Hi, this is Anne with Graphic Design How To, and today we're going to tackle a question
that I actually saw on a forum today called, 'Do you really need a graphic design degree
if you want to become a graphic designer?'
And I think this question...it really depends on what you're looking for, if you want to
be a graphic designer...whether it's based on, you know, are you going to try for a big
company?
Do you want to work at a small agency, or what you're really looking for.
If you want to work for a big company, you probably will need a degree.
When you're applying to those types of places, they usually have three tiers that all the
resumes go through because they get hundreds and sometimes even thousands of resumes.
So first, your resume might be filtered out by a software program.
And those software programs automatically discount certain things.
So that might be if you don't have a degree, you automatically will not go on to the next
round.
The next round after that is a human HR person.
So they'll check other things about your resume and make sure that it is good to go on to
the creative director.
And then a creative director or vice president of design will take a look at those, and they
will not be looking so much for that degree.
They'll be looking for the quality of design.
So only after all three of those do they decide to have you come in for an interview.
And then it's again about your portfolio, and they'll probably ask you questions about
it, and you'll have to present it.
They're going to be watching how you present, how well you talk to people, and whether you're
a good fit for the company.
Now at small companies, it's a whole different story.
They only have a few people.
They don't have software programs in place to really filter out all the people who don't
have degrees.
So they're looking at every single resume and portfolio that come through there.
With the smaller companies.
It really depends on what the creative director wants.
If he definitely wants a degree, but he sees that you're really an amazing designer, he
might let that slip through.
Some creative directors don't care at all about degrees.
So, if you're a great designer, you probably are going to get an interview.
Now that said, if you have a friend or you know someone who works at a big company, you
can have them hand your resume or email it straight to a creative director and kind of
bypass that whole procedure.
And that way, you can get your awesome portfolio in front of the creative director and hopefully
get an interview that way.
If you're considering just trying to learn graphic design on your own without a degree,
I really, really recommend not just learning the software programs.
You also need to learn the basis of graphic design, color, hierarchy, composition.
There are so many more things than just the software programs.
You really need to learn both.
Another thing to think about if you're trying this on your own, is you need to be extremely
motivated, passionate about design and really the type of person who is just driven, because
it's going to be so easy to quit.
And that's another reason that companies want a degree is because it shows that you had
follow through and you didn't quit halfway through or whatever.
Four years is a long time to pursue something.
It's not just about learning the design side of things.
It's also having, you know, the will to keep pushing through to achieve a goal.
There are great designers that have degrees and great designers that don't have degrees.
And they're also terrible designers that have degrees and terrible designers that don't
have degrees.
So you really get a wide gamut.
Just because you have a degree doesn't make you a good designer.
And you really need to take into account the pros and cons of learning on your own and
learning in a university setting.
Graphic design is really competitive, but there are more jobs now for graphic designers
than at any other time in history.
So if you can keep working at it and getting better and better, I do think you can get
a job doing this.
So that's my video for this week.
I hope you liked it.
If you did, please click on the 'Like' button and I'll see you next Thursday for another
graphic design video.
Thank you!!!