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Are Graphic Designers Happy?
There is something alluring about the prospect of making money when employed as an artist. Instead of hustling to sell one of our paintings, what if there was steady job that compensated you for doing what you love? That is the universe of a graphic designer. Does not that sound like a dream? However, working as a graphic designer could not be what you had wished for. Are graphic designers happy? Is the real question. Well, if you are good at what you do, we believe that you will always be happy.
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Graphic design may be daunting for many who are unable to reconcile their desires with their work. Your work is inspired by the dreams of others, bound by deadlines, and subjected to relentless criticism. While certain people are unconcerned about these reasons, others may find them overwhelming.
Being a graphic designer, like every other work, has a number of advantages and disadvantages. Having said that, the aim of our working lives is to pursue a career where the good outweighs the negative; a job where we feel like we can make a difference while still having fun. Are you in a state of tension or creative bliss? Consider some of the considerations that can affect your choice.
Is Graphic Design a Career on the Verge of extinction?
Before we explore the advantages and disadvantages of pursuing a career as a graphic designer, let us consider that we should care in the first place.
How can we be certain graphic design can survive ten years from now?
Will a programme or algorithm build a company’s graphics and brochures?
Is this whole discussion on how to become a graphic designer a distraction from the central issue of how to protect humanity against a global AI takeover?
This is not the case. Although technology will begin to change our lives, I believe that we will continue to need human creativity, especially in the arts. When walking the dog or taking a shower, a robot will never think about such an ingenious idea. Due to our quirky and imperfect brains, humans will always need to be a central part of the creative method.
This is not to say that the graphic design market is now exploding. No, the growth in graphic design is slower than the rest of the market.
Burnout vs. Career Advancement in Graphic Design
Workplace burnout is a significant issue. Also for many who like their employment, this is a significant issue. However, once you become dissatisfied with your graphic design career, something unusual occurs:
You risk losing interest in art in general, particularly if you take on a challenging work.
Converting a creative ability into a work is a significant accomplishment. This is so many artists opt out.
While considering pursuing a passion as a career, we prefer to overemphasise the “pleasure and relaxation” and overlook the “work.” The “work” side of things slaps us across the face before we land our dream job as a result of our artistic hobby. It is a massive letdown.
Humans are notorious for their inability to forecast the future, especially when it comes to forecasting what makes us happy.
In fact, science corroborates this assertion. According to Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, we are bad at forecasting our potential behaviour in specific situations (source). It is completely natural for us to expect that these things will offer us pleasure, even though they will not. Consider any of the dissatisfied lottery teams.
What difference does it make if we made a grave error about our future happiness? We can not just assume that since we like drawing, we would enjoy doing it professionally.
No, we must do research to determine our ability to tackle the “work” part of a graphic design career.
Another thing to keep in mind is that all of us just spend a few hours per day on our activities, if we are lucky. Can you live with working 8+ hours a day on graphic design with strict deadlines, rigid guidelines, and being controlled by your boss?
When you follow your passion, you retain full influence of how and when you create art. When you work as a musician, you no longer have this privilege. These points would be explored in more depth in the following pages.
The Boss’s Creative Mandates vs. The Creative Inspiration
You have the opportunity to let your creativity and ingenuity run free as you relax at your art table and create art for the pure joy of it. You can suffer from some kind of artist’s block, but at the very least, you manage your own work.
How would you respond if your boss forced you to do tasks you did not want to perform? Or a team of designers, each with their own visions and ideas on how to further the clients’ brands’ representation?
When working as a graphic designer, you must let go of the “preciousness” of your career. When you are on the clock, the sketches you create are closely connected to the job for which you were hired.
This is not to say that you can stifle your creative impulses. In the other hand, designers who can see beyond the box and bring something different to the table are highly regarded and welcomed. You cannot get away with a brochure brimming with fire breathing dragons and unicorns if the customer is a toothpaste manufacturer seeking to hit the nursing home population.
As a graphic designer, you must always put the needs of your employer and/or clients ahead of your own creative impulses. Your art experience would translate to the objective with which you have been hired, whether you are a contractor who deals for a number of businesses or a full-time employee.
Additionally, this can result in you doing tasks that you find boring. While you cannot craft a toothpaste brochure in your spare time, it is on your regular to-do list. Working inside the artist image of a larger organisation will result in the production of bland and drab goods.
This is not a stressful situation; it is merely boring.
In rare occasions, you may be required to perform an action you have never performed before and easily acquire new design skills. Your boss may be inexperienced with the complexities of graphic design and may assign you an impossible task. It is important to be willing to struggle for yourself, to mature naturally, and to understand the scope of your obligations.
