Is graphic design future proof?

With so many worries in the world and the advent of the COVID-19 Corona pandemic many people have been asking about the future of graphic design.

First things first; graphic designers were needed many years ago, still needed today and will be needed in many years to come. While the demand in graphic design careers will be highly linked to the needs of the economy, in general, the reassuring thing to know is that robots and computers are not likely to take over in this field.

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Every waking hour, most of us are inundated from the moment we wake up and check our mobile phone notifications, emails, apps and news with information from mobile phones, magazines, computers, Television, billboards and more. And as an evolving human race our attention spans are getting shorter because of it. To keep marketing efforts effective in spite of this cultural change, companies now have only a few seconds to capture viewers’ attention and keep it. Images are the perfect solution. They have the power to communicate complex messages much faster than words can. But, in order to do this—as well as improve your appeal to automated audiences (search engines) to optimize your web rankings—images must be unique, relevant and high quality. Graphics design can help your business successfully transition into this new era of concise, high-speed communication.

Graphic design is the future

Robots and automation systems can take over our responsibilities, but graphic design is protected to a large extent. Learning how to develop apps, Web Design, UX/UI or designing the latest advertisements require real human input with opinions on colours, the emotions evoked on adverts by a human, the typography on the packaging or even branding ideas is something that machines could never do. In this way with graphic design, you’ll be future-proofing your career for many decades to come.

Working remotely is the future

The future of work is here since a reported 63% of companies have remote positions. This means finding remote graphic design jobs shouldn’t be that hard, after all. Remote work can also help thwart the spread of infection, helping companies avoid lost output while simultaneously protecting public health. For example, the outbreak of COVID-19 triggered many UK business and international companies to shift their workforce to a remote work model for all members of staff possible in a bid to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Scott Mautz, keynote speaker and author, ‘Find the Fire’ and ‘Make It Matter’ from Inc.com talks about “the very structure of work is changing, and companies are scrambling to keep up”.
With this news in mind for those that have thought of a career change to graphic design or ditching your 9-5 office desk for a remote position, now is the time to do so. For those seeking flex time or mothers with younger children worry not, there are an abundance of opportunities for both full-time and part-time remote graphic design jobs available.

In fact, statistics show that:

  • 63 percent of companies now have remote workers.
  • 49 percent of companies employ freelancers (up from 43 back in 2018), while work done by freelancers increased over 165 percent.

What to expect in the future?

  • It is likely graphic designers will be needed by more companies both in the UK and internationally.
  • Traditional in-house graphic designer roles will still be needed requiring designers to work in a team or a shared space, but freelancers will be more in demand than before.
  • Freelancers will in turn work from home although predictions suggest more shared co-working spaces, office shared desks and rent studio space will be far more utilised than before. Most graphic design needs can be accomplished at home.

If you are a future graphic designer, the good news is with the cloud and SaaS there are various software options accessible to you- some of which require no subscription, and this will allow you to work from home. You can telecommute or just work as a freelancer if you prefer.

Even companies with a limited marketing budget will typically need to employ a graphic designer for their firm because they know it pays to invest in good graphic design. Cheap design or those made by anyone using unprofessional graphic platforms with templates (Canva etc) often means inferior design. And inadequately or inferior designed graphics can be expensive to fix. I know you, readers, maybe thinking that this may sound counterintuitive, but without the know-how of a professional graphic designer using a template may throw a company’s branding into the bin for example.

Can you think of a strong company or brand that does not have a catchy or unique logo, brand identity and colour scheme or typeface? Probably not and so graphic designers in the future will need to continue to create a unique DNA that helps differentiate and promote a company. So long as companies exist (which, lets face it- in the future does not seem that they too will disappear to Mars) they’ll be a need for graphic designers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpCTA4LlEmI

Graphic design is creative and requires human-led intelligence and ideas to respond to trends, tastes, and what has already been before and Blue Sky Graphics remains at the the forefront of developing highly skilled graphic designers for the workforce. Being an online school places us in a unique position to continue to offer our students key essential skills for their future.

The future for graphic designers in the UK continues to look very optimistic with an increasing number of jobs on the market. The increase in automated technology and the digitalization of the modern world have made a market geared towards a competitive economy, with around 45% of jobs currently in the market set to become automated in the future.

There was a time when remote work as we know it wasn’t even a possibility, because the technology didn’t exist. The uncertainty of the corona COVID-19 pandemic is another threat to traditional careers however our opinion is that this the field of graphic design is far more protected than other careers. The COVID-19 Corona pandemic has proven just how adaptable and flexible successful graphic designers will and must be.

We at Blue Sky Graphics estimate that with the competitive rise in online businesses and the digitalization of the world more graphic designers will be needed more than ever before which is encouraging news for anyone contemplating a career in graphic design. Our opinion is that the evolution of graphic design seems to be largely connected to the user experience which is sure to remain at the forefront. Designs will become more personalised and more interactive over time. It has been predicted that the rate of freelancers in the graphic design field will increase dramatically within the next 2-3 years.

While the future of graphic designers is not yet set to operate from the moon or Mars (or Venus) the good news is that there are many jobs available in major cities and towns. At Blue Sky Graphics we are an online school based in Shoreditch and seem many advertising agencies around the capital with concentrated pockets in certain London areas like Soho, Shoreditch, Brixton to name a few. Manchester, Nottingham and Leeds are all set to see an increase, but also in the international arena. As an online school many of our students come to us from near and far across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas and there are will the likelihood is that jobs and the need for graphic designers will continue well into the future.

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