Junior graphic designers are problem solvers that communicate through visual mediums. In other words, they create and employ type, images, animations, and other design elements to help communicate ideas, advertisements, products, interfaces, and more. Another related, potentially confusing term is “visual design”. While graphic and visual design has subtle differences, they are very similar design disciplines in the current employment market.
If you’re looking for a great job to exercise your creative skills, consider applying to a graphic design role. With a creative mind and a willingness to learn and grow your skills, an entry-level graphic design job is an amazing place to start. It’s a great role to hold while you figure out where you want your career to go that will give you nice foundational skills in collaboration and project managing.
If you’re a student, the flexibility that most entry-level graphic design jobs have makes balancing classes, internships, and other jobs more manageable–part-time jobs near you are just a click away. Consider applying to a graphic design job after assessing your skills; a foundational understanding of art, communication, and a good resume.
What is a graphic designer?
Graphic designers use mediums of art and visual communication to execute their visions. You could be working on designing websites, advertising campaigns, or visual aids for social media. It’s a great job because of the mixed media you can use—by hand, computer, or both.
Some duties of graphic design jobs include:
- Designing visuals and executing those concepts
- Meeting with team or clients about project proposals
- Suggesting possible solutions to project blockers
- Collaborating with their department to meet goals
What a junior designer job entails
You’re starting at the bottom, but working as a designer, not just making tea
A junior designer job is an entry-level position, generally aimed at creatives with between zero and three years of commercial design experience. At this level, you’ll work closely under the supervision of more senior designers, who will provide mentoring as you learn the ropes in design conception and implementation.
During your first few years, you’ll be assigned the smaller aspects of multiple projects. Depending on the company, you could find yourself doing anything from laying out pages and making color corrections, to designing stationery and website banners, to sitting in on client meetings.
List your past experiences
Even if you’ve never held a graphic design position before, you definitely have skills from past experiences you can offer. From past art projects to volunteer or freelance work that you did–there are always skills you can pull from your life that apply. For an entry-level graphic design job, those hiring want to know that you know how to apply what you’ve learned to the role and that you’re hungry to start helping out.
Consider listing some of these skills that might make you a better candidate:
- Attention to detail
- Organization
- Ability to work with a vision and execute
- Thoughtful communication
- Open to change and growth
- Technical skills
If this won’t be your first role as a graphic designer, then you may have some technical skills from previous jobs to add to your resume. It’s always a good idea to link to or mention campaigns that you’ve worked on, your portfolio, and other art-driven projects that you’re proud of. Even if your work is remote, your employer wants to know you’re providing great support out of the office.
What is it like to work in graphic design?
Comparable to jobs in advertising or marketing, graphic designers use their skills to make a product or company appealing to their target audience. There will be a lot of collaboration involved in the projects you’re on, but that doesn’t mean that you can exercise your creativity and leadership. Because there are so many different parts to companies, you’ll be doing a lot of talking about the design impact, making mood boards, and executing the said vision.
What are some essential graphic designer skills?
Some essential skills to have as a graphic designer:
- Knowledge of art technique
- Ability to tell stories through your work
- Team player
- Organization
- Accountability
Types of Entry-Level Graphic Design Jobs
As long as you stick strictly to the terms “Entry-Level Graphic Designer”, you’re not going to find too many different types of jobs. The primary differences you’ll notice are agency versus in-house (as mentioned above), and the medium on which you’ll produce your work. Some companies are purely digital (e.g. tech startups) and will have you working fully digitally. Other companies will still work at least partially in print (e.g. publications) and you’ll be spending time in InDesign or similar programs as well.
If you step outside of the strict search terms, you’ll find there are several ways to search for relevant roles, for example:
- Visual Designer
- Production Designer
- Digital Designer
- Designer
- Agency Designer
How to Find Entry-level Graphic Design Jobs
Companies and many businesses have realized the potential that graphic design services offer and are looking for graphic design agencies and freelancers to help them stunning websites that help deliver brand identity to consumers.
If you are looking out for a career in graphic design, you are on the right path. However, you have to look for these jobs.
To make it in this field, you also need to be fluent in both front-end and back-end web design.
As much as there are plenty of openings, competition is at its peak, and you need to be aggressive enough to secure entry-level level graphic design jobs.
A graphic designer’s job is also cut out with website content management platforms that make it easier to design websites without using code.
They can customize premade templates without programming language skills. Such platforms include WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Magneto.
Junior graphic designers communicate through visual mediums to give solutions to branding.
They create images, animations, and other design elements to help communicate ideas, products, interfaces, advertisements, and more.
Entry-Level graphic design jobs can take one of two routes. One can either join an agency or work for a company that produces a product (in-house).
