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How Do You Become A Junior Designer?
A junior designer job is one of the most traditional entry points into graphic design. So what exactly is a junior designer? What do they do on a daily basis? How much can they get, and how easily will they advance? All you need to know about being a junior designer is covered in our guide.
It goes without saying that a job in the creative industry is highly competitive, so by charting out a straightforward career plan from the outset, you can sharpen your concentration and achieve the all-important advantage. Our latest graphic design careers board will help you land the first move up the artistic career ladder – you’ll be an art director before you know it!
01. What is the function of a junior designer?
A junior designer career is an entry-level role that is typically targeted at creatives with 0 to 3 years of commercial design experience. At this stage, you’ll work closely with more experienced designers, who will tutor you while you study the ins and outs of design conception and execution.
During the first two years, you would be tasked to work on the finer details of several tasks. Depending on the business, you may be doing everything from laying out websites and making colour adjustments to creating stationery and website banners and even attending client meetings.
02. What a role as a junior designer would not require
A junior designer is not someone who either pours coffee, organises the stationery drawer, answers the phone, or does errands. If you find yourself in this situation, speak with your senior designer, outline your goals, and request new work. If the condition does not change, it is possible that it is time to step forward.
03. Do I require a college diploma?
To become a junior designer, you don’t actually need a degree – but the advantages of practising design philosophy and design thinking, as well as the ability to create your own concepts outside of client briefs, can not be overlooked. Keep in mind that certain career postings will include a bachelor’s degree or higher.
However, while a related degree will help you get up the graphic design career ladder, it is by no way an assurance of paying jobs. Sometimes, talent, skill, and courage can prevail over a degree.
Talent and personality are the two critical things that Landor searches for in a candidate. Spirit and raw talent are things that come with you. Talent and personality are the two critical things that Landor searches for in a candidate. Spirit and raw talent are things that come with you.
04. Starting pay for a typical junior designer
Starting wages differ greatly based on industry and region. As a junior designer in the UK, you should hope to earn between £20,000 and £25,000 per year. According to Major Players’ 2018 wage report, the total national UK junior designer salary is £23,000.
Using this wage tracker to see what you should expect in your state if you live in the UK.
05. How much expertise do you require?
Relevant career experience – and plenty of it – can set you apart from the field, so while looking for your first junior designer job, it’s a good idea to have at least one role or internship (and hopefully more) on your resume. Of course, you’ll still need an eye-catching concept portfolio – check out this design portfolio inspiration for some designs.
Placements and internships demonstrate that you have useful real-world experience and, most importantly, that you have begun to put your hard-earned expertise and understanding of design philosophy into motion. The more experience you have, the higher your chances of landing a role as a junior artist.
06. What expertise do you require?
You’ll need to be excellent at problem-solving (you’ll be asked to come up with innovative solutions) and fairly handy with programmes like Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, and InDesign CC, in addition to a deep knowledge of architecture and the processes used to do so.
Communication abilities are still widely regarded. Over all, becoming a genius artist is useless if you can’t communicate your choices to customers.
Despite being the team’s youngest participant, you should be willing to bring something different to the table, whether it’s knowledge of a piece of tech no one else knows or an unhealthy fascination with obscure style foundries.
07. In-house or outsourced design?
Target Creative, Target’s in-house design agency, produced some of the work seen here.
As a junior artist in a gallery or organisation, you would be interested in planning and innovative problem-solving when creating web design, ads, or visual communication work with a variety of customers.
What are the advantages? Variety and imaginative stimuli are important. What are the disadvantages? Burnout is a state of exhaustion. Deadlines are final: meet one and you risk losing the customer, which may have serious ramifications for studio members’ job security.
As a junior graphic designer in-house at a big corporation such as HSBC, Google, or the government, you would be part of a team of designers who are in charge of the company’s publicity and promotional materials, website, and so on.
The benefits of this role include flexibility, predictable operating hours, and theoretically higher wages. What are the disadvantages? Working on a single brand for an extended period of time will restrict your portfolio – especially for junior designers – and numb your creative juices.
08. How to Proceed
Within three to five years, a junior designer will advance to a middleweight or senior designer level, after which the next move may be art director, artistic director, or a more administrative position with the studio or business.
If you want to become a successful graphic designer without spending a lot of money and without leaving your home. Join us at Blue Sky Graphics online graphic design course today!
