It’s Friday today which means your weekend of introspection begins in exactly four minutes after reading this sentence! Today we put into perspective the numerous job opportunities someone in the creative field can explore. As you read through this blog, try to take inventory of your strong suits and figure out which niche you fit into.
If you are not a designer, this list will educate you on what type of design your business requires. Hmmm, this is clearly a win-win situation for everyone, isn’t it? Let’s begin and explore what it is that different types of designers do exactly.
Information Designer
Have you ever fallen asleep while going through a long and tedious document? Information designers are here to make a document like this seem like an interesting story. They curate researched, statistical and analytical information and present it such that it invokes some feeling in the viewer. To be an information designer means to have the skill of a researcher, a storyteller and an eye for pleasing aesthetics. This type of design includes elements of typography blended with charts and graphs. The culmination is an infographic in simple terms.
The most difficult part of being an informational designer is the art of converting complex bits of data into a user-friendly and accessible compilation.
Test your skill: Design a map that plans out all the exit routes in a hotel near you. How will you make sure that incase of an emergency, everyone is able to vacate the premises safely?
Graphic Designer
One of the most well known designs in the world - Graphic Design deals in communication with visual content. In today’s world, graphic designers primarily focus on advancing businesses through visual content.
Typography, photo manipulation and various other software are the arsenal for these types of designers. In order to be a good graphic designer, you need to have a strong visual aesthetic sense and be able to make people stop and take a second look at your creations. It should have the power to leave an impression on the consumer's mind and make them reflect on it for days to come.
If you need a logo redesigned or you want to change up your brand identity, graphic designers will be of great help to you.
Test your skill: Pick 3 of your favourite companies in any field and redesign their logo from scratch. Try to incorporate the feeling the brand gives you and make it shine in your logo design.
Interaction Designer
Interaction design is a meeting of the physical world with the digital world or vice versa. The conversations between the two are crafted effortlessly by these designers. The possibilities between the two worlds are endless.
Are you tech savvy and always waiting for the next big technological advancement? Do you sometimes look at a menu you’re reading and catch yourself thinking, “hey this would be so cool in 3D”? If we just described you then you should definitely look into the world of interaction design as a field of interest. They experiment with augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) or any other form of the latest technological advancements that they feel will help a brand portray itself better.
They need to ensure that for that particular product or brand that they are refining, the system the user needs to handle flows meticulously.
Test your skill: Pick one of your favourite games and note down the interaction you have at each step with the game. Now try to reduce these number of steps and make the process simpler, how would you do it?
User Interface Designer
A user interface designer plans and designs the flow of a digital interface. They must also have a strong grasp of visual language as his job entails creating wireframes, buttons and call to action sections while also remembering to colour code them specifically.
From the perspective of someone that is not a designer, imagine you open your phone and click on an app. If you find it simple to navigate and find the buttons you require, it shows that the app is user friendly. A user interface designer has gone through the process to make these buttons as accessible as possible, making your journey through the app easy.
Test your skill: Look at an app on your phone screen that you think is not easy to navigate. How would you change it and which app do you believe is one that is simple to use?
Game Designer
A game designer has quite an interesting job and at the same time possibly one of the most tedious! They must design the visual components, the storyline, the interaction, the characters, the environment and if possible, even the code for a game. They can decide to take their design to the next level by adding features like VR and AR to create a more immersive experience for their users.
Test your skill: Design a game from scratch! Pick any age group and design a game from start to finish, connect it to the medical field in some way. It can be a board game or a digital game, that is up to you to decide.
Experiential Designer
Imagine you step into a museum and the artifacts come alive and talk to you! Or you’re taking a walk in the park and you throw something in the dustbin and it says “thank you!” These things are sure to put a smile on your face and we have our experiential designers to thank for this. They have the task of creating experiences in the physical world with any tools they may require, that could be either the latest technology or just paper and pen. Their job is to make sure that you leave any space thinking “wow! I had such a great time!” This could also be in the context of ad campaigns or physical installations.
Test your skill: Think of an amusement park you like to visit. What is the one thing you don’t like about visiting the place? It could be the long lines or the food counters, whatever it is, try and iterate how you can change it and make that aspect of the amusement park experience better.
User Experience Designer
If a brand notices that they are not receiving the number of customers they had hoped for or the traffic to their app or website is considerably low, they will call in a user experience designer. The designer is in charge of understanding why the end user is shying away from the particular brand and what aspect of it must be changed for the brand to reach their desired goals. This could mean changing the app to make it more user friendly, or even changing the brand identity to target a specific age group.
They must do their due research on the target audience of the brand and understand the best way that the user can interact with the brand. They work in both, the digital as well as the physical space. Let’s say your brand has launched a new product for the younger generation, a UX designer tells you exactly how to showcase your product for maximum reach.
Test your skill: Currently, the biggest marketing platform is social media. Look up a brand that you think is not portraying their message clearly on the platform and do some research as to how they could change this. You can take references from a profile that you feel is doing it the right way.
Above is a list of seven types of designers but like we began by saying, these are just a few of the possibilities. You need to ask yourself, “am I a creative person?” If the answer is yes, then it is just a matter of time before you pick up the skill set required to work in the field you have selected. Once you have the skill set and the ability to think creatively and differently, then the world of design is yours to claim. Keep in mind that each field of design is interconnected and you cannot be one type of designer without having the knowledge of other types inherently. It will come naturally as you start practicing! Go ahead, test your skills today and let us know in the comments section what type of creative designer you intend to be.
We wish you well on your creative expeditions!
