmers with at least a crestron level 2 under their belt

I was thinking more industrial controls (i.e. what I do)