How to get a visual designer job

Visual design is getting more and more popular with each day within our modern society, and with that, so is the job interest. It can often be difficult or scary to go for a job within the creative sector, and the same goes for visual design. Therefore, here is a list with not only what exactly being a visual designer means, by explaining for instance, what exactly visual design is, but also how much you can expect to make as a designer, and on top of that, also some helpful tips on how to become one.

What exactly is visual design?

Visual design is all about designing a product or related materials in a way that is as aesthetically pleasing as possible by considering and working out the effects of space, layouts, colors, typography, photography, and more. It focusses on shaping the user’s experience by strategically choosing which colors, fonts, images, and others to use. A good visual designer has to be able to make their project look as appealing as possible, without getting in the way of its functionality. It is a very heavy task, as there are a lot of aspects to keep in mind whilst being a visual designer. Think for instance about the different interpretations of certain colors and how some colors go together while others do not, or about the correct use of whitespace. All these small decisions add up to whether a design ends up looking amazing or trashy, and are therefore very important since the visual design of a product is what makes or brakes it. In conclusion, a good visual designer has the power to shape their product to the needs of their users and can build their trust and their interest in said products through its design.

What is the average salary of a visual designer?

Before becoming a designer yourself, it is obviously very interesting to really grasp how much visual designers actually earn with their profession. Having said that, it should also be noted that the salary of these designers can vary a lot, with factors such as differences in experience and different countries playing a role as well, and that these salaries, therefore, might not apply to you. However, the average salary of a visual designer is to be said around 60.000 to 70.000 dollars a year, and around thirty dollars an hour. These numbers being the average for visual designers within the United States. However, this can become much higher by building experience and by having the talent that clients want you to provide. For instance, the average salary of a designer with seven or more years of experience is nearly 90.000 dollars a year.

How do you get a job as a visual designer?

There are a few obvious steps that can help you get a good visual design job, or improve your current one. The result of these steps will obviously differ for each person, seeing as that some people also get lucky, or have better circumstances than others. However, these four steps can generally be seen as helpful within your journey of becoming a designer. Firstly, no matter what craft you are trying to perfect, practice is key. Next, you have to build a proper portfolio in order to pursue a career in visual design professionally. After that, it is advised to try and get some work experience and lastly to start networking.

Practice

Practise is always an incredibly crucial part of any creative progress, and the same goes for visual design. It is not always as easy to get inspired to practice when doing visual design, but luckily, there are lots of websites that can help you improve your skill by doing original tasks. For instance, check out FakeClients.com, our website that gives you easy to harder design tasks that can inspire you to practice and get better at different aspects of design and its process. Another great way to practice your visual design skills is Skillshare, a platform that provides online classes that can teach you everything there is to know about design. You can learn any skill that you are interested in learning for an affordable price and right from home. And by using this link: Skillshare.com you even get your first two months for free. Another great place to use to get your inspiration or help from is YouTube, which on top of it all is also free to use. There are an insane amount of videos on YouTube that are just waiting to help you with your design journey.

Build a portfolio

When you are starting out as a professional visual designer, the most important thing is creating a perfect portfolio. Your clients will base their decision to hire you or not almost entirely on the portfolio you provide, making it a crucial step within your design career. There are several websites that can help you with this, such as the previously mentioned Skillshare, YouTube, and FakeClients, but also by looking at other examples of portfolios online.

Get work experience

More often than not, clients will hire you more easily if you have actual work experience. This shows that you are safe and trustworthy to take on and that you will actually deliver and experienced. However, for this same reason, it can be difficult to get work experience when you are just starting out. A great solution for this is by doing pro bono jobs, for instance, just to get yourself started. Other websites that can help you easily get a design job and even pay you a little bit of money are websites such as Freelancer, Upwork, and PeoplePerHour. These websites are all focussed on freelancers that are providing their service for an affordable price. Besides looking more experienced to future clients, you also get to feel what working in the visual design industry is truly like.

Network

Another step that will always be of importance within your journey is networking. It can come in very handy to have connections within the design field and it might open some great opportunities for you career-wise. You can do this by simply updating your LinkedIn profile and other social media platforms to make it look more professional and find other people, or by attending events that attract the same people as your line of work, to whom you can hand out business cards or merely get to know better.