Digital Design is an Artistic Career With a Balance of Safety and Freedom?

Answer 1

In the past, being an artist meant drawing, painting or sculpting with hands-on materials, and it often meant creating a work of art, then hoping someone would buy it. Today, many artists are digital designers, creating artworks on computer as digital files, often in response to a specific client’s needs. Some digital designers are hired by a company full-time to create advertising graphics, brochures, letterheads, logos and any other designs a large company needs to conduct business.

A digital designer must have a love of both art and computers. She must have an artistic eye, able to put together pleasing color and design combinations, and she must also know how to translate artistic ideas into computer programs. Some artists aren’t comfortable with this idea--they need the feel their art with their fingers. For artists who are comfortable with the distance of a computer between themselves and their art, though, they may find steadier work than was previously available to artists.

Someone who wants to become a digital designer should study digital design at an art school. Starting salary for a digital designer may be around $35,000 annually. A highly skilled and experienced digital designer working for a large company may, in time, make up to $60,000 annually.

Digital designers may be hired by large companies in almost every industry. Some digital designers prefer to work on a freelance basis, taking contracts for specific projects for smaller companies who may not need designs often enough to hire a full-time designer. These projects could include graphics for advertising campaigns, logo design for a new company or logo re-design for an established company. Digital designers may also design graphics for company websites.

Digital designers have to weigh the benefit of steady work at a good salary by taking a full-time job with a company versus the benefit of freedom to take jobs they want to work on and refuse those they don’t by working as a freelance digital designer. Working freelance can also be a good option for someone who only wants part-time work. Starting out as a freelance digital designer, though, may be difficult without previous work to show in a portfolio.