There are too many design graduates. A sentence that invades my sleep. There is nothing worse than putting in the time and effort only to here that your efforts may be in futile. Its common knowledge that there are way too many Graphic design students than jobs will allow. Ever since the first, possibly second year on this course we have been told by real world graphic designer in lectures the shocking numbers of graphic design students that will graduate, and the possible number of jobs out there for us all. What are the options then? Give up, except your fate and get a full time job on in Asda. Or stand and fight, not literally, but put in the hard work and try your best and make sure you get a job in graphic design.
I decided to take this question on as it is the most relevant to myself as a third year graphic design student that wants to get a job within the design market.
When I realised that this was the question I was going to tackle I thought it would be a good idea to email a past student who was on the course I am doing now and has been very successful and has managed to get a job at a graphic design company. Amit works at Jordangate, a design company in Macclesfield. Like myself, Amit has always been interested in art and graphic design. Personally I don’t think I had a choice about what I wanted to do, ever since school. Studying art and product design, I have always followed creative subjects and been fascinated by then, graphic design was a natural progression for me, with a passion for beautiful graphics and a love for great typography. I believe it is essential to be passionate about graphic design if you wish to get a creative job in the industry, there are obviously going to be hard times as soon as you leave university, not to mention that fact that we are leaving university into the middle of a recession.
Cochrane also says “If you want to design restaurants, it helps to have worked in one or two”. I can see his point, but do not necessarily agree with it, by working in a restaurant you may get some background or inside knowledge about the industry but what’s to say this will help with the design of a restaurant. There is nothing to say that if you are doing a brand identity for a restaurant you will produce a better identity than a designer who researches into the restaurant and can get a similar amount of information, I believe it is more about the amount of dedication, research and time put into an identity that makes the design better. I do not think that this is great advice it sounds like he is saying don’t try and get a job in graphic design for a couple of years and waste time at a job that you do not care for, I will not be doing this my aim is to make sure my portfolio is bang up to date with great work inside and go to as many companies as I can and try my hardest to get a number of placements, gaining experience and from there I will hopefully get a job in future, I am aware this may take time but I know it is what I want to do in my career so it is what I will pursue.
